31 March 2016

Jørgen Bruhn

Postdoc

Taking his chance at the right time and ‘rethinking’ his CV made it for Jørgen Bruhn, Professor of Comparative Literature at Linnæus University in Sweden.

Jørgen Bruhn - Postdoc studies in Medieval French literature at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Jørgen Bruhn was still working on his postdoc in Copenhagen when, through a friend in his network, he applied for, and got, a teaching job in Lund. Here he was to teach intermediality studies – not exactly something the literature scholar knew very much about.

- I taught in Lund while working on my postdoc as well as teaching in Copenhagen, sometimes teaching 25 hours a week. It was tough – especially because I had my background in comparative literature and had not done very much intermedial work before going to Lund. But the hard work was rewarded, and after two years, I was offered a position in Sweden, first in Lund and later on in Växjö, Jørgen Bruhn tells, adding:

- Taking my chance at the right time and ‘rethinking’ my CV made it for me.

Jørgen Bruhn likes working in Sweden:

- I found myself to be very confident, when I moved. At Comparative Literature in Copenhagen, we thought of ourselves, I think, to be the best literary scholars in Scandinavia. Whether this was true or not, I nevertheless carried this feeling with me! But it’s also a very tough environment in Copenhagen, and it felt like a huge freedom to change setting and to go to Sweden. Actually there ought to be a rule that you have to move between universities between your PhD and your later positions. Seeing things from an outside position has a double advantage: you may grow as a teacher and researcher in a new and “free” environment, and you may offer new angles on the work being done in the place you go, too, he says.

Jørgen Bruhn’s advice

  • Look out to international universities for more job opportunities – and don’t be afraid to engage in other academic subjects than your own. As a postdoc and PhD, you will quickly dig into new areas.
     
  • Rethink your CV into new possible openings.
     
  • Use your network.