University of Essex - JOB DESCRIPTION – Job ref RE692

Working at The University of Essex

Benefits

The Project

The AHRC-funded 3-year research project Meeting Margins: Transnational Art in Europe & Latin America 1950-1978 proposes a new approach to the study of art from Latin America that questions the role traditionally ascribed to New York as the dominant force in modern art in the post-war years.  The successful applicant for the post of Research Officer will be based in the Department of Art History and Theory at Essex and will investigate relations between Latin American art and Europe, and intra-Latin American exchanges during the period 1950-1978.  It is anticipated that the main focus of his/her research will be the role of particular publications, biennials and colloquia in forging transnational connections within the Latin American region; the grant includes funding for research travel to Latin America.  He/she will also work closely with the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art, and there may be opportunities for teaching in the Art History Department at Essex.  The post-holder will participate in meetings and workshops both at Essex and TrAIN, and in the final conference, and will contribute to the resulting publication.

Meeting Margins is a collaborative research project between the University of Essex (Department of Art History) and the University of the Arts London (TrAIN Research Centre), under the direction of Professor Valerie Fraser at Essex, and with Co-Investigator Dr Michael Asbury, and Research Officer Dr Isobel Whitelegg at TrAIN. Focusing on artistic encounters between Europe and Latin America, as well as on intra-Latin American exchanges, the project will explore contacts between individual artists and critics, and the movements, groups and institutions as well as the wider geopolitical and cultural contexts that supported and provoked them.  This in turn will allow for a review of the forms of artistic practice that these transnational exchanges generated.  The decision made by artists from Latin America to continue to favour Paris over New York was in part based upon a long-standing tradition of transatlantic intellectual exchange. Via internationalist movements this tradition remained active in Latin America and Europe during and after WW2. Later, repressive regimes such as those in Brazil in the 1960s and Argentina in the 1970s forced artists into exile, some to other countries within Latin America and some to Europe, where the politicized milieu of cities such as London and Paris proved both attractive and sympathetic. Repressive governments also provoked collaboration between artists remaining in Latin America, with relatively stable institutions becoming urgent foci for exhibitions and meetings, allowing new allegiances to be formed, and for debates to be conducted concerning the particularity of a Latin American avant-garde and its restricted possibilities for action.

Transnational exchanges were also supported by the movement of artworks during this period. Large scale international exhibitions played an important role in bringing artists and writers into close contact and collaboration, but this role was not unchanging; the most prominent amongst these, the Bienal Internacional in São Paulo (founded 1951) was at first considered an exemplary modernist achievement but was to become an international focus for boycott, protest and intervention under Brazil's military rule. In addition to exhibitions, the circulation of ideas by post, from post-war journals to conceptual art works, supported transatlantic and intra-Latin American networks and became vital to sustaining these connections under constrained circumstances.

Focusing on case studies from the period 1950-78, the research questions that this project will address include: What particular contribution did artists from Latin America make to avant-garde activity in Europe after the perceived ascendance of New York over Paris? How did exchanges between Latin America and Europe relate to contemporaneous intra-Latin American exchanges? What role did the US play in provoking or supporting such connections and how did this role shift according to political circumstances?  What methods and media were used to sustain these connections? Which countries, artists or practices might have been excluded from such an approach?

The project will include an international graduate research forum at the University of Texas at Austin (2009) and a public conference in the UK (2010). Following the conference, research from the project will be published as a volume of essays, with contributions from Europe, Latin America and the USA, edited by Michael Asbury, Valerie Fraser and Isobel Whitelegg.

The Department of Art History and Theory

The Department of Art History and Theory has a strong research culture (see http://www2.essex.ac.uk/arthistory/research/research_in_the_department.asp for further details) and an enviable track record for major research grants.  Recent AHRC-funded projects include Concepts of Self in the Theory and Practice of Architecture and Town-Planning since 1945, directed by Professor Jules Lubbock; Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies, directed by Professor Dawn Ades, and The Moral Nature of the Image in the Renaissance directed by the late Professor Puttfarken.  Professor Margaret Iversen is currently working on a project entitled Aesthetics after Photography in collaboration with the University of Warwick.  Professor Valerie Fraser recently completed a one-year speculative research project, also funded by the AHRC, Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art and the UK:  history, historiography, specificity, which provided the groundwork for the present project.  She has previously received other AHRC awards for research relating to Latin American Art including a 3-year Resource Enhancement Grant to develop an online catalogue of the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art, UECLAA OnLine (www.ueclaa.org.uk)

General Information

Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Valerie Fraser (tel: (44) (0) 1206873004, email: [email protected]).  However, applications must be made online.

Working at the University of Essex

The University of Essex is a top-ranking research intensive institution, which prides itself on its accessibility to students with a range of different qualifications and backgrounds.  It is the UK’s most internationally diverse campus university, with students and staff from some 130 different countries.

Its three campuses, in Colchester, Southend and Loughton, provide choice, flexibility and support to students in a safe and friendly environment. The University is committed to being environmentally responsible.

The University of Essex – a profile

The University of Essex was founded in 1964 when it opened its doors to a cohort of just 122 students. Since then, the University has grown in both reputation and size. There are now more than 8,000 students studying at three campuses - in Colchester, Southend and Loughton (East 15 Acting School) – and 18 academic departments. The University employs more than 2000 members of staff and is worth over £200 million to the local economy.

Since its inception the University has prided itself as a research intensive institution. In the UK’s most recent research assessment exercise Essex was ranked tenth, out of 136 institutions, for the quality of its research, with many departments rated as outstanding by international standards.

In 2008 Essex was ranked 25th out of 113 universities in The Good University Guide. Despite its high rankings, the University remains accessible to all students. The University has a long tradition of admitting students, including mature students and those from non-traditional backgrounds, who do not have standard entry qualifications but who will make good use of the opportunity to study for a degree.

Students at Essex enjoy a flexible degree structure which allows them to try new subjects during their first year, change degree choice at the end of the first year and take a number of optional courses.  Resources and facilities include the Albert Sloman Library which holds more than a million books, pamphlets, e-publications and microforms, the myEssex web portal, open access computer laboratories as well as network connections in all student study bedrooms, the 1000-seat Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall, and specially equipped dance and drama studios. The University’s outstanding Latin American art collection has recently received national accreditation.

Essex offers three friendly campus environments. The Colchester Campus, Essex’s largest and original site, is set in 200 acres of parkland. It incorporates teaching buildings, shops, banks, a gallery and theatre, bars and cafes, and sufficient student accommodation to house over half of its student population. In 2007 the University won an award under the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme for its continued investment into energy efficiency.

In 2000, when East 15 Acting School merged with the University, Essex gained a second campus in Loughton which is just five minutes from London Underground’s Central Line. The University’s newest campus, on Southend’s bustling High Street, opened in 2007 and houses three academic departments.

Essex has been ranked fifth in a national league table rating the quality of life at UK universities. The league table – which places Essex above Oxford and Cambridge – incorporated factors including house prices, crime rates, traffic congestion and schools in the area, as well as average academic salaries and the proportion of staff on permanent contracts.

Retirement

The University of Essex operates two normal retirement ages of 65 for Grades 1 to 6, and 30th September following the 67 birthday for Grades 7 to 11. It is normal policy to only accept job applications from new applicants up to the age of 64 years and 6 months for Grades 1 to 6 at the date of application, and 66 years and 6 months for Grades 7 to 11.  This policy is in line with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.

No Smoking Policy

The University is committed to a No Smoking policy.

November  2008