Smuts Research Fellowship in African Studies
The Centre of African Studies invites applications for the Smuts Research Fellowship in African Studies, from candidates at the postdoctoral level in all disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. Ideally applicants will have gained a PhD (or equivalent) within the last five years or will have gained a PhD by the time of the appointment. Candidates should have excellent research ability in a field which fits with the interdisciplinary ethos of the Centre. The appointment will be from 1 October 2012 for a period of three years, and is non-renewable.
The Smuts Research Fellow will be expected to carry out an approved programme of research relating to Africa, to participate in the life of the Centre, and to contribute a small amount of teaching for the MPhil in African Studies. The precise nature of the teaching contribution is open to discussion, but we would require the Fellow to be present and available to teach in either Michaelmas or Lent term each year.
The Fellow will also be involved in organising the Centre’s seminar programme and colloquia, and to take part (where appropriate) in the Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme which each year brings a group of African scholars to Cambridge for a period of six months.
The full text of the advertisement can be found here (link opens a .pdf document).
(HT: Ami V. Shah.)
Facebook and Signalling: Are There Negative Consequences to not Being on Facebook?
From a letter to the editor published in last Saturday’s New York Times:
[O]ne big concern I have not seen discussed is whether not having a Facebook page is a liability.
An acquaintance recently told me that his church had hired a new minister. The final decision on which of two excellent candidates to hire came down to their Facebook pages. Presumably, candidates without Facebook pages didn’t get a second look.
Are we at the point where low Internet presence equals low job prospects?
We’ve all heard theories according to which Facebook is an enabler of narcissism, but this raises an interesting point regarding Facebook’s signalling potential.