The Museum of Cultural History is one of Norway's largest museums of cultural history. The museum is research-intensive, and is a university department of equal status to a UiO Faculty. It houses the largest archaeological, ethnographic and numismatic collections in Norway. The museum includes the Viking ships on Bygdøy, an important collection of medieval ecclesiastical art, classical and Egyptological collections from the Mediterranean, and an archive of runic inscriptions.
Doctoral Research Fellow associated with the project "Dressing the Saints"
How would you dress a saint in art? Working within a historically unparalleled amalgam of an interconnected world and regional religious- and legal reforms, Netherlandish artists active at the dawn of the ʻfirst globalisationʼ were among the first to create consummate solutions to this question. Re-conceptualizing hermeneutical geographies they ordered anew the ever-expanding ʻworld of thingsʼ into their religious scenes. The recently funded project "Dressing the Saints: Gendering and Othering in Netherlandish Art at the Dawn of a Globalized World" (DRESS) provides a novel research agenda for art history and material culture studies, working from the hypothesis that before the conception of non-European lands as an ʻagreeable exotic worldʼ, all textiles enrobing bodies of the heavenly hosts harboured dynamic and flexible ontologies.
Applying a multidisciplinary approach that cross-fertilizes art history, Kleiderkunde (visual anthropology), archival studies, careful interpretation of data from recent advances in art technology and re-created historical artistic practices on art works, DRESS breaks new methodological ground by (1) highlighting the agency of the artist, as painter, sculptor and poet; and by (2) probing the interpretive potential from the unheeded descriptions of costumes worn by the saintsʼ ʻavatarsʼ in religious plays. The project is divided in three inter-connected work packages: "Beyond Allure: Dressing the Saints in Netherlandish Altarpieces, 1480-1530" (WP1), "Dressing the Other: The Black Magus in Netherlandish Art, 1480-1530" (WP2), "The Material Magdalene in the Early Modern Parish" (WP3), and a coda, "ʼAll that Arachneʼs Art Produces Fullyʼ: Netherlandish Poet-Painters on Textile Metaphors" (WP4).
The PhD will develop an independent research project, in the form of a PhD thesis, that aligns with the overarching aims of DRESS and we seek candidates who demonstrate strong interdisciplinary and creative thinking skills, with the ability to conceptualize and empirically ground a project that explores the research questions formulated for WP2. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the principal investigator, Associate Professor Ragnhild M. Bø to receive the full project description. Bø will also serve as the main supervisor for the PhD candidate.
The PhD will become part of DRESS' core team which includes PI Ragnhild M. Bø and a postdoc. The team benefit from an advisory board of internationally renowned scholars and will also be joined by a research assistant in its final year. The person appointed will be affiliated with the Faculty of Theology and the faculty's research training. The applicant therefore is much encouraged to engage in activities by the faculty's research groups, cf. Moreover, as Associate Professor Ragnhild M. Bø holds a position divided between the Faculty of Theology and the Museum of Cultural History, the appointed person will also have access to the museum's collections and research groups.
The appointment is a fulltime position for a duration of 3 years. The research fellow must take part in the Faculty's approved PhD program and is expected to complete the project within the set fellowship period. The main purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.
Residence in Oslo or within commuting distance from Oslo is expected during the appointment. Place of work is the Faculty of Theology at Blindern, Oslo.
Qualification requirements
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If there are qualified applicants with disabilities, employment gaps or immigrant background, we will invite at least one applicant from each of these categories to an interview.
We hope that you will apply for the position.
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Your application should include:
Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for the position".
When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language.
The best qualified candidates will be invited for interviews.
Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we cannot, you will hear from us.
Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian), Guidelines concerning appointment to post doctoral and research posts at UiO and Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo.
The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.