The Centre for Consciousness at ANU, of which I am director, recently advertised some post-doctoral and research fellowships. The text of the advertisement circulated in Jobs for Philosophers is as follows:
Australian National University
PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM, RESEARCH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCESPostdoctoral Fellow/Research Fellow Fixed-Term Level A/B
The Philosophy Program, Research School of Social Sciences, seeks to appoint one or more research-only Postdoctoral/Research Fellows (Level A/B). The fellows will be appointed in association with Professor David Chalmers' Federation Fellowship project on "The Contents of Consciousness", and/or in association with other projects in the Program in related areas. Candidates should hold a PhD in philosophy or a related discipline prior to appointment, and should specialize in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and/or epistemology. Appointment will be for up to three years. The Program will consider proposals to fill the positions by secondment, and particularly welcomes applications from women. Send applications (reference: CASS4400), preferably by e-mail (Word, rtf, or pdf format) to jobs@anu.edu.au, or by mail to: Applications Officer, Human Resources Division, Chancelry 10A, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. Full details are available at http://consc.net/fellows.html. Closing date: 30 November, 2007.
The "full details" mentioned above (mostly boilerplate from the university) are available at the ANU website along with information on how to apply.
Answers to other questions:
(1) It's not required that applicants work on issues concerning consciousness, or even in the philosophy of mind. The fellowship project concerns consciousness, intentionality, and their relations, quite broadly construed. Many issues in the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology are relevant here, and it would be good to have people from those areas involved. So we are casting a broad net. If in doubt, apply!
(2) Post-doctoral fellows will not be working "on the research project" in the sense of being directed to work on certain topics. In practice, fellows can work on whatever they like, subject only to the understanding that a substantial part of their work will be of some broad relevance to the project.
(3) One of the fellowships will be associated with an ARC project co-directed by Ned Block, Susanna Siegel, and me, on "The High-Level Structure of Consciousness". This project has a somewhat more specific focus than the Federation Fellowship project, and so the selection criteria for position are more strongly constrained, though there is still flexibility. Potential issues here include attention, conceptual content, the unity of consciousness, self-consciousness, and more.
(4) The starting date is fairly flexible, but most likely sometime in mid-2007. You're required to have PhD in hand by the start of the appointment.
(5) It is possible to hold this sort of fellowship while holding a position at another institution. A number of post-doctoral fellows appointed in the Centre have held such positions, including Tim Bayne (Macquarie), Berit Brogaard (Missouri), Andy Egan (Michigan), Fiona Macpherson (Glasgow), and Adam Pautz (Texas). (The Centre website has a full list of post-docs to date, plus other information.) Of course you will need permission from the other institution for this sort of arrangement. But the ANU end is fairly flexible. Appointment lengths of from one to three years are possible, and it may also be possible to break an appointment into periods of a year or so separated by time elsewhere. We aim to have two or three fellows present at any given time, over the five-year course of the main project, in addition to fellows associated with other ARC projects.
(6) The Centre for Consciousness is physically located in the same space as the Philosophy Program in RSSS at ANU, and in practice is entirely continuous with it. So the appointed fellows will take part in the extraordinarily active philosophical culture of the RSSS Philosophy Program.
(7) Although the regulations do not require it, it would be helpful
if applicants were to send writing samples and have a dossier of
recommendation letters sent, as is usual for job applications in
philosophy, at least if they have such a dossier readily available.
If not, then we will contact recommenders for shortlisted applicants.