Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.

*Position filled. Learn about current fellowship opportunities here.*

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in the Digital Humanities, 2018-2020

The Montana State University Library and the Center for Western Lands and Peoples welcome applications for a full-time, two-year Postdoctoral Fellow. The candidate in this position will help launch a digital humanities program at Montana State University (MSU), with a focus on western American literature and history, using the recently-acquired Ivan Doig Archive as its foundation. The two-year residency begins on July 1, 2018.

The MSU Library and the Information Technology Center have recently launched a joint initiative called DISC (Data Infrastructure and Scholarly Communication), whose mission is to provide MSU researchers with computational, data, and digital resources and expertise that increase discovery, build knowledge, and communicate scholarly work. The Postdoctoral Fellow will report directly to the head of Special Collections & Archival Informatics, but will collaborate closely with faculty and staff from DISC, other areas of the Library, and the College of Letters and Science to integrate digital humanities into curricula. He/she will also integrate archival practices into the curriculum offered to students at MSU.

We seek a creative and technically skilled person to promote the use of digital technologies and resources for humanities research, teaching, and intellectual engagement. This will take the form of four connected activities: (1) building awareness, (2) building capacity, (3) supporting projects, and (4) integrating MSU into the larger community of digital humanities scholarship. The Postdoctoral Fellow may participate in research and projects that include: textual analysis, geocoding and GIS applications, data visualization, data analysis, and data mining, linked data, digitization, media authoring and production, and project scoping and project management.

Background

Montana State University acquired the archive of the late writer, Ivan Doig, in 2015. The proposal to Carol Muller Doig, jointly submitted by MSU Library and the College of Letters and Science, promised to make her husband’s legacy available to students, scholars, and the public as quickly as possible by digitizing the entire collection. Less than one year later, the digital and print versions of the Ivan Doig Archive were launched and promoted to encourage community access, scholarly exploration, and integration into courses. Further development of the digitized archive has continued to improve its utility for digital scholars, including a pilot project to mark up the manuscripts with Schema.org and the development of applications that integrate sound recordings, images, and geospatial data. The Ivan Doig Archive will serve as the foundation from which digital humanities applications, techniques, and integration with curricula are developed as a model for a broader program focused on Western literature and history.

Qualifications

Required:

  • Applicants must have completed their degrees within five years of the beginning of the fellowship July 1, 2017. Applicants who received their Ph.D. prior to 2012 are ineligible.
  • Expertise in digital humanities as evidenced by successful integration of digital tools, approaches, and pedagogy in humanities research and teaching.
  • Ability to integrate humanistic scholarly research material within the digital environment in support of innovative, data-driven research and discovery.
  • Demonstrated ability to undertake self-directed work on scholarly research projects.
  • Willingness to participate in grant-writing to support digital humanities initiatives
  • Commitment to collaborating with a multidisciplinary team on research and publications.
  • Excellent oral and written communication, and interpersonal, skills.
  • Must be legally permitted to work in the United States between 2017 and 2019.

 Preferred:

  • While all Ph.D. degrees will be considered, preference may be given to candidates whose academic background favors the humanities, especially in the areas of history, English, and American studies.
  • Knowledge of open digital humanities scholarship, including recent trends, resources, and applications.
  • Knowledge of archival practices.
  • Expertise or demonstrated interest in Western American literature and/or history.
  • Experiences in a digital working environment, such as a library, digital lab, or center.
  • Project management experience
  • At least 2 years of teaching experience in an academic setting as a teaching assistant or an instructor (undergraduate and/or graduate teaching).

Compensation

The salary for this position is in the range of $55,000 – $60,000, depending on qualifications, plus benefits.

Environment

Montana State University is as remarkable as its setting. Established as a land-grant institution in 1893, it is a welcoming, adventurous community of students, faculty and staff, distinguished by its commitment to address the world’s greatest challenges. The university energizes individuals to discover and pursue their aspirations. It inspires people to engage with the university to improve the human prospect through excellence in education, research, creativity and civic responsibility.

The Center for Western Lands & Peoples is a program supporting interdisciplinary research within the College of Letters and Sciences that is focused on the places and peoples of the Western United States and Canada. The departments involved include Ecology, Earth Sciences, English, History and Philosophy, and Native American Studies.

The MSU Library is the flagship library of the Montana State University System. Conveniently located in the center of the Bozeman campus, the Library supports teaching, learning, and research at MSU. MSU Library is home to unique physical and digitized collections, including: Indian Peoples of the Northern Great PlainsIvan Doig ArchiveTrout and Salmonid Collection, the Acoustic Atlas natural sound archive, and materials from Yellowstone National Park and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Library’s faculty and staff are enthusiastic educators who seek expertise and guidance to help integrate these digital collections into teaching and research.

Bozeman is a small town with big energy and is frequently listed as one of the top places to live in the United States.  Perhaps best known for outdoor recreation, Bozeman also has the cultural amenities of a much larger city, including a symphony, opera, and ballet, as well as many locally-owned shops, restaurants and galleries that help create a vibrant downtown area. Skiing, hiking, camping, biking, climbing, and fishing options are endless because Bozeman is surrounded by five mountain ranges including the Bridger, Tobacco Root, Big Belt, Gallatin and Madison ranges; and the Gallatin, Madison and Yellowstone Rivers are all within a half hour of campus. There is plenty of National Forest land to explore, and the northeast entrance to the world’s oldest national park, Yellowstone National Park, is just 90 miles away.

Skip to content