Lectureship in Hindi at SOAS (forwarded)

[Dominik Wujastyk]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 15:48:19 GMT
From: Mike Hutt, SOAS <MH8 at soas.ac.uk>
To: d.wujastyk at ucl.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Lectureship in Hindi


LECTURESHIP IN HINDI

Applications are invited for the post of Lecturer in Hindi in the 
Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia at the School of 
Oriental and African Studies in London, for appointment in September 
1997.  The successful candidate will teach Hindi language and literature 
from introductory to advanced levels, and will undertake research and 
publication in Hindi language and literature or a related field of South 
Asian studies.  S/he will also contribute to undergraduate and Masters 
courses on South Asian culture and literature, though much of the 
teaching is likely to relate to the study of Hindi language and texts. 
The successful candidate will have a PhD in a relevant field and a 
demonstrated commitment to the active pursuit of research.  


FURTHER PARTICULARS

The School of Oriental Studies, as it was first called, received its 
Royal Charter and became a college of the University of London in 1916.  
In 1943 it moved to its present premises in Bloomsbury, which have since 
been greatly extended with the completion of the New Building in 1973 
and the addition of the Brunei Gallery in 1995.  The School is located 
in central London, just off Russell Square and close to the British 
Museum.

SOAS is now one of the leading centres of Asian and African Studies in 
the western world, and its academic staff complement of about 200 is the 
largest concentration of scholars concerned with the whole of Africa and 
Asia at any university in the world.  It consists of five Language and 
Culture departments (focusing on East Asia, South East Asia, South Asia, 
the Near and Middle East, and Africa) plus departments of Anthropology 
and Sociology, Art and Archaeology, Development Studies, Economics, 
Politics, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Study of Religions and 
Music.  The Library contains nearly 1,000,000 items and acts as a 
national lending library for the fields it covers.  The School sees its 
role as providing for the integrated study of all aspects of Asian and 
African societies.

The Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia

The Department offers the widest coverage in the United Kingdom of 
research and teaching related to the languages, literatures and cultures 
of the principal countries of South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, 
Sri Lanka and Nepal. Its primary commitment is to the teaching of 
language and literature, but the teaching programme also includes 
'English-medium' courses in literature, film studies, folklore, music, 
religion, and civilisation. 
Amongst the modern languages, the Hindi and Urdu sections form a core, 
while teaching and research is also conducted in Bengali, Gujarati, 
Nepali, Panjabi, Sinhalese and Tamil.   The classical languages 
Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit are also taught in the Department.  Recent 
changes to the degree structure have been designed in part to maximise 
the potential of teaching in those languages for which there is only one 
teacher in post; the 'South Asian Studies' degree promotes the study of 
language and literature in the context of the broader culture of the 
area.  In 1996 the Department also established a single-subject BA in 
Hindi, providing an opportunity for more intensive study of Hindi 
language and literature.  Members of the Department teach into various 
inter-departmental Masters courses and degrees, and 1998 will see the 
launch of a new Department-based MA in South Asian Cultural Studies.

Members of the Department

Dr Stuart Blackburn, Lecturer in Tamil.
Tamil language and literature;  folklore; oral literature; literary 
history.

Dr Rachel Dwyer, Lecturer in Gujarati and Indian Studies.  
Gujarati language and literature; Gujarati Vaishnavism; Gujarati 
diaspora; comparative Indian literature; Indian popular culture.

Dr Michael Hutt, Senior Lecturer in Nepali.  
Nepali language and literature; Nepalese art; contemporary change in the 
Himalayan region.

Dr Amrik Kalsi,  Senior Lecturer in Hindi and Urdu.  
Hindi and Urdu language and literature; Panjabi language.  

Dr Javed Majeed,  Lecturer in Urdu.
Urdu literature;  comparative literature in British India;  Iqbal.

Dr David Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Urdu and Nepali.  
Urdu and Nepali language and literature;  Islam in South Asia. 

Dr William Radice,  Lecturer in Bengali.  
Bengali language and literature;  Tagore;  19th century Bengal; literary 
translation.

Professor Christopher Shackle, Professor of Modern Languages of South 
Asia in the University of London.  
Panjabi and Urdu languages and literatures; regional languages of 
Pakistan and North-West India; Islam in South Asia; Sikhism. 

Dr Rupert Snell, Reader in Hindi.
Hindi language and literature; Vaishnava bhakti verse;  Braj 'Riti' 
poetry. 

Dr Renate Sohnen-Thieme,  Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit.  
Sanskrit language and literature;  classical Indian religions;  folklore 
of Baltistan.

Dr Richard Widdess, Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology with reference to 
South Asia.      
Traditional musics of South Asia, their history, structure and practice;  
the history of raga;  Indian musical notations;  the dhrupad style of 
North Indian vocal music;  

Professor J.C. Wright, Professorial Research Fellow
Sanskrit language and literature; Vedic; Pali and Prakrit; poetic 
theory; palaeography and epigraphy; Indo-Aryan philology;  classical 
Indian religions.

The Post

Hindi is offered within a number of different undergraduate programmes:  
the new 4-year degree BA Hindi (in which year 3 is spent in India), the 
'flagship' degree;  3-year South Asian Studies; and joint honours of 
'two-subject' degrees (available in both 3-year and 4-year formats, i.e. 
with or without a 3rd year in India) in which Hindi combines with 
another discipline taught in the school.  Individual Hindi courses are 
also available to students on other programmes.  First-year classes in 
these various categories have a total of some 40 students;  later years 
have smaller groups.  The new appointee will teach Hindi alongside Dr 
Rupert Snell and Dr Amrik Kalsi.
	In recent years the Department has increased its range of courses which 
are not language-specific, as part of a policy of making South Asian 
studies more widely available (and attractive) to a larger body of 
students including those whose primary interest or expertise is not 
linguistic; the list now features South Asian Culture, South Asian 
Literature in English, South Asian Folklore, Devotional Hinduism, 
Foundations of Nepali Culture, and Cinema and Society in India.  This 
development is an important plank in our student recruitment strategy, 
whose success is vital if we are to maintain our present levels of 
staffing and language coverage. The new departmental MA, to come fully 
on stream in 1998-99, has been devised with similar aims in mind. 

The successful applicant will have a PhD in Hindi or a closely related 
subject, and a proven track record in published research.

Successful candidates will be expected to contribute to:

o	undergraduate teaching in Hindi language and literature
o	undergraduate courses on South Asian Culture
o	the development of further undergraduate course options 
o	courses in Hindi literature within MA Comparative Literature and other 
	Masters programmes
o	a new departmental MA on South Asian Cultural Studies (from 1998)
o	the supervision of undergraduate dissertations ('Independent Study 
	Projects')
o	the development of teaching materials for language and literature 
	courses
o	the development of new examinations for students returning from 8 
	months in India

and also:

o	to supervise MPhil/PhD research
o	to share departmental administrative and tutorial duties
o	to participate in the seminars and other occasional activities of the 
	South Asia Centre 
o	to consider contributing a volume to the departmental series SOAS 
	South Asian Texts (published by Oxford University Press, Delhi)

Closing date:   Friday 25 April    1997

SOAS is an equal opportunities employer.

The appointment will date from 1 September 1997.  It will be made on the 
Lecturer A scale (#15,593 - #20,424 p.a.) or Lecturer B scale (#21,277 - 
#27,196 p.a.), depending on qualifications and experience, plus London 
Allowance, currently #2,134 p.a.  Membership of USS will be available.

Potential applicants are encouraged to seek further information from the 
Head of Department, Dr Michael Hutt or the Executive Officer, Susan 
Madigan (SOAS fax 0171 436 3844 or Departmental 0171 323 6240/6251.  
E-mail <mh8 at soas.ac.uk> or <sm2 at soas.ac.uk>).

An application form and further particulars may be obtained from the 
Personnel Office, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh 
Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG (tel:  0171 323 6189 between 
10:30am and 12.30pm, fax: 0171 636 2779, email: personnel at soas.ac.uk).  
Overseas candidates may apply directly by letter, and all applications 
should be supported by a full curriculum vitae and the names, addresses, 
fax and telephone numbers of three referees.



Michael Hutt
School of Oriental and African Studies London 
tel. 171-323-6240/6251 
fax 171-436-3844 or 171-436-2664
e-mail mh8 at soas.ac.uk