The Department of Culture and Language at SDU is looking for a postdoc with expertise in memory studies, activism and Italian Studies.
The postdoc needs to have very good or near-native skills in Italian language and should hold a Ph D in Cultural Studies, Italian Studies, anthropology, ethnography, or history with a strong focus on memory studies. Experience in investigating urban settings is an advantage.
The successful candidate will participate in the research project Revival of Traumatic Pasts. Colonization, Nazism and Fascism in contemporary German and Italian Fiction and Memory Activism that investigates the growing awareness of the problematic colonial pasts in Germany and Italy and the interplay of literary writings and activism in promoting this development. The project will investigate how the memory of colonialism contests or relates to the histories of fascism or Nazism.
The postdoc will be responsible for a work package that explores the reordering of the “urban imaginary” in Italian cities by key activists and political actors and discuss its relevance for the debate on Italian identity. Drawing on fieldwork observations and interviews, the work package investigates the interplay and conflict of memory discourses between diverse agents showing how they sustain, reclaim, or entangle memories of Italy’s fascist and colonial past with varying power capacities, from various perspectives, and by different means.
The postdoc will be supervised and cooperate with Associate Professor Anne Folke Henningsen working with activism in Germany, Associate Professor Pia Schwarz Lausten who will work with Italian literature and PI Jessica Ortner, who works with German literature.
The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 2 years. The starting date is on 1st of March 2025 or after agreement.
The interviews will be conducted January 2025
For further information, please contact Jessica Ortner at jort@sdu.dk.
If you are not a Danish-speaking applicant, please ensure that you use the English website to access the electronic application form to receive further information in English.
Application, salary and conditions of employment
The employment as postdoc is temporary. Employment stops automatically by the end of the period. An upgrade of pedagogical qualifications is not part of the position. Thus, employment as postdoc cannot stand alone as a qualification for later employment as associate professor/senior researcher.
The successful applicant will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations), Cirkulære om overenskomst for Akademikere i staten 2021 (the document only exists in Danish).


The application must include:

• A letter stating your specific interest, motivation, and qualifications for the project (400 words).
• Curriculum Vitae with applicant's e-mail and phone number
• Documentation of qualifications (examination certificates/Ph D diploma, etc.)
• Complete list of publications indicating the publications attached
• Applicants may choose a maximum of three publications for assessment. Please attach one pdf-file for each publication. For any publication with a co-author, a co-author statement must be submitted as part of the pdf file.

Application and all appendices must be in Danish, English or one of the Scandinavian languages. Please always include a copy of original diploma/certificates. We only accept files in pdf-format no more than 10 MB per file. In case you have more than one file per field you need to combine the pdf-files into a single file, as each field handles only one file. We do not accept zip-files, jpg or other image files. All pdf-files must be unlocked and allow binding and may not be password protected.
Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee and the applicant will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns him/her. The assessment report will subsequently be forwarded to the Head of Department who will assemble an appointments committee. An interview may form part of the overall assessment of the applicants' qualifications.

The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide the necessary material.
If the application does not meet the requirements mentioned above, the Faculty of Humanities may reject your application without further notice. Applications received after the deadline will neither be considered nor evaluated.
Shortlisting and tests may be used in the assessment process. Please note that only a shortlisted applicant will receive an assessment. Here you can read more about shortlisting at SDU.
Applications should be sent electronically via the link "apply online" and the Faculty expects applicants to read the information " How to apply " before applying.
We recommend that as an international applicant you take the time to visit Working in Denmark where you will find information and facts about moving to, working and living in Denmark, as well as the International Staff Office at SDU .

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.


Application deadline 10.10.2024 23.59 CET