If you are an early career researcher in literary studies focusing on its social and health dimensions with strong academic potential, you are invited to apply for this support programme to develop your proposal in close collaboration with a senior researcher from the Centre who will act as supervisor in your project.

About the Centre

The Centre for Uses of Literature employs theoretical, hermeneutical and empirical methods to study the social and health dimensions and uses of Nordic and Anglophone literature.

The Centre aspires to create synergy between hermeneutically and aesthetically oriented literary scholarship and empirically oriented scholarship. ‘Uses’ implies an orientation towards production, publication, circulation, adaptation, mediatization and reception of literature. We are interested in postcriticism, surface and midlevel reading, studies in (re)medialisation, and utilizing methods from social and health science such as interviews, observations, surveys and statistics.

The Centre’s members have specializations in:

• Narrative medicine, medical humanities
• Literary gerontology, ageing studies
• Class, precarity, welfare state, work, space/place
• Gender, masculinity, motherhood, feminization of work
• Climate fiction, environmental humanities, narrative and climate emotions, citizen science
• The concept of the author, biographical genres
• Reading, genre and temporality

Your project idea must fall within the research areas of the Centre. In your letter of interest, you must clearly explain how your proposed supervisor’s expertise is essential for your project; how the fellowship will help your skill and career development; and how the collaboration between you, the supervisor, and the Centre’s research environment will create a mutual transfer of knowledge.

About the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships

The MSCA-PF is one of the most prestigious schemes of the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Research & Innovation programme. It aims at enhancing the potential and career development of researchers in Europe through funding of excellent and ambitious projects, international mobility and advanced training. The grants cover the fellow’s salary, a mobility allowance, research costs and overhead for the host institution.

There are two types of postdoctoral grants:

• European Postdoctoral Fellowships for researchers of any nationality, coming from any country in the world, applying with University of Southern Denmark as host institution. Secondments in other research or industrial organisations are possible. The standard duration is 12 to 24 months.
• Global Postdoctoral Fellowships for European nationals or long-term residents applying with University of Southern Denmark as host institution, but with an outgoing phase of minimum 12 and maximum 24 months at an institution outside EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries, and a mandatory 12-month return phase to the University of Southern Denmark.

Eligibility criteria

• The applicant must have successfully defended their doctoral thesis before the call deadline in September 2026.
• Maximum 8 years (full-time equivalent) experience in research after PhD award. Years of experience outside research and career breaks will not count towards the above maximum, nor will years of experience in research in third countries, for nationals or long-term residents of EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries who wish to reintegrate to Europe.
• The applicant must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Denmark (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships) or the country of the host organisation for the outgoing phase (for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 out of the last 36 months immediately before the call deadline.
• Only one proposal per applicant is eligible. Applicants who applied to the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2025 call and received an evaluation below 80% are not eligible to apply in 2026.

About the University of Southern Denmark

The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) is a leading research institution renowned for its international environment. The university works strategically to obtain EU funding, which means applicants receive excellent support throughout the application process.

SDU works to increase diversity in academic positions and management through ambitious initiatives such as mentoring programmes and networks. We foster a culture in which diversity is not only tolerated but appreciated as an asset.

SDU has been awarded the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ by the European Commission, meaning that the university fosters good working conditions and career development for researchers.

The Centre for Uses of Literature is located at SDU’s Odense Campus. Read more about what it is like to live in Denmark and work at SDU.