Vacancy: Postdoctoral position in Modern Danish Literary history (DK)
The Center of Excellence TRANSITION – Changing Urban and Rural Lives at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, invites applications for a postdoctoral position in literature, with a particular focus on the center’s thematic focus Lifespans. The position is a 30-month full-time appointment starting 1 February 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. The deadline for applications is 3 November 2025.
TRANSITION – Center for Changing Urban and Rural Lives is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation for up to 10 years. It is hosted by the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics (NorS) at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the National Museum of Denmark. The center investigates how the profound rural–urban transitions of the 20th and 21st centuries shaped people’s lived experiences, identities, and cultural imaginaries. It combines sociolinguistic, literary, and historical scholarship, drawing on unique archives such as the Dialect Archive, the LANCHART corpus, the National Museum’s ethnological collections, and Danish literary history.
The successful candidate will develop and conduct an independent research project aligned with TRANSITION’s research agenda, focusing on Lifespans, tracing individuals’ experiences of transitions across time and space.
The right candidate has documented experiences within the fields of Danish and/or Nordic literature between 1870 and 1945, preferably with a focus on life-story narratives and narratives of urban-rural change.
The postdoc is expected to work with Danish literary texts from the period 1870–1945 as sources for exploring experiences of urban–rural transition, with particular attention to how literary narratives reflect and negotiate cultural memory and collective identities. The proposed project may also consider the use of digital archives of Danish and Nordic literature, such as the MeMo corpus. The project plan should demonstrate how the applicant’s expertise in literary history and theory can contribute to TRANSITION’s interdisciplinary agenda.
Read more about the position and how to apply here: Københavns universitet