From January 1 2018 onwards the Refashioning the Renaissance research team is strengthened with two Postdoctoral Researchers. 

Jane Malcolm-Davies comes to our project from Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, where she was a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow and worked on Knitting in Early Modern Europe (KEME). She is the co-director of The Tudor Tailor, which researches and retails publications and products aimed at improving reconstructions of historical dress for pedagogical projects and heritage sites.

Michele Robinson has recently earned her PhD at the University of Sussex, where her research examined the roles that visual and material culture played in shaping children’s domestic experiences in sixteenth-century Bologna. 

Jane’s extensive experience with experimental methods and databases, and Michele’s expertise on domestic sphere and home production will be a valuable addition to our team.

Read more of them on our People page.

Jane Malcolm-Davies

Michele Robinson

Postdoctoral Researcher

The position is fixed-term and will be filled for 3 years. The starting date is 1st January 2018, or negotiable.

Job responsibilities

The Postdoctoral Researcher will work within the ERC funded research project Refashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups, Fashion and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe, 1550-1650, led by Professor Paula Hohti (PI). This project studies the meanings and dissemination of western fashion in early modern Europe, especially at the lower social levels, and develops new material-based experimental and scientific research methods in dress history.

The team will consist of a Research fellow, Postdoctoral researcher, a Doctoral researcher, a Research assistant and a Project administrator, who will collectively work towards the Refashioning the Renaissance project’s research goals. The Postdoctoral Researcher’s task is to design and carry out the project’s research on early modern Italian dress and fashion (1550-1650), focusing on printed and archival information of dress, textiles, appearance, body and beauty. In addition, the Postdoctoral researcher is expected to participate in the project’s experimental work and teaching and training activities, as well as to organize workshops and seminars and publish articles both independently and in collaboration with other team members. The main duties of the Postdoctoral Researcher include:

• To identify and record relevant printed information of dress in European archives and libraries
• To carry out archival work in Italian archives
• To design methods for historical reconstruction
• To create a dataset for the project’s database and publish at least three articles
• Teaching and other assisting work related to the project’s research activities

Requirements

Qualified candidates for the Postdoctoral Researcher’s position hold a PhD degree in early modern history or in a related field. In addition, the successful candidates should have 

• Fluent skills in English and Italian language
• Previous experience of archival work
• Excellent research skills
• Good communication skills and the ability to work in a team

The Postdoctoral Researcher’s position involves several research trips in Europe, and approximately 10% of the working time should be spent at Aalto University, Finland.

Salary

3500€ per month. In addition, the position includes an allowance towards research travel, conferences, training and publication costs. Aalto University follows the salary system of Finnish universities.

How to apply

To apply for the position, please submit your application containing

• Motivation letter (1 page)
• Research proposal (2 pages)
• CV (2 pages)
• List of publications (2 pages)
• Sample of writing

The applications for the Postdoctoral researcher position are to be submitted through the Aalto University eRecruitment system no later than on 20 October, 2017.

Aalto University reserves the right for justified reasons to leave the position open, to extend the application period and to consider candidates who have not submitted applications during the application period.

For more information

For additional information, please contact Professor Paula Hohti, paula.hohti@aalto.fi or in recruitment process related questions HR-coordinator Elina Säkki-Anttila elina.sakki@aalto.fi.

APPLY HERE

Plaque at the European Research Council Office in Brussels.

European Research Council has awarded professor Paula Hohti a 2 million euro ERC Consolidator Grant for her project Refashioning the Renaissance: Popular Groups, Fashion and the Material and Cultural Significance of Clothing in Europe 1550-1650. The project runs from April 2017 to March 2022, and will investigate the meaning and spread of western fashion in 17th century Europe.

‘We will develop hand-on methods in which we will work in many different ways with the textile samples’. Using manuals preserved from the 16th century, we have access to the textile manufacturing recipes of that time and we can reconstruct them now and see, for example, what the weaving of the fabric meant in practice,’ explains Professor Hohti.

Read more about the project from our About and Media pages.