Dante and Late Medieval Florence: Theology in Poetry, Practice and Society

P ostdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Leeds – Arts
Fixed term for 38 months, commencing 1 June 2012.

This project, led by Dr Matthew Treherne (Leeds), Prof. Simon Gilson (Warwick) and Dr Claire Honess (Leeds), is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and focuses on the nature of theological learning and religious practice in Florence in the 1280s and 1290s. It has four major strands:

• Theological learning in Dante and Dante’s Florence;
• Religious culture and the mediation of theological ideas;
• The theological poetics of the social encounter;
• Theology and socio-political thought.

You will work with Dr Treherne on the second strand (« Religious culture and the mediation of theological ideas »), examining the ways in which theological ideas were mediated in late-medieval Florence beyond the learned context – in popular culture, liturgical practice, preaching, and visual art. By foregrounding the forms taken by « doctrinal » ideas and theological debates, you will analyse the ways in which Dante’s poetry draws on and recasts these forms of theological expression. Source materials to be examined include the liturgical sources of Santa Maria Novella; visual imagery; and preaching guides such as those by Peraldus and Giovanni di San Gimignano. Your research will focus less on the content of specific points of doctrine (and Dante’s adherence to them), than on the forms in which doctrine would have been experienced outside the learned context.

In the second year of the project, you will be expected to spend nine months in Florence working in archives. (Travel and subsistence are fully covered under the terms of the AHRC award; this work will also be supported by regular visits to Florence from the project leadership team, and will be carried out alongside the post-doctoral researcher based in Warwick.)

You will be expected to have obtained, or expect to obtain by the beginning of the project, a PhD with specialisation in an aspect of Italian Studies or field relevant to the project.

For more information about this post please see the Further Information document.  Information about Italian at Leeds can be found at www.leeds.ac.uk/italian/

University Grade 7 (£30,122 – £35,938 p.a.)

It is likely that an appointment will be made no higher than point 33 £32,901 p.a. since there are funding limitations which dictate the level at which the appointment can start.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Matthew Treherne, tel +44 (0)113 343 8612, email m.treherne@leeds.ac.uk

Closing Date: 30 March 2012
(Redeployment Closing Date: 14 February 2012)

Interviews are expected to be held on 4 May 2012

Click here for Employer Profile

Source : http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ADW682/postdoctoral-research-fellow/