Job: PhD candidate in ethnomusicology, SNF Project "The musical world of fairgrounds in Switzerland"

Call for two positions: A PhD candidate in ethnomusicology or musicology (4 years, 100%), Music Department of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Application deadline: 24 May 2024

Starting date: 1 September 2024

The successful PhD candidate will conduct research within the Starting Grant project ‘The musical world of fairgrounds in Switzerland, 19th-21st c.’ funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and headed by Prof. Anna Stoll Knecht (PI). 

Fairgrounds, such as the Basler Herbstmesse or the Knabenschiessen in Zurich, constitute a fundamental aspect of the history of popular culture in Switzerland and are to be valued and preserved, being recognized as living traditions belonging to our national cultural heritage by the Federal Office for Culture. Music has always been an integral part of the fairground experience, whether as live performances, or, since the 1830s, through the medium of mechanical instruments. This indissociable sonic aspect, which accompanies most forms of performances, attractions and fairground rides, is nearly completely overlooked in scholarly attempts to write the histories of fairground and showpeople culture. Yet musical instruments appear as one of its most endangered features, since old rides and instruments tend to be discarded to make space for new materials, because fairgrounds constantly evolve to fit new popular trends.

The proposed project addresses the urgency of this state-of-affairs, aiming at reconstructing musical practices in Swiss fairgrounds between 1830 and 1950. This aim will be reached in two phases: first, exploring musical practices and their social contexts, including a focus on mechanical instruments as material objects in their sonic, visual and technological dimensions; second, situate these practices into the historical context of popular theater in Switzerland by selecting specific fairgrounds as case studies, finally leading to an incursion into the impact of the world of fairgrounds on the arts in the 19th- and 20th- centuries, particularly in music and cinema.

Tasks

The PhD student in musicology or ethnomusicology (100% for 4 years), co-supervised by an ethnomusicologist (or ethnologist), will conduct interviews with showpeople in Switzerland with the PI, and write a PhD dissertation on any aspect of the fairground world in Switzerland, along with several conference papers that could then be worked out as dissertation chapters.
Applications should be in English or in French and include a motivation letter, CV, degree certificate, contact detail of two references, and a sample writing (in English or French), by 24 May 2024, at anna.stoll-knecht[at]unifr.ch
Interviews will be held preferably in presence (online if necessary) between 11-14 June 2024.
Contact: Prof. Anna Stoll Knecht