Brown University invites applications for a two-year Postdoctoral Research Associate position in Data Curation for African Studies beginning on September 1, 2025.

The African Poetry Book Fund promotes and advances the development and publication of the poetic arts through its book series, contests, workshops, and seminars and through its collaborations with publishers, festivals, booking agents, colleges, universities, conferences and all other entities that share an interest in the poetic arts of Africa. We are committed to seeking the resources to support this mission and to ensure that all its efforts are carried out with excellence.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate would work closely with the project team developing the African Poetry Digital Portal Project, led by Kwame Dawes, Professor of Literary Arts and Principal Investigator of the project, and Lorna Dawes, Exploration and Research Librarian and co-Principal Investigator on the project, as well as the staff at the Center for Digital Scholarship at Brown University. The project documents the work of African poets and provides equitable digital access to the related creative and intellectual artifacts, materials, and research on the subject of African Poetry that is housed in academic and cultural institutions in Africa and its diaspora in order to, among other things, create accessible ways to engender an informed, culturally diverse, civically engaged, and responsible society.

We seek a scholar with digital humanities research skills in Africana Studies. The ideal candidate will have research relevant to the areas of African poetry, data curation, and African digital humanities.

This position fosters the academic careers of scholars who have recently received their PhD degrees by permitting them to pursue research while gaining mentored experience as scholars in African digital humanities. 

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will contribute to the project by collaborating with the team to make metadata decisions specific to the African documents the project curates. These decisions include developing a suitable metadata schema that would best accommodate the variety of languages and item formats encountered in the project’s database, creating the requirements for the metadata sharing infrastructure, and serving as an expert in data curation for the growing nascent field of African Digital Humanities. Knowledge of at least one of the following major languages would be helpful: Yoruba, Swahili, Khosa, French, Arabic, and/or Afrikaans.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will also teach one course per year in the Africana Studies Department.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will be part of a stimulating scholarly environment in which they may pursue research, develop new interdisciplinary connections, and network with others. The Center for Digital Scholarship places a high priority on research excellence, high-quality teaching, and a commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic community.

Key Responsibilities

•Collaborate with the team to develop a suitable metadata schema for African poetry and poetics documents, accommodating various languages and item formats.

•Create requirements for the metadata sharing infrastructure.

•Assist in data visualization and presentation techniques.

•Assist in creating digital content management systems and research platforms.

•Serve as an expert in data curation for the growing field of African Digital Humanities.

•Contribute to research excellence in the areas of African poetry, data curation, and African digital humanities.

•Develop new interdisciplinary connections and network with scholars in the field.

•Engage in collaborative projects within the Center for Digital Scholarship.

•Teach one course per year in Africana Studies.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience

•This position is for scholars who have completed a PhD within the last three years. ABD candidates welcome to apply, as long as they will have completed all degree requirements by September 1, 2025.

•Research skills in African Poetry and Poetics, Postcolonial Poetry, and Literary Studies.

•Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research in the field of digital humanities.

•Proficiency in developing metadata schemas and data curation practices.

•Experience in collaborative research projects.

•Strong communication skills for effective collaboration and networking.

•Experience working with digital content management systems and research platforms.

•Experience or interest in interdisciplinary research and fostering diverse academic communities.

Preferred Experience and Skills

•Familiarity with African Languages.

•Experience with African Digital Humanities with a focus on African Literature.

•Experienced in digital humanities research, digital humanities tools, and the creation of metadata.

•Experience with leading a research team and/or managing student workers.

•Experience working with Omeka S.

•Experience with or willingness to work with US and international collaborators, stakeholders, and community members, including students, librarians, university staff and faculty, publishers, authors, arts administrators, and other professionals.

Application Instructions

Apply - Interfolio

Submit a cover letter, CV, and scholarly writing sample.

Recommendation letters or references will be solicited if an application proceeds to a later stage in the review process.

Brown University seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce to maintain the excellence of the University, and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, viewpoints, and ways of knowing and learning.