Professor Annette Kern-Stähler aims to select a doctoral student (with an MA or equivalent degree) interested in pursuing a PhD in English Literature under her supervision in the Department of English at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The successful candidate will be attached to the research project ‘Becoming Axolotl: Empathy, Simulation, and Embodiment in Medieval Narratives’ funded within *MAPS (Multilateral Academic Projects) – a multilateral funding instrument with Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania, launched by the SNSF and implemented under the second Swiss Contribution, mandated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The PhD student will be working alongside Prof. Kern-Stähler, a postdoctoral researcher, two research teams based in Zagreb and Bucharest, and our international project partners.

Situated at the intersection of cognitive literary studies, affect studies, sensory studies, new materialism, and narratology, this project explores the role of medieval narratives in the simulation of cognitive, emotional, and sensorial experiences of radical others, both human and more-than-human (animals, plants, objects, spirits, gods, monsters). Considering a variety of encounters across and beyond medieval Europe (including Scandinavia, England, the Middle East, and the Byzantine and Mongol Empires), the three interlinked subprojects explore literature of a variety of genres from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries. The doctoral student will pursue a thesis project focusing on medieval English literature, simulation and empathy (text corpus to be discussed with the doctoral student).

More details can be found here: https://www.ens.unibe.ch/unibe/portal/fak_historisch/dsl/ens/content/e41030/e72711/e530231/e1694912/PhDjobad_6May2025_eng.pdf