Call for Applications: MITACS Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Regent Park Film Festival
Call for Applications: MITACS Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Regent Park Film Festival
Archive/Counter-Archive and The Regent Park Film Festival are pleased to announce a competition for a 1-year MITACs Accelerate Post-Doctoral Fellowship position hosted by York University and The Regent Park Film Festival.
Archive/Counter-Archive: Activating Canada’s Moving Images Heritage is a seven-year SSHRC Partnership Grant dedicated to researching and remediating audiovisual archives created by women, Indigenous Peoples, the LGBTQ2+ community and immigrant communities. Political, resistant, and community-based, counter-archives disrupt conventional narratives and enrich our histories. The project’s research is committed to finding solutions for safekeeping Canada’s audiovisual heritage. We seek to research and remediate audiovisual heritage that is most vulnerable to disappearance and inaccessibility, fostering a community and network dedicated to creating best practices and cultural policies.
The http://regentparkfilmfestival.com/ (RPFF) is a non-profit cultural and educational media arts organization. It is Toronto’s longest-running, free community film festival, and is the sole community film festival in Canada’s largest and oldest public housing neighbourhood. In addition to its annual festival in November, it offers year-round screenings, a School Program, workshops, and community events at no cost. RPFF is dedicated to showcasing local and international independent works relevant to people from all walks of life. The key communities it serves are Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, people with low-income, people who live in public housing, and Regent Park residents.
MITACs is a national, not-for-profit organization that builds partnerships between academia and industry. MITACs Post-Doctorial Fellowships bring academic expertise into a partner organization, working on a specific project related to your area of research. The successful candidate will be required to submit a MITACs proposal tobe expedited through the approval process with the support of the host institutions.
In this opportunity the candidate will coordinate the Regent Park Film Festival’s Regent Park Made Visible Project as well as engage in visual research on the historyof the Regent Park neighbourhood and its communities. Regent Park has undergone a revitalization process, changing rapidly from a low-income to a mixed-income neighbourhood accompanied by changes to community demographics and urban geographies. The successful candidate will coordinate a digital media arts project where artists will engage with visual source material (archival footage of Regent Park as well as narrative forms set in Regent Park) to respond and create original works (short films) for digital and in-person presentation at the 20th anniversary of the Regent Park Film Festival in 2022. The candidate’s own proposed project will engage in visual research both within and outside of institutional archives and will explore themes that are pertinent to Regent Park today: gentrification, immigration and belonging, community building, racial justice, housing and income security.
We invite applications from interdisciplinary scholars who have earned a doctorate in communications, media studies, public history, or archival and information studies and have expertise in such fields as Canadian immigration history, city studies, urban development, policy and community planning, and/or community archives. The position requires that the candidate has a familiarity with arts administration, strong skills and experience in visual archival research practices, project management skills, oral history/interview experience, online outreach/engagement experience, knowledge of various audiovisual formats, familiarity with film production and media arts resources and service providers in Toronto, and a general understanding ofcopyright clearance. Required skills include a strong understanding of anti-oppression, communication skills, managing project budgets, a collaborative working style particularly online, good time management, problem solving, organizational andrelationship management skills, and adaptability. Experience working in a community arts setting or in film festivals, and an understanding of Regent Park’s communities and context through work, study and/or lived experiences will be a strong asset.
This Post-Doc position will include opportunities to produce publications, participate in conference presentations and directly contribute to the Regent Park Made Visible project through organizing online and in-person screenings, artist talkback panels, and writing related materials. It is expected that the candidate will work remotely as well as divide their time between York University and the Regent Park Film Festival, and other spaces as the work dictates.
Funding
The MITACs Post-Doc will receive an annual salary of $45,000.00 (benefits inclusive), office space at both York University and TheRegent Park Film Festival, use of a computer and full access to York University Libraries. They will be supervised by Professor Desirée de Jesus, Department of Communication and Media Studies and will work closely with The Regent Park Film Festival staff spearheaded by Executive Director Angela Britto and Manager of Programming Aashna Thakkar. Please note that the MITACs Post-Doc is contingent on the selected candidate writing a successful proposal and clearing York University Research Ethics prior to the position start date.
Applications are due Friday November 5th, 2021, at 5:00PM EST.
Duration and Residency Requirement The Post-Doc position will begin in February 2022 and end January 31, 2023. The candidate will begin part-time with Regent Park Film Festival from November 29, 2021- January 31, 2022, prior to the start date of the postdoc position. Residency in Toronto is required.
How to apply
Applicants should forward a cover letter, a brief research statement (maximum 1 page), curriculum vitae, as well as the names and email contacts of three academic references in one PDF document to Dr. Sara Macdonald, Archive/Counter Archive Project Manager at admin@counterarchive.ca.
All correspondence should be addressed to:
Professor Desirée de Jesus
c/o Dr. Sara Macdonald, Project Manager
SSHRC Partnership Grant, Archive/Counter-Archive
YORK UNIVERSITY | 2001F Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Building
4700 Keele Street · Toronto ON · Canada · M3J 1P3
The York University welcomes applications from all qualified individuals, including individuals within the University’s employment equity categories of women, persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities and Indigenous persons, individuals of diverse gender and sexual orientation and all groups protected by the Human Rights Code. York University is committed to employment equity and diversity, and a positive and supportive environment.