Dear All,

the call for a 24-month post-doctoral fellowship at the Università degli Studi dell’Aquila has just been published, within the project ‘HUMAns in Nature. New Insights into Late Ancient Latin Texts in light of an Ecocritical Approach’ (PRIN 2022–PNRR, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research).

The project has the broad aim to apply an ecocritical approach to Late ancient Latin texts, viewed as repositories of ‘ecological’ views that can be ‘dug out’ and displayed, in order to have them interact with contemporary debate on the ‘ecological crisis’.

The project involves two research–units, based in Milan (P.F. Moretti) and L’Aquila (S. Filosini).

The successful applicant will dwell on some representatives of Latin Christian poetry, narrating the creation of the world and commenting on it: namely, Old Testament Bibeldichtung, in particular, the poetic paraphrases of Genesis. The selected texts will be investigated in depth, with a peculiar focus on the discursive constructions of nature surfacing in them: as a matter of fact, an in–depth analysis of their language, literary stylization, contents might shed light on the poetic declination of Christian ecological views (the human-nature relationship, with regard to the position of human beings in relation to the non-humans; the exploitation of ‘natural’ resources; the connection between culture and the natural world), and on the peculiarities that such views assume in different historical-religious milieux, as the biblical hypotext interacts with its (prose) exegetical tradition and with the classical cultural lore.

A PhD in Classics is required to apply.

The deadline for the submission of applications is December 14, 2023, 11:59pm (Italian time). To read the call, visit the following website:http://www.univaq.it/section.php?id=766

All those who possess the due requirements are warmly encouraged to apply. In case you have any question, feel free to contact either Stefania (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Paola (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Best regards,

Stefania Filosini and Paola F. Moretti