The University of York wishes to appoint a 3-year Postdoctoral Fellowship, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust as part of its Research Leadership Award (2016) to Dr Timothy Stanton for his project Rethinking Civil Society: History, Theory, Critique. The Fellowship is available to outstanding candidates seeking to conduct research on changing ideas of civil society in post-partition India.

Rethinking Civil Society charts the descent of ideas about civil society from their origins into their present, hegemonic form. Chris Hann has urged theorists to develop a comparative and descriptive account of civil society that takes into account differences in social structures, historical experience, and economic development. The successful candidate will take up this challenge with special reference to India.

You will engage in research that charts the development of ideas about civil society in India since partition, and the ways in which those ideas have been applied and contested in practice. You may focus on the routes by which ‘Western’ values of liberalism, individualism, and constitutionalism made inroads into Indian society, legacies of British imperial rule, the place of rights and liberties in the formation of a democratic state and a democratic constitution, the expansion of the Indian state and concomitant fears about a shrinking space for civil society, or on particular thinkers or political actors who have contributed most significantly to thinking about civil society and the state in India since 1947. You will also play a central role in disseminating the conclusions of your work, and those of the broader project, to academic and non-academic audiences.

You are asked to submit a statement of not more than 3,000 words about the interest and importance of their research, prefaced by a short abstract of the project (no more than 250 words), together with an academic cv including contact details of two academic referees whom you consider to be familiar with your research and who would be appropriate assessors of your work. You should also submit a sample of their research, which may take the form of an article, paper, or a chapter or chapters of your PhD thesis. You must hold a PhD by the time of appointment, and have demonstrable experience of conducting high quality research in the advertised area in any branch of the social sciences or humanities.

The post is available from 1^st September 2018, for three years on a full-time basis. You are encouraged to contact the project leader, Tim Stanton (tim.stanton@york.ac.uk), or the project administrator, Julia Key (julia.key@york.ac.uk) for an informal discussion or further information.

The University of York is an equal opportunities employer and places particular emphasis on fostering career opportunities for women. Qualified women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply as they are underrepresented in this field. Disabled persons with equivalent aptitude will be favoured.

If Fixed-Term: This post is available on a fixed-term basis for 3 years.

For further information and to apply on-line, please click on the ‘Apply’ button below.

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