Job Description
A Paris/London Fellowship in Urban Studies (secondment or short-term appointment)
As the significance of shared culture and meaningful exchange between the cities of London and Paris comes increasingly to the fore, the University of London has launched a new global fellowship opportunity piloted by the University of London Institute in Paris in collaboration the University’s leading centres of research and learning in urban history, culture, design and theory, including the Institute of Historical Research, the London Policy and Research partnership, as well as the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
This Global Fellowship aims to build experientially embedded research that reflects and informs the ways urban environments are responding to deepening inequalities and environmental crisis, as well as the effects of rising nationalism. It invites interdisciplinary work to help shape new understandings of the variable triangulations of public works, private investment, and civil-society action and organisation. As patterns of labour and mobility change, as the imperatives of climate action and disease control increasingly shape urban policy and infrastructure, how are cities adapting, transforming, failing, and thriving?
The fellowship seeks in particular to foster new attention to urban dynamics of welfare, well-being, and solidarity. Much scholarship focuses on macro-factors in global city analysis, stressing the intensification of competition between urban centres and particular configurations of rivalry and/or emulation, all patterns that tend to dominate the structure of work between Paris and London. Yet community-led innovation and knowledge are increasingly shaping urban and design cultures, generating new vernaculars and alternative forms of circular economies or more or less autonomous structures of solidarity. Can these processes by mapped from what are often perceived as ‘only’ local dynamics into a transnational frame, and what do we gain in doing so?
The Banister Fletcher Global Fellowship invites scholars to place alternative forms and spaces of knowledge production at the heart of proposals that may build on research and creative practice developed in relation to cultures and histories of the built environment across the world, but also more directly within the perimeter of the Paris-London framework. It encourages candidates to consider how their work will both benefit from sustained consideration of this Paris-London framework, while also contributing to the elucidation of it. It also anticipates the importance of historical perspectives and welcomes proposals anchored in the city as archive.
The Fellowship will be for a period up to 6 months (normally between January and June 2024), based in Paris or London, or split between the two cities. The Fellow will conduct and communicate original research and engage in the research environment of the supporting institutions. More specifically, the Fellow will design and convene a programme of lectures and/or workshops or collaborative events with funds available for this programming. Developing an archive of events through video and audio production as well as subsequent publication of lectures and/or associated writings, the Banister Fletcher Global Fellowship intends to establish a body of new research that will constitute a reference in urban studies.
The University is seeking candidates who are looking to learn from new institutional and interdisciplinary collaborations. Candidates must have a substantial research track record and hold a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant field or have demonstrated the impact of their work through creative practice and dissemination. Candidates are invited to consult the ULIP website via the Research tab for further details on previous iterations of the fellowship, which will give a sense of the range of approaches adopted so far.
The University particularly welcomes applicants from minority groups.
We will accept applications from salaried and non-salaried candidates.
Further Information
How to Apply
Applicants should submit (amalgamated in one document):
- CV (including names of two referees)
- Short summary/pitch outlining the key objectives for the fellowship (300 words max)
- A project document explaining the aims and tentative organisation for each of the workshops, including possible invited participants (speakers or session leaders), as well as the relation between the Paris and the London events, and how these would be supported by the key-note lectures. Indicative titles for the latter and/or short abstracts may be given. Candidates are encouraged to diversify the means/modes of interaction in the workshops (up to 4 pages; font: times roman 12).
Applications close midnight (BST), Tuesday 30th May 2023.
If you would like to discuss the post informally, or have questions about the application process, contact Anna-Louise.Milne@ulip.lon.ac.uk
The University reserves the right to close the vacancy earlier than the published end date should it receive sufficient applications to warrant earlier shortlisting.
Pursuing excellence in education and equal opportunities.