Fwd: ZUKUNFTSPHILOLOGIE: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship > Three Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2010/11 in Berlin

[Whitney Cox]

Dear list members,

I am forwarding this to the list on behalf of my colleague Manan Ahmed
(Institut für Islamwissenschaft, Freie Universitat, Berlin), as I imagine it
will be of interest to many,

Best,

Whitney

> Dear colleague,
>
> The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites
> scholars to apply for three postdoctoral fellowships
> for the research project
>
> ZUKUNFTSPHILOLOGIE:
> REVISITING THE CANONS OF TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIP
> for the academic year 2010/11 in Berlin.
>
> Please find the call for applications below, or as a
> PDF document attached to this message.
>
> I kindly ask you to spread the information about the
> fellowships among scholars interested in primary textual
> scholarship and in varieties of philology in Asia, Africa,
> the Middle East as well as in Europe beyond the medieval/
> modern divide. For the year 2010/2011, research projects
> focusing on major philological debates and encounters,
> on intellectual debates, polemics and correspondences
> are especially welcome.
>
> We would be grateful if you could post the announcement
> at your institution and circulate it, also via email,
> among colleagues and scholars who you think would be
> qualified and interested in applying for the postdoc-
> fellowships.
>
> The Forum Transregionale Studien is a new research
> platform of the Land of Berlin designed to promote
> research connecting systematic and region-specific
> questions in a perspective that addresses entanglements
> and interactions beyond national, cultural or regional
> frames. The Forum works in tandem with established
> institutions and networks engaged in transregional
> studies and is supported by an association of the
> directors of research institutes and networks mainly
> based in Berlin. It started its activities in 2010
> by supporting three research projects in the fields
> of law, philology, and urban sociology. The Forum
> Transregionale Studien is funded by the Senate of Berlin.
>
> For more information, please see our website
> (under construction)
> www.forum-transregionale-studien.de
>
> With my best regards
> Georges Khalil
>
> P.S. My apologies for double postings.
>
>
>
> CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
> THREE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
> FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2010/2011
> (Location: Berlin / Deadline: 9 August 2010)
>
> The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites
> scholars to apply for three postdoctoral fellowships for
> the research project
>
> ZUKUNFTSPHILOLOGIE:
> REVISITING THE CANONS OF TEXTUAL SCHOLARSHIP
>
> The project Zukunftsphilologie endeavors to promote and
> emphasise primary textual scholarship beyond the classical
> humanistic canon. In an age of advanced communication,
> intellectual specialisation, and unprecedented migration
> of knowledge and people, the discipline of philology
> assumes new relevance. Zukunftsphilologie aspires to
> support research in marginalised, undocumented and
> displaced varieties of philology by revisiting pre-
> colonial texts and scholarly traditions in Asia, Africa,
> the Middle East as well as in Europe.
>
> The title ?Zukunftsphilologie? is inspired by the 1872
> polemic between the classicist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-
> Moellendorff and Friedrich Nietzsche on the method and
> meaning of classical studies. The project draws on recent
> calls for a return to philology as particularly emphasised
> by Sheldon Pollock in his essay ?Future Philology?? and the
> late Edward Said?s essay ?The Return to Philology?.
>
> In order to promote historically-conscious philology, the
> project will foster research in the following areas: the
> genealogy and transformations of philological practice,
> philology?s place in the system of knowledge (e.g. its
> relation to science, theology, and jurisprudence),
> philology and the university, and philology and empire.
> Zukunftsphilologie aims to examine the role mobility,
> calamities, expulsions, and natural catastrophes play in
> the dissemination and globalisation of knowledge. How
> does the mobility of scholars, books, and manuscripts
> bring about scientific innovation (e.g. in tenth-century
> Baghdad, during the European Renaissance, or during the
> Ming dynasty)? What kind of knowledge systems are also
> displaced by these processes of reorganisation? What
> transformations and translations accompany such mobili-
> sations?
>
> In addition, Zukunftsphilologie aims to support critical
> reviews of historical and philological practice. In
> revisiting important philological debates, the goal is
> not to merely evaluate the argumentative worth of these
> debates, but to reflect on the wider cultural and political
> context in which these debates emerged and how they have
> shaped our knowledge of the past.
>
> Zukunftsphilologie is an initiative of the Seminar for
> Semitistik and Arabistik at the Freie Universitaet Berlin
> and envisages the establishment of a Berlin-based research
> group of philologists. The project is coordinated
> by Angelika Neuwirth and Islam Dayeh (both Freie Universi-
> t?t Berlin), funded and hosted by the Forum Transregionale
> Studien.
>
> CANDIDATES
> The fellowships are intended primarily for scholars of
> Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Persian, Sanskrit, Syriac,
> Turkish, and other linguistic and philological traditions
> from Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as for scholars
> of intellectual and literary history, of comparative
> linguistics, philology, religion and the history of
> science from outside Berlin, who wish to carry out their
> research projects in the framework of the initiative
> Zukunftsphilologie in Berlin. Applicants should be at
> the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their
> doctorate within the last five years. Fellows are given
> the opportunity to pursue research projects of their
> own choice, provided the topic falls within the research
> agenda of the project. During the fellowship in Berlin
> they will be integrated into a university or extra-
> university research institute. In the overall context of
> the project Zukunftsphilologie, they will participate
> in regular working meetings of the project group as well
> as in lectures, conferences and summer and winter academies,
> organised by the project and by the Forum Transregionale
> Studien.
>
> PROJECTS
> Individual research projects should fall within one of
> the themes of the project Zukunftsphilologie. Projects
> should have a comparative perspective, whereby the
> plurality of textual practices, polyphonic textuality,
> and the trajectories and genealogies of philological
> traditions in early modernity are examined.
>
> For the year 2010/2011, research projects focusing on
> intellectual debates, polemics, correspondences, and
> transregional encounters are especially welcome. A
> revisiting of major philological debates will enable us
> to explore the significance of philology in the cultural
> and political transformations beyond the modern/pre-modern
> divide. Moreover, an examination of philological debates
> will shed light on marginal philological traditions and
> undocumented intellectual positions as well as the way
> in which the canonical positions were consolidated and
> normalised.
>
> FELLOWSHIPS
>
> may start anytime in the period between October 1, 2010
> and January 1, 2011 and will end on July 31, 2011.
> Shorter fellowship terms can be considered. Postdoctoral
> fellows will receive a monthly stipend of ? 2.025 plus
> supplements depending on their personal situation.
> Organisational support regarding visa, insurances, housing,
> etc. will be provided. Successful applicants will be fellows
> of the project Zukunftsphilologie at the Forum Transregionale
> Studien.
>
> APPLICATION PROCEDURE
>
> To apply, please send the following documents in English
> exclusively by e-mail as single word or PDF file. The
> letter of recommendation can be sent directly by e-mail.
>
> - a curriculum vitae
> - a project description (no longer than five pages) stating
> what the scholar will work on in Berlin if granted a fellowship
> - a sample of scholarly work (maximum 20 pages, article,
> book chapter, conference contribution)
> - a letter of recommendation from one academic faculty member
>
> The application should be submitted in English and should
> be received by 9 August 2010, addressed to:
>
> office at trafo-berlin.de
>
> INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
> The Forum Transregionale Studien is a new research
> platform of the Land of Berlin designed to promote
> research that connects systematic and region-specific
> questions in a perspective that addresses entanglements
> and interactions beyond national, cultural or regional
> frames. The Forum works in tandem with established
> institutions and networks engaged in transregional studies
> and is supported by an association of the directors of
> research institutes and networks mainly based in Berlin.
> It started its activities in 2010 by supporting three
> research projects in the fields of law, philology, and
> urban sociology. The Forum Transregionale Studien is
> funded by the Senate of Berlin.
>
> For more information please see
> www.forum-transregionale-studien.de
>
> Forum Transregionale Studien
> c/o Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
> Attn: Georges Khalil
> Wallotstra?e 19, D-14193 Berlin / Germany
>
>



-- 


Dr. Whitney Cox
Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia,
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG