Position ID:
Duke-Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies-POSTDOC_THEME [#31104]
Position Title:
Duke Theme Year Postdoc
Position Type:
Postdoctoral
Position Location:
Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States of America
Subject Area:
Appl Deadline:
2025/12/15 11:59PM
** (posted 2025/11/05, listed until 2026/05/05)
Position Description:
Position Description
The Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist (GSF) Studies at Duke University invites applications for a two-year residential postdoctoral fellow. We seek a scholar whose research agenda is committed to feminist intellectual history with a focus on the 1980s as a distinct era of feminist theoretical innovation. Responding to the recent outpouring of scholarship on the feminist 1970s and the queer 1990s, this focus seeks to highlight the explosion of major intellectual work of the 1980s (by Hortense Spillers, Toni Morrison, Barbara Christian, Hazel Carby, Chandra Mohanty, Teresa de Lauretis, Gloria Anzaldúa, Luce Irigaray, Joan Scott, Kimberlé Crenshaw, among others). We welcome candidates whose research excavates the theoretical vibrancy of this period, its historical contexts, and its consequences for contemporary feminist debates. We are especially interested in applicants who have a strong record of feminist research and teaching, and the potential to contribute to GSF by offering courses and workshops.
The fellowship has a term of one year, beginning July 1, 2026, and is renewable for a second year upon successful completion of the first year.
The fellow’s primary responsibilities include:
- Participation in a semester-long weekly seminar devoted to feminist intellectual histories of the 1980s;
- Conceptualizing and organizing intellectual programming for graduate students on topics related to feminist intellectual history; and
- Teaching one course in the second year of the fellowship.
These duties will take roughly half the fellow’s time, with the other half left open for the fellow’s research and writing. The fellow will receive full support for making connections with other scholars and joining campus intellectual life, as well as mentorship from GSF faculty.
Applicants should have PhD in hand by July 1, 2026, and should have earned their PhD no earlier than June 30, 2023.
In addition to a cover letter, please include:
- a C.V.
- a writing sample (no more than 25 pages)
- names and contact information for three references.
Application due date is December 15, 2025.
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