Typically the Center for Cultural Analysis will sponsor five fellowships for Rutgers faculty, five fellowships for Rutgers graduate students, and two Postdoctoral Associate positions for external scholars. All seminar participants will have access to the CCA’s resources and will be expected to participate in and to present their work during CCA seminars, which meet regularly throughout the academic year.

 

Theme for 2023-25: Sound Studies

CCA will explore aspects of Sound Studies over two consecutive years of sponsored seminars and related programming. In 2023-24 the theme will be “Voice: Sound, Technology, and Performance,” while in 2024-25 the focus shifts to “Resonance: Sound among the Disciplines.”

Sound Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field that has drawn from musicology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, media studies, anthropology, gender studies, literary and cultural studies, ethnic and indigenous studies, religion, animal studies, classics, and philosophy. It has been especially hospitable to Black scholars and performers with expertise in orature and other vocal traditions.

The 2024-2025 seminar, “Resonance: Sound Across the Disciplines,” chaired by Carter Mathes (English and RAICCS) and Xiaojue Wang (ALC and Comp Lit) will build on the 2023-2024 seminar, "Voice Sound, Technology, Performance," by inviting scholars, artists, writers, and activists to consider how resonance might be understood as an imagined immateriality, an aural effect in the sonic field that, try as it might, cannot escape its materialization in bodily, architectural, environmental, and cultural concerns. In this context, we might wonder, for instance, about the discrete registers of sound obtaining to voice(s) raised and heard within natural and built soundscapes. How might resonance inflect the ways we interact with and understand our environments, our sense of place and belonging, as well as our communication with others? In what ways might echo, timbre, or pitch conjure personal or cultural memory? How do our environments, our bodies, our objects of fixation resonate with sonority, noise, and semantic meaning? Together we will explore how sound, as a concept, an object, an experience, resonates across the arts, sciences, writing, music, architecture, political life, and technology.

Reflecting on these questions, the seminar will meet biweekly during the semester to discuss emerging trends in the field as well as each member’s work-in-progress. Leading artists and scholars will join us periodically to enrich and broaden our considerations of the voice, its histories and futures. 

2023-24 Seminar - Voice: Sound, Technology, Performance
Directed by: Andrew Parker and Maurice Wallace

2024-25 Seminar - Resonance: Sound across the Disciplines
Directed by Xiaojue Wang and Carter Mathes

Priority will be given to applicants whose work engages with both years’ themes.

  

FACULTY FELLOWSHIPS

Faculty members may apply for a fellowship in connection with the annual theme.  The CCA will grant up to five faculty fellowships awarded in connection with the seminar, in the form of a course-release in either the Fall or Spring semester (course-releases are supported by funding for instructional replacement arranged through the Fellow’s department and paid by CCA, generally at the amount of $5000).  Faculty who will hold other fellowships (NEH, Guggenheim, sabbatical, etc.) are not eligible to receive funded fellowships from the CCA, but faculty who will be on fellowship or sabbatical may apply to be appointed as unfunded fellows. Applications from regular, full-time faculty members should be submitted for approval to their department chairs, who will in turn forward completed applications to the CCA.  Department chairs must indicate their willingness to accept the terms of support for a course release. Chairs may support more than one application. 

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS

Five graduate student fellowships will be awarded by the CCA to students who are in the process of writing their dissertations (i.e. coursework has been completed).  Graduate Fellowships grant $25,000 and tuition remission for up to 3 research credits per semester for the year. Graduate Fellows will be expected to attend all events related to the main seminar and to participate actively in the public functions of the CCA. Graduate Fellows may not hold any other teaching positions, long-term fellowships, or administrative appointments during their CCA year.  However, students who will hold other year-long fellowships may apply to be appointed as unfunded Fellows, provided their application clearly indicates the relevance of the seminar topic to their dissertation work.  Graduate Fellowships will ordinarily be awarded only to students who have received 5 or fewer years of funding from Rutgers University at the time of application.  Students who have already received 6 or more years of support may apply if the seminar theme is particularly suited to their dissertation projects, but they will require a waiver from SAS to take up the CCA Fellowship. 

Fellows will have access to the resources of the CCA and staff support, within the limits allowable by the CCA’s budget.  

CCA 2024-2025 Faculty and Graduate Fellowship Application

Completed applications for Faculty and Graduate Fellows must be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
by Wednesday, January 24, 2024 at 8PM.

 

POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATES

The Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University-New Brunswick seeks to appoint two external Postdoctoral Associates for a two-year-long residential fellowship during academic years 2023-25. Successful candidates may come from any relevant discipline. All requirements for the PhD or other terminal degree in the relevant field must be completed by August 1, 2023. A record of publication and scholarly engagement relevant to the seminar’s topic is required. Postdoctoral Associates will attend a bi-monthly research seminar, present their own work, and organize a symposium. CCA Postdoctoral Associates receive a salary of $60,000, health benefits, a private office, and administrative support. Fellows normally teach 1 undergraduate course each fellowship year. Since the CCA Postdoctoral Associate position is considered a residential appointment, candidates must agree to establish residency within a forty-mile radius of the New Brunswick campus during the academic year.

Please refer to the job posting https://jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/183057. Submissions should include a cover letter, CV, 250-400 word abstract of your research project, a research statement (no more than 4 single-spaced pages), and a brief description of an undergraduate course you would like to teach. Three confidential letters of recommendation must be uploaded by your referees.

Postdoctoral Positions for 2024-2025 are currently filled.
Please direct all inquiries about this search to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..