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University of Pennsylvania

NOTE: All postdoctoral fellowship positions are contingent upon funding. Applications are accepted via CLIR's online application system. Review of applications is already underway, but applications will be accepted until all positions are filled.

Digital Humanities Research Fellow, 2013-2015

Penn Libraries recognize that higher education and the production of new research and scholarly knowledge are undergoing a period of rapid change in the humanities.  The Bollinger Fellowship in Library Innovation, established in 2011, positions the Libraries as a key player on campus at the intersection of new modes of scholarly inquiry and production.  Through this Fellowship, the Libraries seek to build a community of practice that fosters innovation and creativity in interdisciplinary humanistic research.

Working in partnership with the newly renovated Special Collections Center, http://www.library.upenn.edu/rbm, the Weigle Information Commons, http://wic.library.upenn.edu, and library subject specialists in the humanities and area studies, the Fellow will:

  • develop and implement digital projects and tools
  • investigate and evaluate emerging tools and technologies for their potential application to humanities research
  • hold individual and group research consultations and training sessions for faculty, graduate students and library subject specialists
  • engage in new modes of pedagogy
  • encourage and support the production of open digital scholarship
  • curate and enhance Penn’s digital collections

Reporting to the Director of Collection Development & Management, the Fellow holds leadership appointments on relevant internal and external digital humanities (DH) committees such as the Libraries’ digital content council, which recommends priorities for DH projects, and the Digital Humanities Forum, http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/dhf/overview.shtml, which vets training and project proposals in the School of Arts & Sciences.  The Fellow will work collaboratively across many departments and interact with a wide spectrum of library staff and administrators.  The Fellow will engage with faculty and graduate students, in particular, to demonstrate the application of technology-enhanced research methodologies to scholarly inquiry in the humanities.  The successful candidate is expected to build bridges and raise the visibility of the Libraries on campus as a valuable partner in humanities research.

As a member of the Executive Board of the Digital Humanities Forum, the Fellow will work closely with the Director and other Board members to:

  • help plan public lectures and symposia
  • conduct workshops for faculty and students
  • participate in the selection of fellows and grant recipients
  • assist with project incubation
  • develop future DH Forum initiatives
  • identify suitable funding opportunities

Contingent on the Fellow’s disciplinary background, training, and experience, s/he has the opportunity to serve as a curator and advocate for extant or new digital collections.  As Penn embraces open scholarship, the Fellow will promote access to and use of the Libraries’ locally created digital assets.  In addition, the Fellow contributes to the Libraries’ blog, “Unique at Penn,” http://uniqueatpenn.wordpress.com, which features items from Penn’s collections and reveals their research potential.   The Fellow has the opportunity to pursue their own research and is encouraged to experiment with new modes of scholarly communication.

Environment:

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League comprehensive research university in Philadelphia founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin and his circle.  It comprises twelve schools, 4,200 faculty, and an enrollment exceeding 20,000 students, almost equally divided between undergraduate and graduate/professional school students. The Penn Libraries include fifteen libraries and an off-site research annex. System-wide scholarly resources number nearly seven million books, almost 100,000 e-journals, 1,100 databases, and more than 1.5M local digital assets. Penn is a leader in the development of digital library services and collections and is aggressively experimenting with and adopting new technology in research and teaching. Penn actively participates in collaborative initiatives including the BorrowDirect and EZ-Borrow resource-sharing networks, the HathiTrust, the Center for Research Libraries, LOCKSS, and Portico.  As a founding partner of the Kuali Open Library Environment and Global Open Knowledge Base projects, Penn is at the forefront of developing a next-generation community-source technology to support academic library operations.  The Libraries’ state-of-the-art Special Collections Center features a humanities research lab, teaching spaces, an exhibition gallery, reading room and events pavilion.

Qualifications:

Required:

  • Applicants must have received a Ph.D. in a humanistic discipline after January 1, 2008; if a Ph.D. has not yet been awarded, all work toward the degree (including dissertation defense and final dissertation editing) must be completed before starting the fellowship.
  • Must be legally permitted to work in the United States between 2013 and 2015.
  • Experience working in interdisciplinary humanities environments.
  • Experience in the use and application of one or more DH technologies ( e.g., visualization, text-mining, text-encoding, GIS, network analysis, database design, dynamic digital editions, presentation and content management tools) for creating and transmitting scholarship.
  • Demonstrated ability to articulate the opportunities of digital research to scholars in the humanities.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated excellence in teaching.
  • Editorial experience.
  • Research or teaching experience with primary source materials in special collections or archives in higher education or cultural heritage institutions.
  • Demonstrated digital project management experience.
  • Knowledge of open scholarship trends, resources, and applications.

Appointment Details:

The Bollinger Fellowship in Library Innovation is generously funded by University Trustee and Chair of Penn Libraries’ Board of Overseer, Judith Bollinger.  The position start date is flexible between July and September 2013.  The successful candidate must attend an intensive week-long introductory seminar to be held in late July 2013.  This is a two-year full-time position with benefits, including vacation days, December holiday, sick leave, and health insurance.  In addition, the Fellowship has a modest research travel and equipment fund.  Salary range:  $50,000 - $55,000.

Application Instructions:

Applicants should submit their online application to the Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR) by 5:00PM EST on December 31, 2012, http://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/applicants/acad.  Finalists who are invited to interview at Penn will also need to apply via the University of Pennsylvania’s online job site in spring 2013.

The University of Pennsylvania is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.