Travel Awards: Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas (12/31/2021 application deadline!)

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Chris

The Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas is pleased to announce the availability of travel grants to facilitate research using the library’s collections. There are three award categories, and the amount available for each award is $1,000. 

·         African American Experience Collections: Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Researchers Travel Award

·         Polish Collections: Alexander and Valentine Janta Endowment Travel Award

·         All Library Collections: Spencer Research Library Travel Award

Travel grants are available to faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, or independent researchers living beyond a 100-mile radius from Lawrence, Kansas. Applicants should document a research agenda entailing the need for in-person access to materials held by Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Grant money may be used for travel, lodging, and other expenses while pursuing research at the library. Award recipients may be asked to give a brief, informal presentation about their research topic during their visit.

The application deadline is December 31, 2021, for travel from March 1 and December 23, 2022. The awards committee will begin reviewing applications after the deadline, and applicants will be notified by February 15, 2022.

For more detailed information on these travel grants and the application process, please visit https://spencer.lib.ku.edu/using-the-library/travel-awards.  For information on Spencer Research Library’s collection strengths, please visit https://spencer.lib.ku.edu/collections.

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Upcoming Podcast Workshop Postponed to 13 December

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Chris

Medievalists, podcasters, and medievalist podcasters,

We write to inform you that the upcoming workshop on Podcast Post-Production (originally scheduled for Mon. 12/6) will be postponed one week to Monday, December 13 from 2-4PM Eastern Time. Our apologies for any scheduling conflicts this may create for you. Please reach out to Logan Quigley (lquigle1@nd.edu) with any questions, and we’ll look forward to seeing you at our second workshop on the podcast creation process!

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The Inaugural Mathews Byzantine Lecture, by Professor Emerita Margaret Mullet (OBE): “The Christos Paschon: Byzantine tragedy or non-liturgical passion play?”

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Chris

Time: Thu Dec 2, 2021, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Location: Medieval Institute Main Reading Room and Live-Streamed on our YouTube channel

The Medieval Institute is pleased to announce a new annual lecture series, the Mathews Byzantine Lectures [https://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/annual-events/mathews-byzantine-lectures/].The Mathews Lectures bring a distinguished scholar of Byzantine studies to campus each year to deliver a talk, supported by the Rev. Constantine Mathews Endowment for Excellence in Byzantine Christianity in the Medieval Institute.

The talk will be held in person and live-streamed on our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeLWdfGnJuDY_A9hjHGoIag].

Talk abstract

Christos Paschon, attributed in all manuscripts to Gregory of Nazianzos but generally now believed to be a product of twelfth-century Constantinople, is a puzzling text. It covers the period from Maundy Thursday to the mission of the Apostles, focusing on the Passion, the Burial, and the Resurrection. It claims to be Euripidean and is a tissue of quotations from Medea, Hippolytus, Rhesus, and Bacchae. It has been studied by Byzantinists trying to prove the existence of a Byzantine drama, exploring the Virgin’s lament and the icontype of the Galaktotrophousa, and by classicists working on the manuscript tradition of the Bacchae. Most scholars, whether classicists or Byzantinists, are uneasy with the combination of sacred drama and secular text; it is only now revealing evidence for identity, appropriation and performance in Byzantium. The lecture will explore issues of genre, content and performance in order to situate the text in twelfth-century literary society.

About the Speaker

Margaret Mullett (OBE) is Professor of Byzantine Studies emerita at Queen’s University Belfast and Director of Byzantine Studies emerita at Dumbarton Oaks. She works on the borderlines of history and literature, starting with letter-writing, literacy, rhetoric, performance, and proceeding to genre, patronage and narratology in prose and verse; she addresses issues of identity, gender, relations and networks, as well as emotions, senses and dream. She is now working on tents and on the Christos Paschon. She directed the British Academy’s Evergetis Project and the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Centre for Byzantine Cultural History in collaboration with the universities of Newcastle and Sussex. She has held visiting professorships at Vienna and Uppsala and is now Honorary Professor in Classics at the University of Edinburgh.

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Lament, Liturgy and the End of Time in Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Chris

Lament, Liturgy and the End of Time in Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum
Margot Fassler
University of Notre Dame

Friday, Dec. 3, 4:30, Woolworth 102

This presentation is based on chapters from Margot Fassler’s forthcoming book Cosmos, Liturgy, and the Arts in the Twelfth Century: Hildegard’s Illuminated Scivias (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). The emphasis here is on Hildegard’s sung play, the Ordo Virtutum, and one aspect of that play, the laments that are found within it and set in the tonal area of E. These laments  characterize both the singing of the congregate group of virtues and of the trapped soul. Two of the most complicated chants in the play will be discussed in some detail, “O plangens vox” and “O vivens fons” which are bookends in the soul’s journey from sin sickness to redemption. A third chant to be studied is found at the  end of the play “In principio.” The text that was deeply meaningful to Hildegard for she quoted it again and commented upon it also in her treatise On the Divine Works. Fassler interprets the chant as it related to the cosmos, as Hildegard understood it, and to the inevitable end of time that comes with the achieving of the Golden Number referenced in this lamenting chant text.

Margot Fassler

Faculty, Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy, Director of the Program of Sacred Music, Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology; Robert Tangeman Professor of Music History, emerita, Yale University.

Margot Fassler is renowned for her work at the intersection of musicology and theology and is a specialist in sacred music of several periods.  Her book Gothic Song (2nd edition, Notre Dame Press, 2011), won both the John Nicolas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America and the Otto Kinkeldey Prize of the American Musicological Society. Her interdisciplinary approach is demonstrated in her book, The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts (Yale University Press), a study informed by close work with architecture.  The book has won both the Ace Mercers’ International Book Award (for a book on art and religion) and the 2012 Otto Gründler Book Prize (for a book in medieval studies). 

Recent publications include with Jeffery Hamburger, Eva Schlotheuber, and Susan Marti, Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300-1425: Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent. 2 vols. Munster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2016; editor, with Katie Bugyis and Andrew Kraebel, Medieval Cantors and Their Craft: Music, Liturgy, and the Shaping of History, York Medieval Press of Boydell and Brewer, 2017 (Also on JSTOR); Music in the Medieval West. New York: WWNorton, 2014; and its Anthology, 2015. Essays that have recently appeared are “Women and their Sequences” in Speculum (July, 2019); and “Liturgical History and Hagiography as Reflected in the Ordinal of Nivelles, with Emphasis on the Cult of St Gertrude,” found in The Liber ordinarius of Nivelles (Houghton Library, MS Latin 422): Liturgy as Interdisiciplinary Interection, ed. Eva Schlotheuber and Jeffrey Hamburger (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020).

Prof. Fassler has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, and a Luce Faculty Fellow in Theology. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and as a Fellow of the Medieval Academy, and has been named a Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society. In 2018, Fassler was President of the Medieval Academy of America, and in 2019-2020, she was a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

https://music.princeton.edu/events/margot-fassler-phd-university-notre-dame

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Call for Papers – 8th Dorushe Graduate Student Conference in Syriac Studies

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Chris

The Department of Theology at Fordham University and Dorushe invite proposals for the Eighth Dorushe Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies, to be held at Fordham University (NYC) on June 9-10, 2022.

Erin Galgay Walsh (The University of Chicago Divinity School) will deliver a keynote address.

We welcome graduate student proposals for papers in all subjects, disciplines, and methodologies related to Syriac studies. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

Early Syriac Christian Origins
Peshitta Studies
Syriac Theology and Christology
Jews, Muslims, and Syriac Christians
Early Syriac Encounters with the Far East
Syriac Liturgical Tradition and Hymnography
Syrian Ascetics and Martyrs
Women in Syriac Christianity
Syriac Iconography and Visual Culture
Syriac Studies and Digital Scholarship

In order to promote and diversify interaction at the conference, we invite proposals in two different categories:

(a) 20-minute conference papers and
(b) 8- to 15-page dissertation interim reports.

Dissertation interim reports will be circulated in advance to facilitate discussion at the conference, and should introduce, at minimum, the project’s argument, method, and primary source material.

Proposals of either kind should be emailed by January 24, 2022 to dorusheconference@gmail.com.

Please attach:

(1) an abstract of no more than 300 words, using a unicode font for non-Roman characters, and (for the purpose of anonymous judging) not including the author’s name or other identifications

(2) a separate cover sheet with the author’s name, academic affiliation, and e-mail address; paper title and type (20-minute paper or dissertation interim report); and indication of any technological support needed.

Both documents should be submitted in .rtf or .doc format. Applicants will be notified regarding acceptance by February 2022.

Support for the Eighth Dorushe Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies is generously provided by Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Theology Department, Jewish Studies Center, Theology Graduate Student Association through GSAS Graduate Student Association, Women’s Studies Department and Medieval Studies as well as Gorgias Press.

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Mary Jaharis Center Lecture: The Sound of the Lectionary

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Chris

The Mary Jaharis Center is pleased to announce our second lecture of 2021–2022: The Sound of the Lectionary: Chant, Architecture, and Salvation in Byzantium. In this lecture, Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine, considers the ways in which notions of salvation were sonically articulated in the Divine Liturgy during the Middle Byzantine period. Tracing the Gospel lectionary from text to illustration to recitation, Professor Betancourt explores how Byzantine artists produced a unified experience that took into consideration not only the text of the Gospel, but also how it would appear to the reader and his audience within the context of the Divine Liturgy.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021  | 2:00–3:30 pm (Eastern Standard Time, UTC -5) | Zoom
The Sound of the Lectionary: Chant, Architecture, and Salvation in Byzantium
Roland Betancourt, University of California, Irvine

Advance registration required. Registration closes at 11:00 AM (EST) on November 30, 2021. Register: https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/the-sound-of-the-lectionary

Part of the Boston Byzantine Music Festival Lecture Series exploring the musical heritage of the Byzantine Empire. The Boston Byzantine Music Festival is a program of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture.

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

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Call for Papers – Speculum Themed Issue: “Race, Race-Thinking, and Identity in the Global Middle Ages”

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Chris

Editors:
François-Xavier Fauvelle, Collège de France
Nahir Otaño Gracia, University of New Mexico
Cord J. Whitaker, Wellesley College

For far too long, scholarly consensus held that race and racism were mainly Enlightenment innovations, datable to no earlier than the seventeenth century. As long ago as the early twentieth century, some scholars pushed race’s origins to the sixteenth or even fifteenth centuries, but these scholars were few and far between. The Middle Ages and, with them, medieval studies were set off as a time and discipline innocent of race and racism. This remained generally true until the advent of critical medieval race studies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Now, in 2021, special issues in major journals and no less than six full-length scholarly monographs have treated the imbrications of race with medieval art, literature, religion, and even the periodizing concept of the Middle Ages itself. Many more studies in medieval literature, history, art, religion, and culture have been conceptually informed by race, as have many studies in the modern perceptions and deployments of the Middle Ages. Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies calls for proposals for a themed issue, to be published as one of Speculum’s four quarterly issues, to recognize the intellectual value of the study of race to a comprehensive understanding of the Middle Ages.

We invite proposals for full-length essays (8,000-11,000 words) that interrogate race, race-thinking, and identity in the Middle Ages. For example, essays might consider the roles of race-making and racialization in the Islamic world; how race and identity, together with religion, was negotiated and navigated in border regions such as al-Andalus, Sicily or the Levant (between Latin Christendom and Islam), the Sahara and the Sahel region (between the Islamic world and Subsaharan Africa); how the dynamics of race-thinking informed relations between Latin and Greek Christendom and Islam or the Mongol Empire, or between the Muslim/Islamicate world and Christian, Jewish, Hinduist, and traditional-religious societies within it or beyond its reaches; how race intersected with the dynamics of trade and connectivity, religious affiliation and conversion, slavery and emancipation, peace and war. Essays may also take on the roles of race, race-thinking, and identity in the geography and periodization of the Middle Ages: Are historical moments that are quintessential to the history of race also relevant to medieval-and-modern periodizations? Essays may also consider how and why race, race-thinking, and identity have shaped modern concepts, uses, and scholarship of the Middle Ages.

The editors are open to essays that interrogate race, race-thinking, and identity in the Middle Ages by asking these and other deeply probing questions. Additionally, we are especially interested in essays that consider the globality of the medieval world: those that examine the networked interrelations and interdependences of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. In addition to scholarship in history and literature, we invite proposals using the tools and methods of anthropology, archaeology, art history, book history, historical linguistics, religious studies, sociology, and other fields germane to the studies of race, identity, and the Middle Ages.

The themed issue on race, race-thinking, and identity and the articles selected for it will be in keeping with Speculum’s purview as stated in the Guidelines for Submission: “preference is ordinarily given to articles of interest to readers in more than one discipline and beyond the specialty in question. Articles taking a more global approach to medieval studies are also welcomed, particularly when the topic engages with one or more of the core areas of study outlined above. Submissions with appeal to a broad cross-section of medievalists are highly encouraged.”

Proposals should be no more than 500 words in length and should be submitted by email to cord.whitaker@wellesley.edu with SPECULUM PROPOSAL in the subject line by 31 January 2022. The authors of selected proposals will be notified by 28 February 2022. Completed essays will be expected by 1 December 2022.

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Schwarz Fellowship for Research on Urban Architecture

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Chris

Schwarz Fellowship at the Gennadius Library
for Research on Urban Architecture

The Schwarz Fellowship for Research on Urban Architecture supports innovative and cross-disciplinary research on architecture, urban planning, and the history of the built environment in Greece from 1821 to the present.

Eligibility: Practicing architects, or researchers who are either currently Ph.D.
candidates or recent Ph.D. holders within five years of receiving the degree. Open to all nationalities.

Fields of Study: Includes Architectural Design and Urban Planning, History of Architecture, History of the City, Historical Geography, and related fields. Projects should incorporate the holdings of the Gennadius Library (maps, topographical plans, landscapes, etc.) and other appropriate resources of the School.

Terms: A stipend of $11,500 plus room and board in Loring Hall, and waiver of School fees. It is expected that the applicant will maintain a physical presence at the Gennadius Library during the tenure of the appointment from early September to late May. A final report is due at the end of the award period, and the ASCSA expects that copies of all publications that result from research conducted as a Fellow of the ASCSA be contributed to the Gennadius Library. Fellows are expected to participate in the academic life of the School.

Application: Submit an online application form for the “Schwarz Fellowship at the Gennadius for Research on Urban Architecture.” An application consists of a curriculum vitae, description of the proposed project (up to 750 words), and three letters of reference to be submitted online. Student applicants must submit transcripts. Scans of official transcripts are acceptable.

Diversity and Advocacy Statement

The Graduate Student Committee of the Medieval Academy of America is staunchly committed to social justice, and to fostering an inclusive community of professionals where everyone feels welcomed, respected, valued and heard. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in condemning the police murders of Black people that extend the long legacy of enslavement in the United States, as well as with other initiatives that combat ongoing legacies of imperialism, colonialism, hatred, and prejudice worldwide. As graduate students considering a wide array of professional tracks, we are dedicated to making the structural changes necessary for bringing about lasting freedom, equity, dignity, and respect for difference. As professionals working on the society, history, art, and cultures of the medieval period, we understand that there is no region or period within our fields of expertise in which these issues are not relevant. We acknowledge the urgency of practicing antiracism at individual and institutional levels. We thus pledge ourselves to taking concrete steps towards dismantling the structures of racism, the ideologies of white supremacy, and all systemic injustice, whether they exist in our committee or universities, and to re-examine our individual practices as educators, colleagues, mentors, scholars, and professionals.

New Horizons Graduate Student Research Grant

During the 2020-2021 term, the GSC was happy to award a special one-time New Horizons Graduate Student Research Grant. The program awarded four applicants $500 to support research projects that creatively navigated the research environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020-2021 New Horizons Grant awardees are:

Carly Boxer (University of Chicago): Carly has used the New Horizons Grant to continue her research of the United States Penitentiary (USP) Lewisburg, its architect, and the unusually high concentration of correctional facilities in central Pennsylvania. She will compare USP Lewisburg to other correctional facilities built between the 1920s and 1940s to contextualize these structures and their “medievalness” by examining medieval precedents for architectures of confinement. The New Horizons Award allowed Carly to acquire relevant books on the history of prison reform, prison architecture, medievalism in vernacular architecture in the United States, and on the medieval Italian palazzos on which USP Lewisburg’s design was based.

Emmalee Dove (University of Virginia): Emmalee and UVA undergraduate Lauren Kim were awarded the New Horizons Grant to continue working on their project, Digitized Devotion. This project offers free access to collected data from over 500 Books of Hours and related manuscripts. Special attention is given to information about the text and images that appear in each of these manuscripts. The website also has a feature that grants those who are interested in learning more about the topic the ability to search for specific images or text. Emmalee and her team used the New Horizons Award to purchase books necessary for moving the project forward during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to purchase and renew the project’s domain name. The initial version of Digitized Devotion is up and running: digitizeddevotion.com.

Ryan Low (Harvard University): Ryan will use the New Horizons Grant to create an online database of extant notarial registers in the former counties of Provence and Forcalquier, the Dauphiné, and Savoy. This resource will eventually allow scholars to search for registers by shelf-mark, notary, or commune, and they would be able to contribute details such as folio counts, watermarks, prefatory benedictions, notarial signatures, and more. Out of the available data, Ryan has constructed the local instance of a FileMaker Pro relational database and populated it with the information available (13,502 notarial registers).

Jenna McKellips (University of Toronto): Jenna used the New Horizons Award to help pay actors and interviewees for the project. In her personal translation of the Digby Mary Magdalene, she inserted verbatim anonymous interviews as monologues. For these interviews, Jenna approached various individuals with historically marginalized genders (trans and nonbinary folks, as well as women). The project culminated with a Zoom performance by actors who self-identified as having historically marginalized genders. Two conference presentations–one at the Medieval English Theatre Conference and one at Leeds 2021– resulted from this production. The project has a website: https://www.marymagdaleneproject.com/

Click here for more information.

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Upcoming Grant and Prize Deadlines

Posted on November 9, 2021 by Chris

The Medieval Academy of America invites applications for the following grants. Please note that applicants must be members in good standing as of September 15 in order to be eligible for Medieval Academy awards.

Baldwin Fellowship
The Baldwin Fellowship provides a one-year grant of $20,000 (with the possibility of a second year of funding) to support a graduate student in a North American university who is researching and writing a significant dissertation for the Ph.D. on any subject in French medieval history that can be realized only by sustained research in the archives and libraries of France. (Deadline 15 November 2021)

The Inclusivity and Diversity Research Grant
The Inclusivity and Diversity Research Grant of up to $3,000 will be granted annually to a scholar, at any stage in their career, who seeks to pursue innovative research that will broaden the scope of medieval studies. Projects that focus on non-European regions or topics under the Inclusivity and Diversity Committee’s purview such as race, class, disability, gender, religion, or sexuality are particularly welcomed. The grant prioritizes applicants who are students, ECRs, or non-tenured. For the current round of applications, we encourage proposals that address the challenges of conducting research during the Covid-19 era. (Deadline 31 December 2021)

MAA/CARA Conference Grant
The MAA/CARA Conference Grant for Regional Associations and Programs awards $1,000 to help support a regional or consortial conference taking place in 2022. (Deadline extended to 30 November 2021)

CARA Award Nominations

Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies
The Robert L. Kindrick-CARA Award for Outstanding Service to Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who have provided leadership in developing, organizing, promoting, and sponsoring medieval studies through the extensive administrative work that is so crucial to the health of medieval studies but that often goes unrecognized by the profession at large.

CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching
The CARA Award for Excellence in Teaching Medieval Studies recognizes Medieval Academy members who are outstanding teachers and who have contributed to the profession by inspiring students at the undergraduate or graduate levels or by creating innovative and influential textbooks or other materials for teaching medieval subjects.

The CARA Awards will be presented at the 2022 MAA Annual Meeting (Univ. of Virginia, 10-13 March). Nominations and supporting materials must be received by Nov. 15.

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Jobs for Medievalists

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Chris

Opening for a position as Lecturer (fixed-term, full-time) at the Institute for Regional History (Institut für Fränkisch-Pfälzische Geschichte und Landeskunde) at Heidelberg University

The Institute for Regional History (Institut für Fränkisch-Pfälzische Geschichte und Landeskunde) within the Center for the Study of European History and Cultures (ZEGK) at Heidelberg University seeks to fill a full-time vacancy for a

Lecturer (fixed-term, full-time. Salary is determined in accordance with the German public sector salary scale at TV-L 13.)

This is a three-year position with the possibility for the contract to be extended for an additional three years. The position provides the respective candidate with the opportunity for further professional development (namely the completion of a Habilitation or a second book).

With this position, the FPI offers the successful candidate the chance to undertake research for their second book project, a considerable amount of independence, and managerial responsibilty. Scholarly outreach, management and teaching are all central to the profile of the position. In Heidelberg you will find support and the input of an extensive and international network of interdisciplinary medievalists.

Responsibilities of the position include administrative leadership of the Institute, undertaking research in medieval history that aligns with the profile of the Institute, offering courses in medieval regional history, organizational oversight of the Institute, as well as public outreach.

Only those applicants who have completed their Ph.D.  at time of application will be considered. The successful candidate is expected to display commitments to research, teaching, and the administration of the Institute, and will present a project proposal for a substantial second-book or Habilitationsschrift aligning with the Institute’s strengths and resources.  We expect research projects and other scholarly activities that carry out regional history within its global and comparative dimensions. They should also signal a willingness to work across disciplinary boundaries. Desired is an orientation, in its broadest sense, in cultural, social, economic or the history of every day life (e.g. cultural history of the political or in material culture) with a regional focus.

Heidelberg University stands for equal opportunities and diversity. We particularly welcome applications from qualified female candidates, who are underrepresented at the University. Disabled persons will be given preference if they are equally qualified. In principle, the position can be part-time.

Applications for the position are to be sent via email in one PDF-document, addressed to Prof Dr Jörg Peltzer and Prof Dr Romedio Schmitz-Esser. Please include a CV, list of publications and courses taught, degree certificates (PhD, MA, BA, A-levels), a statement on your proficiency of German, and a short outline describing future research (one to two pages). Please send applications to

Johanna Hauck, email: johanna.hauck@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

The dead-line for application is: 17 December 2021

https://adb.zuv.uni-heidelberg.de/info/INFO_FDB$.startup?MODUL=LS&M1=1&M2=0&M3=0&PRO=30596

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