We are looking for a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher to join the core team of the new Wellcome Trust funded research project 'Waiting Times'. The project, led by Lisa Baraitser (Birkbeck) and Laura Salisbury (Exeter) investigates waiting as a cultural and psychosocial concept, and an embodied and historical experience, in order to understand the temporalities of healthcare in the modern period. The Postdoctoral Researcher will undertake research on the temporalities of mental healthcare, with a particular focus on young people.

The successful candidate will have a background in a relevant social science or humanities discipline and substantial experience in qualitative research. They must have a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant subject area or evidence that the PhD will be completed prior to the start date of the post.

Salary: Grade 7 of the College's London Pay Scale which is £36,548 rising to £41,772 per annum.
The closing date for completed applications is midnight on Wednesday 14 June 2017. Interviews will be held on Wednesday 5 July 2017.

Visit our recruitment site for further details and to apply - job reference 12204 [link broken]

Time in Medieval Japan (TIMEJ)

Project description
The project explores time in medieval Japan, taking a new approach to historical articulations of the concept of time, based on the theory of symbolic forms. It will examine symbolic representations and social regulations of time in a civilisation that is often juxtaposed to contemporary, globalised modernity. We will investigate into medieval Japan as a dynamic and internally differentiated society, and not as a unified “traditional” culture dominated by a qualitative concept of time. We will focus on its plural ways of registering, measuring, articulating, and regulating time. The aim is to disclose the specific cultural practices operative in the respective ways of negotiating time, and to achieve a more comprehensive and detailed account of human strategies in dealing with this fundamental restriction of our existence. In a closely coordinated set of case studies, we examine representative spheres connected to various symbolic forms and socio-cultural agendas: the Zen monastery, the female court, and the market. An intersectional case study explores the symbolic mediations of the menstrual cycle, connecting these spheres and uniting aspects of the physical, ritual and symbolic regulation of human body time. Each case study explores the symbolic forms prevalent in the respective settings, and the aspects of time that are deemed relevant and selected for symbolic articulation. We will analyse temporal encoding, structure and application in the regulation of affairs, the competence to account and regulate these processes, and the influence on feelings of dismay in the face of the socio-cultural realities of time. Special attention is paid to the conflicts that arise when established regimes of temporal regulation and expression clash with each other and with individual experience. The results will be compared to the history of time in the Western world, and integrated into a theory of the symbolic forms of time.
Openings
We invite applications for two research positions in the ERC-Advanced Grant Research Project “Time in Medieval Japan” (TIMEJ), University of Zurich

The Department of Japanese Studies, Institute for Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland, seeks one research associate (5 years, non-tenure track) and one doctoral candidate (4 years, non-tenure-track) to participate in the ERC-Advanced Grant Research Project “Time in Medieval Japan” (TIMEJ), September 2017 until August 2022.

a) Position as Research Associate for Research Area 3 (Market)
We are seeking a research associate who will lead Research Area 3 (Time of the Market). This is a 5-year, non-tenure-track position.
Applicants must have a Ph.D. degree in a related field and a substantial track record of research. Preference will be given to applicants who have demonstrated their expertise in the area of premodern economic history, and experience in the study of medieval Japanese sources.
In the course of his/her term of employment with TIMEJ, the research associate is expected to work closely with the research group, to regularly attend its meetings, to engage in discussion with all project members, and to assist in the supervision of the doctoral student working in the research area 3. Furthermore, she/he will participate in activities of the group such as symposia, panels in international conferences, etc. The main expected outcome will be a research monograph on the “time of the markets” and a contribution to an edited volume surveying time in medieval (Kamakura to Muromachi) Japan. No teaching duties are attached to the position, but the research associate will be eligible for paid teaching assignments.
 
Description of Research Area 3 (Market)
Research Area 3 explores the impact of evolving markets on the temporal perspectives of participants. Markets are generally considered to foster a quantitative and homogeneous concept of time, and also to contribute to the installation, or increased salience, of a ‘week’ – an artificial unit of time between the day and the month. They also connect the aristocratic authorities with the much less documented lives of the commoners. In analysing the temporal organisation of markets and how it affected the activities and temporal perspectives of traders, producers, and buyers of commodities, the proposed research brings a new perspective to this field, and will, at the same time, test assumptions derived from the study of European history. A case study by a PhD student under supervision of research associate 2 and the Principle Investigator (PI) follows the trajectory of incense as a marketed commodity from import of raw materials and semi-finished products through production and circulation to consumption. (For detailed information on the project please contact [email protected]).
Employment conditions: 60% research associate position at the University of Zurich. The salary will be determined according to the ERC-regulations for research associates.
Applications should include a cover letter, a CV, a research statement of up to 1,500 words, and a sample of recent work.
They should be submitted electronically in a single PDF-Document by June 15 to the following e-mail address: [email protected].
Review of applicants will begin June 16, 2017 and continue until the position has been filled.
 
b) Research Position at the Doctoral level for Research Area 2 (Court)
We seek for a highly promising doctoral candidate to conduct a PhD project on time conceptions and time practices in courtiers’ (kuge) diaries in comparison to diaries by military governors (buke) under the supervision of the research associate of research area 2 and the PI. This is a 4-year, non-tenure-track position.
Candidates will be specializing in Japanese literature and/or intellectual history. Preference shall be given to those with training in male literature of medieval Japan. A good knowledge of kanbun is highly desirable.
 
Description of Research Area 2
Research area 2 (Court) looks into class and gender aspects of time by investigating the literature produced in female courts in contradistinction to that of male courtiers and members of the warrior elite. The female court was established as the primary locus of vernacular literature in late antiquity. It continued to be a place of highly aestheticised and strongly gendered exchanges, evident among others in the genres of vernacular poetry, miscellany, and women’s diaries. Due to the gradual decline in the status of the court aristocracy during the medieval period, there is, however, a tendency over time in the diaries to also include consideration of economic and legal matters. This makes the female court an apt place to analyse the impact of social fluctuations and changing constellations of symbolic forms on temporal perspectives. The proposed research will systematically investigate how time is recorded, addressed and reflected in women’s diaries, travelogues, and poetry, comparing these to letters and administrative documents. A complementary study (PhD dissertation under supervision of research associate 1 and the PI) will compare courtier diaries (kuge) to that of military governors (buke). In comparing sources from male and female members of the court and warrior elite, special attention will be paid to the relations of power and the temporal regimes they exhibit, their cognitive basis in technologies of recording and announcing time, and the emotive and evaluative expressions of time. The research will demonstrate the plurality of strategies in negotiating the conflicts between natural, institutional and existential time, moving beyond the image of traditional societies in harmony with natural rhythms. (For detailed information on the project please contact [email protected])
 
Employment conditions: 60% PhD-position at the University of Zurich. The salary will be in accordance with the ERC-regulations for PhD-students.
Applications should be submitted electronically in a single PDF-Document by June 15 to the following email address: [email protected].
Applications should include a cover letter, a CV, a research statement of up to 1,500 words, and a sample of recent work.
Review of applicants will begin June 16, 2017 and continue until the position has been filled.
 
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Contact: Inquiries may be addressed to Prof. Dr. Raji C. Steineck, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich, Zuerichbergstrasse 4, 8032 Zurich,
Phone: +41 44 634 40 85, E-mail: [email protected].

CALL FOR PAPERS
International ZeMKI conference
"The Mediatization of Time: New perspectives on media, data and temporality"

7-8 December 2017
ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research
University of Bremen, Germany

Recent innovations in the digitalization and datafication of communication fundamentally affect how people conceptualize, perceive and evaluate time to create the kind of world they live in. The conference invites participants to think through the interplay of media and data in respect of the way social time is constructed, modulated, and experienced. This allows to appreciate how new technologies and representations deeply affect the temporal organization of today’s media suffused societies, and it also sheds light on transformations in mediating time. We assume that mediatization as a fundamental societal change that interweaves with the development and spread of communication and information technologies leaves its mark on the ways we process and order the pace, sequence, rhythms and of social reality.

This conference invites to think through the role of media and data people have or had at hand to time their interactions, relations, and states of being. It encourages submissions related to the mediation of time and the timing of media(ization), and includes, but is not restricted to, the following themes:

- Transformativity of mediatization processes: How can we grasp the historically changing mediation of time and the relation to diachronic processes of mediatization? What are the dynamics between the transforming construction of time and the ongoing formation of mediatization?
- Temporality and mediation of time: Are there temporal affordances of media and how do they influence the experience of mediated time? What time principles characterize today’s media-saturated life? How do media technologies relate to the various temporalities of media practices?
- Memory and the rearrangement of the tenses: What temporal meanings are generated by the media? How are media used in order to knit together past, present and future?

Please send a 300-word abstract, along with your name, e-mail address, academic affiliation, and short bio to: [email protected]

Abstract submission deadline: September 1, 2017
Acknowledgment of acceptance: September 15, 2017
Conference dates: December 7-8, 2017

Confirmed speakers include: Staffan Ericson (Södertörn University): Mediatization in Time; Andreas Hepp (University of Bremen): Datafication and Temporal Media Practices; Johan Fornäs (Södertörn University): Media as Third-Time Tools; Helge Jordheim (University of Oslo): Modes of Synchronization; Emily Keightley (Loughborough University): Zones of Intermediacy; Irene Neverla (University of Hamburg): Media/Time Rhythms; Elizabeth Prommer (University of Rostock): Work, Time, Media; Espen Ytreberg (University of Oslo): Networked Simultaneities. 

The conference is organized by Christian Pentzold and Christine Lohmeier from the ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research, University of Bremen in cooperation with Anne Kaun, School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Stockholm.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

In collaboration with Icebox Project Space, Time Camp 001 is a two-day program and interactive installation exploring time, alternative temporalities, time travel, and temporal shifts, with activities include temporal sound design, time walks, temporal scavenger hunts, zinemaking, special performances, and more. Time Camp 001 will take place at the space-time point of September 30-Oct 1, 2017 at Icebox Project Space (Phila, PA). More details soon. 

We are inviting submissions for workshops and lectures, as well as art-based submissions for inclusion in the installation. 

Workshop and Lecture Submission Information
Seeking abstracts and proposals for 45 and 60 minute workshops and lectures for presentation at Time Camp. Please identify any audio/visual and electrical needs for your presentation. Also include presenter information and website if available. Please submit a proposal for your submission to [email protected] by June 20, 2017.

Sample topics include:
Time Travel Theories/Time Travel 101
Time Machine Design
Time Travel in Comics

Installation Submission information
Seeking submissions of small installations, film, audio/video, literature, photography, objects, and art pieces dealing with time travel, such as personal time machines and devices and time travel artifacts. Works can be individual or collaborative, and should be experimental. Proposals should include a description of your project or piece, including dimensions, sizes, number, and other specifications. Please identify any audio/visual and electrical needs. Also include artist information and website if available. Please submit a proposal for your submission to [email protected] by June 20, 2017. 

For more information please contact [email protected]

Afterlives of violence: contested geographies of past, present and future
A one-day, interdisciplinary conference at the University of Brighton, 29th June 2017
10-5 in M2 Boardroom, Grand Parade – registration from 9
Keynote address from Berber Bevernage, Ghent University
Organised by the Centre for Research in Memory, Narrative and Histories and the Critical Studies Research Group.

Traces of the past (including past futures) have the potential to unsettle linear understandings of time underpinning discourses that aim to draw a line between the past and the present. Such material legacies become subject to a complex articulation of contested regimes of visibility, readership and belonging that can also be explored in their material and spatial implications.

The aim of this postgraduate conference is to expand traditional understandings of the politics of memory and to highlight the relationship between spatiality and temporality. Important questions and areas of exploration involve, among others; how can we best approach, both methodologically and theoretically, spaces haunted by violent events? How can we best account for the multidirectional constellation of repetitions, anticipations and repressed returns in its geographical manifestations?
Topics to be covered might include:

• Politics of time
• chronopolitics
• Spectral geographies, haunting and place
• Ruins and processes of ruination
• Contested geographies of memory, memoryscapes
• Transitional justice and temporal difference
• Landscapes of futurity, hope
• Urban and rural memories
• Politics of heritage and tourism
• Time and postcolonial theory
• Oral history and time
• Time and the body
• Landscapes of memorialisation
• New materialist archaeologies
• Geographies of absence/presence
• Queer time(s)
• Monuments and memorials
• Rhythms of everyday life
• Mnemohistory and space

There is no registration fee. We welcome proposals of no more than 300 words for 20-minute papers.
Please submit your abstract by Friday 19th May 2017 to [email protected]

The SLSA 2017 theme will be “Out of Time,” and papers/panels on all SLSA-related topics are welcome. Some of the areas related to the conference theme include: Nonhuman temporalities, Species extinction, Life after humans, slow time, the long now, Time and Computing, Digital Temporalities, Bio-political Time, Time and Capital, and much more. All proposal abstracts for roundtables, panel sessions, contributed papers, and posters must be submitted by Wednesday, May 15, 2017 (midnight EDT). See Submissions for more information and the full CFP.