Postdoctoral Fellowship – University of Virginia

The Department of French at the University of Virginia invites applications for a Rising Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship

BLACK FRANCE: Race and the Global Francophone Diaspora


In consort with the Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Mellon Foundation, the UVA Department of French hopes to provide a departmental home to a Postdoctoral Fellow in Black France (largely construed to include all the current and former territories of France as well as metropolitan France).

We seek a rising scholar (candidates who received, or will receive, their Ph.D. degree between August 24, 2019 and August 24, 2021) whose research and teaching are grounded in a transhistorical understanding of race within the global francophone diaspora and who has a deep interest in the study of culture, language, texts, and the construction of identities. We would particularly welcome someone who would bring a Black Studies perspective to examining the development and spread of a global francophone world and the reciprocal exchange and flow of ideas, cultural forms, languages, and people among continental France, Africa and the Atlantic world.

We see this 2-year postdoctoral fellowship as part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ mission to further our understanding of the legacies of racial inequity and to enhance the career trajectory of an underrepresented scholar whose work focuses on questions related to the global and comparative dimensions of Race, Justice and Equity. As a department of French, we view this position as a reflection of our collective commitment to pursuing an on-going conversation and reexamination of the very foundations of our discipline.

Possible specializations include but are not limited to:

  • Early modern Africa and France (cultural contacts with France, including the beginnings of empire; cultural representations, discourses, and other writings about race in early modern France; African perspectives on Europe);
  • West Africa of any period;
  • Francophone African and Caribbean literature, with an interdisciplinary specialization in Afro-diasporic literary and cultural studies, including drama and performance studies;
  • Migration and immigration, diaspora, exile and marginalization;
  • Cultural and memorial vestiges of the slave trade and colonization, including processes of colonial amnesia and erasure;
  • Racial discrimination, anti-racism, constructions and experiences of blackness in France.

Please contact Janet Horne, Department Chair, with any questions. jhorne@virginia.edu/
See: Department of French, University of Virginia: https://french.as.virginia.edu/

For general information, please consult the Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship Program | The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Review of applications will begin April 12, 2021.