[Job Vacancy] PhD studentship

Job Opportunities

Department: LW22 – Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent University, Belgium

Degree: a (European) master’s degree relevant for the research project (e.g. languages, literature, translation, cultural studies)

Application deadline: June 30, 2024.
Start of the Ph.D. research: September-October 2024

Job description

This vacancy concerns a full-time PhD project to be conducted at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University, Belgium. This PhD research forms part of a larger project focusing on translations and paratexts. Specifically, the successful candidate will be studying paratextual representations of translators within francophone literatures. The main research objective is to explore how translators are represented, both by themselves and by other stakeholders, including authors, editors and critics, both in peritexts (e.g. forewords and afterwords in books) and in epitexts (e.g. reviews, interviews, websites, etc.). The central research question is how translators construct, combine and/or are assigned multiple roles and identities across several types of discourse? The research will predominantly concentrate on the modern period (19th century – the present day), with French featuring as either source or target language. Within this linguistic-temporal framework, there is considerable flexibility regarding the choice of authors, translators, and texts to be analysed. Also, if you will be studying a contemporary body of works, the scope of the research may include interviews with authors, translators, publishers and other literary agents.

Your research will be embedded in the activities of the TRACE-CLIV research group. The team is mainly based in Ghent and works in close collaboration with other research groups, both inside and outside of Ghent University (CCROC, CERES, CETRA, TRICS, CIRTI). While the research of its members covers a wide range of topics, it is usually situated on the intersection of literary studies and translation studies.

Your job responsibilities:

  • Within a timespan of four years, you will write a PhD dissertation dealing with paratextual representations of translators in francophone literatures.
  • You will share and disseminate your ideas and interim research results through high-quality publications in scholarly journals or books, as well as through presentations at international conferences or workshops.
  • You are keen to contribute to initiatives aimed at sharing your research with a wider audience.
  • You are open to collaborating with other PhD students inside and outside Ghent University who work on parallel and complementary research projects.

In addition to your core research duties, you will actively contribute to the educational mission of our institution by providing (limited) support for courses within the field of (literary) translation studies. In addition, you will have the opportunity to take on a mentoring role by supervising master’s theses related to the subject of your PhD.

For more details, please visit: https://www.ugent.be/en/work/scientific/phd-student-45