- This post is open to internal staff members of the University of St Andrews only.
Applications are sought for a committed Post-doctoral Research Fellow to work with Dr Kristen Treen conducting research for a Leverhulme Trust funded project entitled ‘Remembering Refugees: Black Civil War Memory and Contemporary Commemoration’.
This project focuses on the experiences of Black refugees who fled slavery during the U.S. Civil War and sought refuge at federal camps across the states. The project team will explore the relevance of the term ‘refugee’ to the experiences of formerly enslaved people across the states, and the futures they sought to build for themselves during the war and afterwards. Asking how refugees’ mobility, refuge-taking, and acts of settlement shaped alternative commemorative approaches to the war, researchers on the project will uncover how these have been remembered, forgotten, or erased from public memory.
They will also work closely with public historians, design contractors, and community stakeholders at Camp Nelson National Monument, a major site of African American Civil War history and U.S. National Park Service site near Nicholasville, Kentucky. Camp Nelson constitutes one of the project’s key case studies, and the team’s research into this location will inform the redesign and redevelopment of the on-site museum, in collaboration with U.S. National Park Service staff and participants from the local community. This research will also shape publications on refugee experience and its commemoration, and on methodologies that might be applied in understanding cultures of refugee commemoration at other sites the team will examine during the project.
The primary duties will be to conduct and contribute research relating to the named project; support the planning and implementation of outreach activities relating to the named project; and produce publications and other forms of research dissemination.
The successful applicant will have (or be near to completion of) a PhD in English Literature or History with expertise in one or more of the following: nineteenth-century U.S. literature and/or history; the literature, history, and cultural legacies of the U.S. Civil War; nineteenth-century African American literature and/or history.
The post is available for 26 months months starting 15 June 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Employees of the University have access to a wide range of staff benefits including:
- Annual leave of 34 days, plus 5 public holidays
- Membership of the USS Pension Scheme with generous employer contributions
- A hybrid working environment, including partial homeworking where appropriate and a range of family friendly policies
- Staff discount scheme for local and national goods and services
- Free staff parking, employee Carshare and Cycle to Work Schemes and subsidised local bus travel
- Subsidised sports membership, reduced tuition fees on degree programmes for staff, access to training and development opportunities including LinkedIn Learning, access to library facilities, salary sacrifice scheme
Further details of the project can be found by contacting Dr Kristen Treen ([email protected]).
At St Andrews, equality, diversity, and inclusion are central to who we are and form a core pillar of our University Strategy. We are committed to creating a fair, inclusive and supportive workplace, reflected in our participation in national diversity charters and awards, including Athena Swan, Carer Positive and the Race Equality Charter.
We particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian, minority ethnic and minority religions
Closing date: 8 June 2026
Interview date: 23 June 2026
Ref: AR3293RS
Please email applications to [email protected], cc'd to Megan Kellingray, our research administrator, on [email protected], by the closing date of 8 June 2026 at 12 noon.
School of English
Salary: Grade 6 / £38,784-£42,254 pa
Start date: 15 June 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter
Full time
Fixed term: 26 months
