Call for Applications:
PhD Position
Field: Dance Studies/Movement Research
Institution: University of Salzburg
Contact person: Franz Anton Cramer franzanton.cramer@sbg.ac.at
The Department of Art, Music and Dance Studies at the University of Salzburg invites applications for one PhD position within the research project Border-Dancing Across Time: the (forgotten) Parisian choreographer Nyota Inyoka, her œuvre, and questions of choreographing créolité(project number P 31958-G),sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund, FWF (20 hrs/week; starting datelatest 19 August 2019; duration 34 months). Monthly salary: EUR 1,432.00 (14 payments/year).
The research project sets out to investigate three trajectories of research via the case study of French-Indian dancer and choreographer Nyota Inyoka (1896–1971): (1) (dance) modernity in the plural andcréolité as constitutive, yet neglectedseminal dimensions of the performing arts within modernity; (2) pre- and post WWII transitions of choreographic practices in France; (3) parameters and aspects of authorial positionality and voice of European of color choreographic articulations. The project intends to expand archival research and dance historiographic investigation through recovering Inyoka’s biography and œuvre and connecting it to current (decolonizing) impulses in cultural and dance studies. In the course of such a decolonizing reassessment of European (dance) history and ‘othered’ dancers of modernity without categorizing them as “pre-modern” we aim to highlight and investigate a facet of European dance that remains a lacuna thus far confined to footnotes: the authorial position and œuvre of othered European dancers in modernity.
The project, therefore, aims to expand the methodologies of dance historiography and draw on contemporary theoretical models, notions and fields such as Anglophone and Francophone Postcolonial Studies, Decolonial Thought (Mignolo), Border Theory (Hicks), créolité(Glissant), Mestiza Consciousness (Anzaldúa), and theories of racialized Europeanness and postmigrant cultural formations (Yildiz; Sharifi; El-Tayeb) to develop new modes of dance history writing and analysis in order to contribute to a decolonization of the history of dance and performance.
The most important methodological approaches will be an empirical survey of available archival sources, inventarization of ‘forgotten’ exoticized dancers, critical analyses of both Inyoka’s œuvre and its contemporary reception, rethinking of critical theoretical models, movement analysis and practice-based exploration using Inyoka’s extensive dance notations.
Requirements
- completed Masters degree or equivalent in Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Postcolonial Studies or an allied discipline
Additional Qualifications
- Excellent academic writing and research skills; interest or experience in archival research;
- Proficiency in French (very good skills/fluency) and English (good skills);
- ablility to read/follow German
Personal skills
- target-oriented way of thinking and working
- ability to work in a team
- good communication skills
The position will include participating in and conducting archival research, data management and organizational tasks. The research should lead towards formulating a dissertation project round a subject related to the overall project, particularly relating to questions of archival processes, inventories of (micro-) histories or relevant theory building (Postcolonial studies; decolonial thought; postmigrant theories; etc …). Writing two peer-reviewed articles is expected, as is collaboration on events (participation in congresses; participating in the organization and documentation of workshops).
For further information please contact Dr. Franz Anton Cramer (franzanton.cramer@sbg.ac.at).
Applications should contain
- a curriculum vitae,
- copies of important transcripts as well as of publications or a chapter of the MA thesis,
- and statement of research interest in relation to the topic of the research project as well as a letter of intent.
Deadline for applications: 17 June 2019
Please address applications to the team leading the project (Dr. Sandra Chatterjee, Dr. Franz Anton Cramer, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nicole Haitzinger)
Submit it email to: musik.tanzwissenschaft@sbg.ac.at