The CSWR has five open postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2024-25 in the following areas: Spirituality and the Arts, Thinking with Plants and Fungi, African and Africa Diaspora Religions, and Religion and Indigenous Plant Medicine Traditions of the Americas. Applications are due March 31, 2024. All appointments will begin on September 1, 2024 and end August 31, 2025.
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Thinking with Plants and Fungi
We are seeking a postdoctoral fellow whose scholarship grapples with how plant and fungal life enrich, transform, or complicate prevailing philosophical and theological categories. How does the study of plant life trouble notions of mind and matter? How, in turning our attention to plants and the broader “more-than-human” world might we cultivate an ecological imagination that displaces humans from its center? How do different cultural, theological, and philosophical systems, new and old, accommodate for the vibrancy and agency of plant life?
Candidates will pursue research projects in the environmental humanities that align with the Center’s “Thinking with Plants and Fungi” Initiative. We are especially interested in candidates with an expertise in ecology or ethnobiology and who bring a history of religions or philosophical approach to their research. The primary tradition and research focus is open. Preference will be given to those candidates who are conversant with traditions beyond their own primary specialization. Application deadline: April 15, 2024
Postdoctoral Fellowships, Transcendence and Transformation Initiative
We also invite applications for four one-year paid postdoctoral fellowships as part of the Transcendence and Transformation (T&T) Initiative. Candidates will work under the supervision of the director of the Center, Professor Charles Stang, and in close collaboration with other researchers at the CSWR, as part of the T&T Initiative. Please read the T&T Initiative's vision statement before applying. The T&T Initiative supports the study of religious and spiritual traditions and practices—ancient and modern, global in reach—that aim to transcend our normal states of being, consciousness, and embodiment, and thus to transform the individual, community, and society.
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Spirituality and the Arts
Candidates will pursue a research project in Spirituality and the Arts that aligns with the Center’s “Transcendence and Transformation” initiative. The fellowship will be based at the CSWR, but will include research stays of up to two months each at two of the three partner institutions: the Warburg Institute (London), Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations and Spiritualities of the Giorgio Cini Foundation (Venice), and the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam. Application deadline: April 8, 2024
Postdoctoral Fellowship in African and Africa Diaspora Religions
Candidates will pursue a research project in African and African Diaspora Religions that aligns with the Center’s T&T Initiative. Applicants are encouraged to consider whether and how they might connect with Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery project. Application deadline: April 15, 2024
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Religion and Indigenous Plant Medicine Traditions of the Americas
Candidates will pursue a research project in Religion and Indigenous Plant Medicine Traditions of the Americas that aligns with the Center’s T&T Initiative. We understand “religion” broadly to include indigenous, and syncretic, spiritual traditions that include the use of plants (and fungi) as part of their ritual and healing practices. “Americas” includes North, South, and Central America. And plant medicine traditions may be “psychedelic” but need not be. We understand “plant medicine traditions” broadly to include indigenous, and syncretic, spiritual/religious traditions that include the use of plants (and fungi) as part of their ritual and healing practices. Application deadline: April 30, 2024
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Spirituality and Psychedelics
The candidate will pursue a research project in Psychedelics and Spirituality that aligns with the Center’s T&T Initiative, and its existing research and programming on psychedelics and religion. The T&T initiative supports the study of religious and spiritual traditions and practices—ancient and modern, global in reach—that aim to transcend our normal states of being, consciousness, and embodiment, and thus to transform the individual, community, and society. We understand “psychedelic” to be a broad category, including psychoactive plants (and fungi), synthetic chemicals, and non-serotonergic substances. Proposals should specify the substance in question and the definition of “psychedelic” being assumed in the project. We encourage research projects from a range of disciplines (e.g. history, philosophy, religious studies, anthropology), and the chronological period and geographic focus is open.
Application deadline: April 30, 2024