Department of Italian
Click here for a PD18 Form - Cover Sheet for Employment to Accompany CV
University Lectureship or Assistant Lectureship
in the Department of Italian
University of Cambridge
The Department of Italian intends to appoint a specialist in the field of Renaissance Italian literature. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to the teaching of the literature, culture, and history of the period at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including the supervision of PhD students. She or he should also be qualified to participate in the teaching of the Italian language. We would expect the successful candidate to have an outstanding record of research and/or publication.
It is hoped that the successful candidate will take up her or his duties on 1 October 2003 or as soon as possible thereafter.
The structure of posts at CambridgeThis post is being advertised at University Lecturer or University Assistant Lecturer level. Although the maximum tenure of an Assistant Lectureship is five years, an Assistant Lecturer is automatically considered for appointment to a University Lectureship in the course of this period, and such an appointment is the norm provided she or he has a satisfactory record in teaching, research and administration. University Lecturers may apply for promotion to the grade of Senior Lecturer, and both University and Senior Lecturers may apply for promotion to Readerships and Personal Professorships.
It should be noted that university posts in Cambridge are not tied to Fellowships in specific colleges. College affiliations are a matter for negotiation between the individual and colleges, once the University appointment has been made, and are not formally the concern of the Department or the Appointments Committee.
Modern Languages at CambridgeThe Department of Italian at Cambridge forms part of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, along with the Departments of French, German, Slavonic Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, Linguistics, and 'Other Languages' (Modern Greek, Dutch, and Medieval and Neo-Latin). The structure of the Faculty's degree course is such that there are no single or joint honours degrees in individual languages at Cambridge; all undergraduate linguists study for a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages, spanning at least two language areas. All languages taught in the Faculty, with the exception of French, may be studied ab initio.
The Cambridge MML degree is organised into end-of-year examinations known as Tripos examinations. There are three of these. Part 1A is taken at the end of students' first year, Part IB, at the end of their second, and Part II, at the end of their fourth year, after a third year spent working or studying abroad.
At Part IA, all students study two languages, and cover a number of literary, cultural and philological topics in each language area. This pattern continues at IB, though from this point in the course, students may, if they wish, begin to specialise in one language area rather than the other (with the proviso that languages taken ab initio must be continued at least to Part IB). At Part II in particular, students have considerable freedom to construct a course of their own devising, choosing from a very wide range of literary, cultural and linguistic papers, including comparative papers and papers 'borrowed' from other Faculties such as History, Social and Political Sciences, and English. The Tripos system also allows students to change subjects and so to put together the equivalent of a joint degree sequentially, by, for example, transferring from Modern Languages after Part IB to another Tripos such as Part II History of Art.
At postgraduate level, the Faculty offers two taught one-year Masters (MPhil) courses, in Linguistics and in European Literature. Discussions are being held at present to reform and further enhance the Faculty's MPhil provision. The MPhil in European Literature, comprising a core course in modern critical theory and a series of optional modules in comparative and individual language areas, currently attracts c. 30-35 students per year. In addition, there are around 90 PhD students currently engaged in doctoral research in the Faculty.
The Faculty is located on the main Humanities teaching site on Sidgwick Avenue. It has excellent facilities, including a well-stocked and friendly Faculty Library and a recently installed Computer-Assisted Language Learning Facility. Undergraduates are also able to take advantage of the extensive language learning facilities offered by the University's Language Centre.
The Department of ItalianThe Cambridge Department of Italian is currently made up of:
- Prof. Zyg Baranski, Serena Professor and Head of Department. Research interests: Dante, medieval and modern Italian literature, film.
- Dr Pierpaolo Antonello, University Lecturer. Research interests: twentieth-century Italian writing; literary modernism, Futurism and the Avant-Garde; literature and science; Calvino.
- Prof. Patrick Boyde, Emeritus Professor. Research interests: medieval and Renaissance literature and art with special reference to Dante, rhetoric, scholasticism, Michelangelo, narrative painting and sculpture.
- Dr Abigail Brundin, Affiliated Lecturer. Research interests: Vittoria Colonna; sixteenth-century Petrarchisti; the Italian Reformists; contemporary women's writing; concepts of the sacred in modern Italian fiction.
- Dr Virginia Cox, Senior Lecturer. Research interests: late Renaissance literature; the position of women in Venetian culture; history of rhetoric in Italy, thirteenth-sixteenth centuries.
- Dr Robert Gordon, Senior Lecturer. Research interests: twentieth-century Italian literature and cinema: Holocaust writing, relations between literature and cinema, avant-garde culture.
- Prof. Robin Kirkpatrick, Personal Professor. Research interests: Dante; the relations between English and Italian literature from 1400 to 1600.
- Dr Adam Ledgeway, University Lecturer. Research interests: generative syntax (especially Minimalism); morphosyntactic change; the history and structure of the Romance languages, in particular Italian and the dialects of Italy.
- Dr Gabriele Natali, Senior Language Teaching Officer. Dr Natali teaches and oversees the language teaching programme, with the collaboration of other native-speaker language tutors.
The post being advertised will fill the vacancy left by Dr Cox's departure to take up a Professorship of Italian at New York University.
Further details of colleagues' research interests may be found on our web-site (/italian/) .
The Department has an outstanding record of research excellence, which was confirmed in the latest Research Assessment Exercise, in which the Department was awarded the top rating of 5*. In the recent Teaching Quality Assessment exercise, assessed on a Faculty rather than a Departmental basis, the Cambridge MML Faculty was awarded a score of 22 points out of a possible 24.
The number of undergraduates studying Italian at Parts IA and IB is generally 40-50 per year, with the majority taking the language ab initio. The number taking a majority of Italian papers at Part II is usually c. 20-25. At postgraduate level, the Department attracts a substantial number of PhD students (we currently have 11, at various stages of their research). In addition, around 3-5 students a year on the Faculty's MPhil in European Literature choose Italian optional modules. The Department is currently planning to introduce specific Italian pathways into the MPhils in European Literature and in Linguistics, which would allow students to specialize in one of the following areas: Italian literature, Italian linguistics, and Italian Cinema.
TeachingThe teaching year in Cambridge is made up of three eight-week terms. Lecturers are normally expected to offer two hours per week of lectures and/or seminars on literary and cultural topics. The successful candidate will be asked to contribute to the teaching and examining in the Renaissance areas across a number of papers:
Part IB: Texts and Contexts (for second-year students) - designed to introduce students to the exercise of examining texts within their historical contexts. Texts are selected from the medieval, Renaissance, and modern periods with a view to variety (literary and non-literary texts, visual arts, and film) and historical importance.
Part IB and Part II: Florentine Culture from 1321-1500 (for second and fourth-year students) - this paper covers a wide range of late medieval and Renaissance authors, including Alberti, Poliziano, and Lorenzo dei Medici.
Part II: Italian Culture, 1500-1600 (for fourth-year students) - this paper covers a wide range of sixteenth-century literature, including Ariosto, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Tasso, and pastoral drama and comedy.
The successful candidate may also be asked to contribute to other undergraduate papers (for further details, please see the Departmental website). S/he will be expected to contribute to graduate teaching and examining, both at MPhil and at PhD level.
All members of the Department participate in the teaching and examining of the Italian language. The Department offers a progressive language course taught in a number of weekly university classes over the three years students spend in residence. The successful candidate will be invited to collaborate in Part IB teaching by offering either a weekly translation class in which students are taught to translate passages from Italian texts from 1500 to the present day, or a weekly 'Use of Italian' class which is taught through the medium of Italian and is designed to extend students' knowledge of Italian through a variety of exercises. There are between twelve and fifteen students per class.
ResearchThe primary duty of a University Officer, as laid down by statute, is to 'devote himself or herself to the advancement of knowledge', and the Department of Italian, while expecting a great deal of its members, also supports them in research. Sabbatical leave of one term in seven is an entitlement. Research funds are made available by the University (and some Colleges), and a close relation is fostered between teaching and research. Cambridge has excellent library facilities, both at College and University level, including the University Library, which is a UK copyright library and one of the finest research libraries in the world. The Department has a lively graduate research seminar and runs a distinguished Renaissance research seminar. There are numerous possibilities for collaboration with other Departments in the Faculty and with other Faculties across the University. An interdisciplinary research centre in the humanities has recently been established. Visits to the Faculty from scholars from elsewhere in the world make it a centre of intellectual exchange and a stimulating research environment.
ApplicationsApplications (twelve copies), including a detailed curriculum vitae, the names of two referees, a full list of publications, and a completed University PD18 form should be sent to the Secretary of the Italian Department, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, so as to arrive not later than 17 February 2003. Candidates are asked to request their referees to write directly by the same date. Candidates may also be asked to submit recent examples of their work for consideration by the Committee, or, in the case of work that has been published, to draw the Committee's attention to items of special relevance to their application. They will also be asked to give a short presentation prior to interview. Presentations and interviews will take place on 3-4 March 2003.
The Department provides mentors to young appointees to assist them in adapting to the requirements of their post. The University of Cambridge is committed to a policy and practice which require that entry into employment with the University and progression within employment be determined only by professional merit and by the application of criteria which are related to the duties of each particular applicant and the relevant stipend or salary structure. No applicant for an appointment in the University, or member of staff once appointed, will be treated less favourably than another on the grounds of sex, marital status, race, ethnic or national origin, colour, or disability. If any employee considers that she or he is suffering from unequal treatment on grounds of sex, marital status, race, ethnic or national origin, colour, or disability, she or he may make a complaint which will be dealt with through the agreed procedures for dealing with grievances.
Candidates are welcome to seek further information by contacting Professor Zyg Baranski, the Head of Department, on 01223-762263 or on 01223-335046, or by e-mail at: zgb20@cam.ac.uk.
