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At the Sources of the Anthropocene: Ecological Crisis and Technoscientific Progress in Francophone Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n This project examines the literary representation of the relationship between ecological crisis and technoscientific progress across a broad historical span, from the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution to the present day, in francophone literature.<\/p>\n Building on the historical framing of the Anthropocene by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz and Christophe Bonneuil, and drawing on the theoretical insights of Hans Jonas on responsibility, Ulrich Beck on risk, and Bruno Latour on modernity, the project aims to reconstruct a cultural history of literary representations of the nexus between technoscientific progress and the environment.<\/p>\n The field of inquiry is Francophone literature, approached through methodologies developed in ecopoetics. Particular attention will be given to the contrasting literary models of utopia and dystopia, articulated in both realist and speculative registers. Depending on the candidate\u2019s expertise, the research may either adopt a longue dur\u00e9e perspective or concentrate on a specific period or group of authors (e.g., realism, the historical avant-gardes, existentialism, contemporary ecological fiction). Special emphasis will also be placed on questions of environmental justice, especially the unequal distribution of benefits and harms and their entanglement with colonial and postcolonial histories.<\/p>\n By situating contemporary ecological debates within a long literary history, the project seeks to provide a historical and conceptual framework that is still lacking in environmental studies, while contributing to the development of intellectual tools for the defense of natural heritage.<\/p>\n This PhD position is part of the\u00a0Cultural Heritage Outreach in RomAnce Languages (CHORAL) programme, a Horizon Europe Marie Sk\u0142odowska Curie programme co-funded by the European Union. This prestigious programme is linked to UNITA’s Cultural Heritage Hub, an international research network within the Alliance, which structures its research ecosystem facing cultural related challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n Selected candidates will be enrolled in PhD programmes under joint supervision, awarding a\u00a0double degree<\/strong>\u00a0and requiring\u00a0international mobility<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n