MCLC: single women in Shanghai position

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Jeroen de Kloet <b.j.dekloet at uva.nl>
Subject: single women in Shanghai position
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The Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at
Heidelberg University, invites applications for the position of a

 
PHD POSITION (f/m, 50%, TVL-13) on
Single Women in Shanghai
 
Vacancy number: 2013-HERA-JRP586-01
Starting on 1 October 2013.

 
Within the HERA funded project ‘Creating the ‘new’ Asian woman:
entanglements of urban space, cultural encounters and gendered identities
in Shanghai and Delhi (SINGLE)’ we are looking for a PhD candidate to
conduct research on the lives and work of single women in Shanghai.

 
Project description

The context of urban transformation in India and China is enabling the
formation of new cultural geographies and biographies for single women.
Cities such as Shanghai and Delhi are the backdrop to changing family
patterns and the unraveling of ‘traditional’ social contracts as a result
of migration, new work opportunities, delayed marriage, divorce, open
homosexuality, and a growing leisure and consumer society. As a result,
single women are becoming increasingly visible in public, be it through
media representations or everyday practices and mobilities. SINGLE uses
ethnographic, mobile and visual methodologies to explore these concerns,
documenting the experiences of single women in Delhi and Shanghai that are
indicative of wider social and demographic transformations, and set within
wider debates of cultural encounter, world cities and globalization. The
research sites are linked by a conceptual framework centered on
transcultural analysis and cross-cutting themes of class, governance,
precarity and the shifting boundaries of public and private space.

 
This PhD project will analyze the representations of gendered subjectivity
in the Chinese media landscape, particularly, the emergence of single
female professionals, that are part of the rising creative class in China
and that are supposed to embrace the notions of free market, hard work and
individual success. However, they do so under precarious conditions by
stepping outside expected gendered roles. This approach also has strong
relevance to debates on processes of transculturality and change as
alternative rolemodels influenced by diverse cultural factors challenge
dominant/demotic lifestyle and class discourses, producing alternative
spaces and subjectivities in these cities. This project will, first, study
single women who are active in the creative industries of Shanghai. This
ethnographic study will be complemented by a visual and discourse analysis
of representations of single women in media, including television drama,
cinema and magazines.

 
Candidates are expected to have:

• A MA, MPhil or MSc degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences with
excellent results;
• A good command of English (IELTS certificate of qualification 7,0) and
proficiency in Mandarin;
• Outstanding research qualities manifest in a high-quality MA thesis or
equivalent;
• Ability and willingness to carry out empirical research and spend
extended periods abroad;
• Keen interest in interdisciplinary research methods and approaches, work
in Digital Humanities (mainly film, photography) and the ability to work
in a team.

 
Terms of employment

A successful applicant will be appointed as PhD student for a period of
one year with an extension of two years after positive evaluation of
research progress, capabilities and compatibility. Payment is made
according to German academic salary scale TVL-13 (50%) regulations.
Research expenses for fieldwork and workshops will be covered by the
project.

 
Applications should include:

• a motivation letter;
• curriculum vitae;
• degree transcript of the highest degree obtained (or to be awarded this
year), in
• the form of a transcript/grade-sheet from your university;
• the MA thesis or another major writing sample;
• two reference letters;
• a short research proposal (app. 2.000 words);
• certificate of IELTS score.

 
Information

The PhD project will be carried out under supervision of Prof. dr. Jeroen
de Kloet from the University of Amsterdam and Prof. dr. Christiane Brosius
from Heidelberg University. The PhD student will be based at Heidelberg
University.

For further inquiries, and/or more extensive descriptions of project and
subproject, please contact Prof. dr. Jeroen de Kloet at b.j.dekloet at uva.nl.

 
To apply
Your application, including reference number, and all documents are
preferably submitted online as one single PDF file
berger-goeken at asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de.

 
The application deadline is July 21, 2013. Please note that the University
of Heidelberg is an equal opportunity employer and places particular
emphasis on recruiting female scholars. Disabled applicants with
equivalent qualifications will be given preference.