Lecturer in Italian
Department of Italian
£28,829 - £36,959 pa

You will have a proven research and publication record or strong research potential in an area of Italian culture, literature, history, cinema or politics since 1250. 
Informal enquiries: [log in to unmask]
Closing date: 7 July 2006


Further Particulars: Lectureship in Italian  

The Post
The Department of Italian is seeking to recruit a new member of staff to the post of Lecturer to carry out research of national and/or international quality and develop innovative undergraduate and postgraduate modules in an area of Italian or Italophone culture, film studies, literature, history, or politics since 1250 designed to reinforce, complement or enhance its existing range of specialisms.

The Department of Italian
The Department has a strong record in research teaching, and curricular innovation. The Department was awarded a 5 in the 2001 RAE. In 1996 it was rated excellent in the Teaching Quality Assessment Exercise. With this appointment, the Department will comprise five full-time members of academic staff (including a Chair of Italian), two Language Tutors, and an Italian Government sponsored Lettore. A new RCUK Research Fellow in Italian and Classics will be appointed in the next academic year. Over the years, the Department has also appointed a number of Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellows, who combine preparation for a PhD with teaching experience; another Fellow is to be appointed shortly. The Department admits about 35 undergraduates a year who take Italian either as Single Honours or in combination with one of the following: European Literature, French, German, English, Film Studies, Theatre Studies, International Studies, and Classics. At graduate level members of the Department are currently involved in the supervision of 6 PhD students. With Birmingham University we run a joint Birmingham-Warwick taught MA in Italian Studies: Culture and Communication; a number of students graduating from the MA have gone on to study for a Phd. The two Departments also organize a highly successful cycle of talks and symposia. The Department regularly organizes international conferences; recent events, sponsored by external funding bodies, have been devoted to migration and writing in Italian culture, Italy and the Classical Tradition, and Nonsense literature.

Research interest within the Department extend from Dante to Italophone writing with particular strengths concentrated in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and in the 19th and 20th centuries. Research interests of individual members of staff are listed below:

Jenny Burns (MA, MSt, DPhil) Post-war narrative fiction, political and ethical issues in literature, immigrant writing, cinema.

Ann Hallamore Caesar (MA, PhD) the rise of the modern novel, 19th and 20th century narrative, Pirandello, literary modernism, women writers and readers.

Simon Gilson (BA, PhD) Dante, relations between literature and science, 15th and 16th century Florentine culture, Renaissance reception of Dante.

Loredana Polezzi  (Dott.Ling Lett., MA, PhD)  history of travel writing, colonial and post-colonial writing, translation studies, Italian as a foreign language. 

The University has shown in recent years its strong commitment to the development of Modern Languages by investing in new senior and junior appointments in French Studies, German Studies, Italian, and in Italian Studies and Classics, including a new RCUK Academic Fellow in Italian and Classics. The three Modern Language Departments (French Studies, German Studies, and Italian) have administrative autonomy within the Faculty of Arts, with issues of common interest being dealt with by the Modern Languages Committee, which is made up of representatives from the three Departments and the Language Centre. The Department's work is supported by a full-time Secretary and, as from the start of the next academic year, an Administrator shared between the three languages departments.

The University supports research with a normal study leave allowance of one term in every seven and encourages applications for additional research funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and other relevant bodies. Grant applications are very effectively supported by the University's Research Support Services and by a specialist Faculty Research Development Manager. Support for research (including pump priming, conference travel, etc.) is also offered through the Department and the Faculty's Humanities Research Centre.

The Faculty of Arts of which the Department of Italian is a member has a large postgraduate community which includes about 180 PhD students. The successful candidate will find that although his or her home is in the Department, there are many opportunities to meet with other staff and students through a range of activities including workshops, day schools, reading groups and conferences supported both by subject departments and the interdisciplinary research centres which exist both within the Faculty, such as the Humanities Research Centre, the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, or the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies and outside, such as the Centre for Research in Philosophy and Literature. The University Library which holds over 90.000 volumes and about 5.500 periodical and statistical series supports our postgraduate students through our specialist subject librarian. The ICT infrastructure at Warwick is well developed, with on-line access to other libraries, databases, and journals significantly augmenting library holdings. Plans are also currently being developed for a Transnational Resources Centre, designed to give undergraduates, graduates, and teaching and research staff access to a wide range of foreign-language digital media, notably DVD's and satellite television broadcasting. One of the University's greatest assets is the Arts Centre, the largest outside London, with a cinema, two theatres, art gallery and concert hall, restaurant and bookshop.

Pay Stucture:

In accordance with the national agenda in higher education to modernise pay and grading structures, the University of Warwick is currently undertaking a significant programme of change that will see the introduction of a new pay spine and single job evaluation scheme. It is anticipated that the results of the exercise will be implemented in the summer of 2006.  

Further Details:

Further information about the Department of Italian, and the research interests of staff, can be found on http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/Italian 

Full details of the post can be found at the following address:
http://secure.admin.warwick.ac.uk/webjobs/jobs/academic/job12604.html

For further information on the post and the new Warwick pay structure please contact Dr Loredana Polezzi ([log in to unmask])

Application forms can be found on line at:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/personnel/jobsintro/apply/procedure/
Forms can also be requested via e.mail by writing to [log in to unmask]
For a hard copy of the application pack please contact Personnel on 02476 523685.








Dr Jennifer Burns
Department of Italian
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL

Tel. 024 7657 3096