Job Description

The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and the John Carter Brown Library (JCB) invite applications for a postdoctoral research associate position focused on any area/theme of historical scholarship around racial slavery, and/ or Indigenous dispossession and slavery. The postdoctoral research associate position is also open to scholars working on the relationships between African slavery and Indigenous slavery and dispossession as well as related issues of freedom and sovereignty. Combining the mission and resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB, we expect to support a single postdoctoral research associate doing advanced research for a year (12 months) in residence beginning July 2025. The Simmons Center-JCB postdoctoral research associate position is expected to be offered annually in recognition of our collective commitment to advance scholarship in critical areas. Applications representing a wide range of disciplinary perspectives are welcome.

The Ruth J Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is a scholarly research center with a public humanities mission. Recognizing that racial and chattel slavery were central to the historical formation of the Americas and the modern world, the Simmons Center creates a space for the interdisciplinary study of the historical forms of slavery while also examining how these legacies shape our contemporary world.

The John Carter Brown Library is an independent research library focused on the early Americas located on the campus of Brown University. The JCB's collection of more than 50,000 rare books, maps and manuscripts encompasses more than two hundred languages and spans over three centuries of early American history. With collections that focus on European colonialism the JCB is particularly well suited for research in African and Indigenous slavery, freedom, and sovereignty.

Brown University seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce to maintain the excellence of the University, and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, viewpoints, and ways of knowing and learning.

Applicants must have completed doctoral work by the time of application and should expect to submit a letter of application explaining how the combined resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB would provide particular and distinctive support to the applicants? research. The postdoctoral research associate will be asked to participate in the intellectual community at Brown, in and through the Simmons Center and the JCB, to include an opportunity to share their research at a jointly sponsored event.

Search opens November 1, 2024. Applications received by January 15, 2025 will receive full consideration. The position salary is $72,000 and includes benefits and a modest research account.

Applicants must have completed doctoral work by the time of application and should expect to submit a letter of application explaining how the combined resources of the Simmons Center and the JCB would provide particular and distinctive support to the applicants? research. The postdoctoral research associate will be asked to participate in the intellectual community at Brown, in and through the Simmons Center and the JCB, to include an opportunity to share their research at a jointly sponsored event.

Applicants should apply online via Interfolio 

Please include a cover letter, current CV, a writing sample, and three confidential letters of reference.

As an EEO/AA employer, Brown University provides equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon a person?s race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law, and caste, which is protected by our University policies.

About Brown University

Located in historic Providence, Rhode Island and founded in 1764, Brown University is the seventh-oldest college in the United States. Brown is an independent, coeducational Ivy League institution comprising undergraduate and graduate programs, plus the Alpert Medical School, School of Engineering, School of Public Health, Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership and the IE Brown Executive MBA.

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