Postdoctoral Research Associate U of M

Sawyer Seminar Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship (Postdoctoral Research Associate) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

UMass Amherst's College of Humanities and Fine Arts invites applications for a Mellon Fellowship (Postdoctoral Research Associate) in association with its 2022-2023 Sawyer Seminar "Race and Visual Culture in the Americas, 20^th to 21^st Centuries." The project investigates the ways that artistic practices and discourses intersect with other forms of visual representation, with direct consideration of how the politics of race and intersectional identity shape the parameters of cultural knowledge. The Seminar will bring together scholars from different fields in order to examine the historic and contemporary significance of race in shaping cultural identity and to break down the colonial framework of humanistic knowledge in the discipline of art history. It also relates to a public art commission for the large Puerto Rican diaspora community in Holyoke, MA, in partnership with the community organization El Corazon/The Heart of Holyoke. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow will be an active organizer and participant in the Sawyer Seminar, attending all events and giving one scholarly presentation as part of the seminar.

UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region.

Job Summary

The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (Postdoctoral Research Associate) will play a vital role in organizing the Sawyer Seminar, while also advancing their own research through relationships with the Department of the History of Art and Architecture and the interdisciplinary scholarly and artistic community at UMass and the Five Colleges. In conjunction with the seminar, the Fellow will convene related discussions of research methods with a select group of graduate students from across campus, with the goal of participating in "mutual mentoring" relationships among faculty and graduate students and supporting interdisciplinary dialogue among a range of departments. In addition, the Fellow will receive direct mentorship through regular meetings with the conveners. The successful candidate will contribute to our goals of broadening the scope of art history as a discipline in dialogue with a wide range of humanities fields, and critique the historical exclusions perpetuated by the discourse of "art" as well as disciplinary boundaries that have been shaped by histories and legacies of slavery and colonialism.

The Fellow will play a key role in planning, implementing, and running the seminar in 2022-23 and coordinating with El Corazon/The Heart of Holyoke. The Fellow will organize a satellite seminar for the seminar's graduate student participants, which will include de-briefing after the seminar meetings, and allow students to present on their own research, workshop papers and proposals, and discuss research methods. The Fellow will undertake their own research and present it at the final conference in April and a public lecture at UMass during the academic year. They will also have the opportunity to teach a seminar in History of Art and Architecture or another appropriate department in the Spring 2023 term.