CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – 3 PhD Scholarships, 1 Postdoc position

Joint Research Programme: Currents of faith, places of history: religious diasporas, connections, moral circumscriptions and world-making in the Atlantic space

Starting date: October 1st, 2013

Duration: 3 years (36 months), fulltime for PhD-projects, part-time for postdoc-project

The JRP Currents of faith, places of history: religious diasporas, connections, moral circumscriptions and world-making in the Atlantic space, coordinated by Ruy Blanes (ICS Lisbon, Univ. Bergen) with Birgit Meyer (Utrecht U.), David Berliner (Univ. Libre de Bruxelles) and Ramon Sarró (Univ. Oxford), is an international HERA-funded Joint Research Project that brings together a multidisciplinary team of scholars. The central foci of this program are the interconnections between religion, mobility, place and heritage in the Atlantic space. We aim to rethink theories of Atlantic history by exploring three dimensions of ‘religious diasporas’: connections, moral circumscriptions and world-making.

Based on a partnership between universities in Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and the UK, the program brings together a team of senior and junior scholars. Combining problems and methodologies sprung from social anthropology, history and religious studies, we seek to synthesize an empirical ethnographic methodology with a historical-comparative approach so as to explore ‘meaningful histories’ in their cultural and religious manifestations.

The CURRENTS JRP is offering 3 PhD positions for students interested in conducting field research and writing PhD theses on the topics under focus. Next to this, it offers one postdoc position. PhD-project 1 will be located at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, under the research theme Encounters, Historical Acknowledgements and Moral Landscapes Across the Atlantic (chaired by Ruy Blanes). More specifically, s/he will conduct research on “grassroots prophetism, political interventions and territorial heritagizations in contemporary South America”. For more information, contact Ruy Blanes (ruy.blanes@gmail.com).

PhD-project 2 will be located at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Oxford, UK, under the research theme A King in the Atlantic: Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in the Making of a Kongo Heritage. S/he will conduct research on how the historical connections between the Kindgom of Kongo and the South American continent, which started with the Atlantic slave trade, are remembered and recreated in today’s Brazil, a country today discovering and reassessing its African heritage. For more information, contact Ramon Sarró (ramon.sarro@anthro.ox.ac.uk) or visit
http://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/prospective-students/funding/ahrc/#c9787.

PhD-project 3 will be located at the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, under the research theme Slave Trade Transatlantic Heritagescapes. Reconnections and World- Making in Guinea-Conakry and the Mexican Gulf. More specifically, s/he will conduct research on “Heritagized religious traditions in the Mexican Gulf / Caribbean”. For more information, contact David Berliner (David.Berliner@ulb.ac.be).

The postdoc-project (part-time) will be located at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, under the research theme Atlantic spirits. Religion, Heritage, and the Making of the Atlantic World through Winti and Candomblé (chaired by Birgit Meyer). The research project will focus on “Candomblé in Brazil”.
For more information, contact Birgit Meyer (b.meyer@uu.nl).

The 3 PhD students and the postdoc will conduct field research in different locations. They will be based in their respective host institution, and will be supervised by the project’s Principal Investigator in that institution. They will be expected, however, to actively engage in JRP meetings, intellectual exchanges, and academic events bringing the entire international team together. Applicants should therefore be enthusiastic, well motivated and able to work independently and as part of a collaborative research team.

Applicants are expected to hold a very good MA, MSc, or MPhil degree in anthropology or a cognate field by the start of the three-year project.  The post-doc will have completed a PhD dissertation in anthropology, religious studies or a cognate field by the start of the three-year project. Fieldwork experience and familiarity with ethnographic research methods will be highly valued.
Relevant research experience in one of the contexts or topics of the Joint Research Project will be particularly advantageous.

Informal enquiries about the overall Joint Research Project should be addressed to ruy.blanes@gmail.com. Please contact each chair for specific instructions on applications.

Applicants interested in either of these four positions will need to send the respective chair a personal statement indicating why they think they are particularly well prepared to undertake this research, a short research proposal, letters of recommendation (two or three, depending on the University they are applying for) and a sample of written work.
Furthermore they will need to satisfy the criteria for acceptance to the PhD programmes of each of the universities involved. They will need to complete the respective application forms available on the links provided by each chair upon initial contact.

Deadline: Friday 21 June 2013 (noon).

Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview.

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) seeks a Program Officer or Program Coordinator to work with the Council’s Program on Religion and the Public Sphere. The Program Officer/Coordinator will work closely with the Program Director on a variety of program management and development activities. S/he will also be responsible for a range of social media and communications activities emanating from the program’s various projects and will play a central editorial and managerial role for two digital publications (The Immanent Frame and Reverberations).

Qualifications include a PhD, MA, or professional degree with relevance to the social sciences, humanities, or a closely related field of study. Demonstrated achievement in editorial/communications-oriented work is strongly preferred, as is academic training or interest in religion.

Annual salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Comprehensive benefits include health, prescription, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance; gym reimbursement; an outstanding pension plan and tax savings programs; generous vacations and sick leave; and more. Provisions are made for professional staff to continue their development as academics or researchers while at the Council.

For more information, see: http://www.ssrc.org/about/employment/

Postgraduate Research Scholarships in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR) University of Kent.

SSPSSR has a world-wide reputation for excellence and is one of the leading and largest research centres for social science in the UK. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, we were ranked joint third with 70% of our research being evaluated as either ‘World Leading’ or of ‘International excellence in terms of originality, significance and rigor.’

The School offers an unrivalled context in which to study for a PhD in the social sciences. We are a member of the South East Doctoral Training Centre (SEDTC) which awards scholarships funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the School has been awarded European Union Erasmus Mundus funding for a Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology (DCGC).

As a result of our success in the 2013 ESRC SEDTC Scholarship competition we are in a position to award additional PGR scholarships to commence in September 2013. These cover tuition fees at the postgraduate standard home/EU rate together with an annual maintenance stipend of £13,590 per annum.

We have a thriving postgraduate community of over 200 students and offer a large and diverse range of professional seminars, School seminar programmes, workshops, methods and advanced methods training, transferrable skills, study groups, and writing/career workshops (home and abroad) for our students. Present postgraduate students are conducting research into a wide range of issues including comparative social welfare; the third sector; violence; cultural criminology; new media and technology; work and employment; environmental movements; the sociology of the body; penal policy; intoxication and drug policy; social and cultural theory; suffering; youth transitions; the sociology of private space; sex, gender and sexuality; ethnicity and identity; evangelical church membership; and a wide range of other topics.

Further information about this New Round of Scholarship can be found here
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/postgraduate/feesandfunds.html
or email directly the Postgraduate Office
sspssr-pg-admin@kent.ac.uk

Deadline for receipt of applications is Thursday, the 27th of June 2013.
Interviews for shortlisted applicants will take place on Wednesday the 10th of July 2013

Dear Colleagues,
The Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions at SOAS invites applications for one PhD bursary for new dissertation projects on Japanese Religions.
The value of the bursary is £4000, which covers the fees for the first year of MPhil/PhD study at SOAS (UK/EU fees). If the successful candidate receives a grant to cover fees from another funding body the bursary may be used towards maintenance.Deadline for applications: 3 June 2013
Start of bursary: Fall semester 2013
Applications are invited from outstanding students of Japanese religions, regardless of nationality.
For further details on the application process and procedures, please visit our website: http://www.soas.ac.uk/csjr/bursaries/ For enquiries, please contact:
Email: scholarships@soas.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7074 5094/ 5091

Up to five PhD opportunities available in the Cluster of Excellence for “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster, Germany
An exciting opportunity exists for potential PhD students to fill up to five positions by October 1, 2013 in the Graduate School within the interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence for “Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures” at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster – University of Münster, Germany. The Cluster involves a large number of academics from the areas of History, Catholic and Protestant Theology, Jurisprudence, Islamic Studies, Islamic Theology, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Philology, Ethnology, Egyptology, Political Science, and the Sociology of Religion. Projects in the Cluster are grouped around four themes: Normativity, Mediality, Integration, and Violence. Further information about the research areas of the Cluster can be found at:
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/forschungsfelder.html

Each of these positions is half an E13 TV-L position (approximately € 1.100 net salary per month, including health insurance). Initially the positions are available for two years, with an extension of up to one year possible. Besides from working on their own projects, PhD students are expected to participate in the planning and organization of at least one conference or workshop. These workshops or conferences are expected to cover such areas as theory, methods, and the interpretation of source material. PhD students must also participate in the Cluster’s Doctoral Studies Programme. Information about the Graduate School and its study program can be found at:
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/graduiertenschule/index.shtml

We are seeking students who have demonstrated exceptional ability in the Humanities, Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, Law/Jurisprudence, or Theology/Religious Studies. Furthermore we are particularly interested in attracting students who have demonstrated high competence in interdisciplinary studies, have proven their ability to communicate their research to a variety of forums, and have the potential to establish themselves in international arenas. In order to facilitate communication and collaboration within the Graduate School, applicants who are not proficient in German will be encouraged to attend German language courses. Applicants are kindly requested to provide a five page description of their intended project (including a bibliography). It is expected that the project will complement the research aims and also one or more of the research areas of the Cluster. All doctoral projects will be supervised by Cluster professors.

Please send your application (including cover letter, CV, copies of transcripts, a project description, and two academic references) by May 15, 2013 to the Speaker of the Cluster of Excellence, Prof. Dr. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, preferably by email (with an attached PDF file):
Prof. Dr. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics in Pre-Modern and Modern Cultures“
Johannisstraße 1-4D – 48143 Münster, Germany
Email: Julia.simoleit@uni-muenster.de
Please direct any further enquiries to the coordinator of the Graduate School, Julia Simoleit (Julia.simoleit@uni-muenster.de).

PhD Scholarship
RELIGION AND SCHOOLS

Scholarship Description
A Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (MQRES) is available in the Department of Modern History Politics and International Relations with Prof. Marion Maddox’s Future Fellowship FT110100198.
Prof. Maddox is seeking a highly-motivated candidate with first-class honours in religious studies, politics, sociology or education to undertake a PhD on religion in schools. The ARC funded study to which this project is attached examines schooling in relation to religion-state controversies in Australia, France and US; but the PhD candidate need not be limited to those three. Interested prospective applicants should contact Prof. Maddox in the first instance.
Please refer to http://www.hdr.mq.edu.au/information_about/applications and quote allocation number 2012096 in your application.
Reference Number:6053
Study Subject: Religion in Schools
Web Address: http://www.hdr.mq.edu.au/information_about/scholarships/hdr_scholarships_domestic_candidates_only
Provided By:Macquarie University
To be undertaken at:Macquarie University
Level:Post Graduate
Availability This scholarship is offered once only to one person. Open for applications until 31 May 2013.

Payment Information
The value of this scholarship is AUD23728 (per annum). This award is to be used for living expenses. This scholarship is paid fortnightly for the period of 3 and a half years.
Eligibility
This scholarship is for study in Australia for those who have achieved Honours 1 or equivalent. Only citizens of Australia or New Zealand may apply.
For Further Information
Intending applicants should discuss their plans with Prof. Maddox by contacting her, in the first instance, at marion.maddox@mq.edu.au

The Department of Criminology and Sociology at Kingston University has three posts advertised which may be of interest. We have a wide remit for applicants to the Chair in Social Policy and will consider candidates with an international reputation in fields of Sociology that have social policy application. Colleagues working in the sociology of religion are most welcome to apply. Equally, the lecturer posts also have potential for applicants with expertise in the sociology of religion.

Best wishes,
Sylvie Collins-Mayo, Kingston University.

Chair in Social Policy
Salary: £52,396 – £67,962 Ref: 0787
You will use your expertise to provide intellectual inspiration to students and colleagues alike, as you provide leadership in strengthening our national and international research and educational partnerships. Building strong links with overseas bodies, you will also enable us to continue to attract international grant funding, and will contribute to the department’s reputation and strategic development.
This is a superb opportunity for a distinguished senior academic who is internationally recognised in the field of social policy. You will have a proven ability to attract external research funding, teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level, supervise doctoral students and liaise with policy-based organisations.

Lecturer in Sociology
Salary: £35,416 – £38,484 Ref: 0789
Adding your proven skills to a committed and forward-thinking team, you will teach undergraduates and postgraduates, supervise postgraduate research students, and deliver a personal programme of research and scholarship. You will strengthen the department’s academic management and profile, and will build links with other organisations to help us generate external income.
A highly experienced sociologist and researcher, you may have a track record of teaching in Higher Education. This will include experience of working with undergraduates and postgraduates, and knowledge of one or more of these areas: equality and social inclusion, policy evaluation, health and illness, social sustainability and quantitative research methods.

Lecturer in Criminology
Salary: £35,416 – £38,484 Ref: 0788
Teaching quantitative research methods to undergraduates and postgraduates, you will supervise postgraduate research students, and deliver a programme of research and scholarship. In addition, you will make a significant contribution to the department’s academic management, profile and reputation, and will help us generate external income by establishing links with other organisations.
This is a great opportunity for an experienced criminologist with a background of teaching in Higher Education and expertise in the area of criminal justice policy. You will have carried out high-profile and recent research, which you will have published in peer-reviewed publications. Finally, you must be comfortable working across disciplinary boundaries and communicating with a diverse range of audiences.

For more information and to apply for any role, visit www.kingston.ac.uk/jobs

Northwestern University’s Program of African Studies is accepting applications for a full-time tenured appointment at the rank of Associate or Full Professor with an active research agenda that focuses on the role of Islam in African societies.
The appointment will be contingent upon a successful tenure review.
The appointment will be in a home department in the College of Arts & Sciences (including but not limited to Religious Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, Literature, or History) and will be associated with the interdisciplinary Program of African Studies. The ability to engage across disciplines and the capacity to provide leadership for interdisciplinary collaboration to support the study of Islam at Northwestern University is highly desirable.

Applicants should submit
(1) a letter of intent describing their current research agenda and teaching experience/interests,
(2) representative written work,
3) a curriculum vitae, and
(4) the names and contact information for three referees via the application system found at
https://facultysearch.weinberg.northwestern.edu/apply/index/NjY.
Only electronic application materials will be accepted. The internal review process for applications will begin immediately and continue until October 1, 2013.
Questions can be directed to african-studies@northwestern.edu.
We strongly encourage women and minorities to apply. AA/EOE.
http://www.northwestern.edu/african-studies/position-available—islam-in-african-societies.html

Lecturer or Senior Lecturer or Reader in the Anthropology of Religion – A8/AAT/341/13-JM

Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London

The Department of Theology & Religious Studies seeks an appointment in the Anthropology of Religion, at Lecturer, Senior Lecturer or Reader level, to join King’s College London with effect from September/October 2013 (with a preferred start date of 1 September 2013). The successful candidate will teach in the field of the anthropology of religion, and will have a strong research background in the classical approaches to theory and method in the social anthropological study of religion, as well as in more recent and cutting-edge theoretical and methodological innovations. Regional and thematic focus is open.

The Department of Theology & Religious Studies at King’s is a large, thriving and highly multi-disciplinary Department, specialising in the study of both mainstream and new religions from a variety of perspectives. Areas of particular strength are the study of conviviality and conflict involving religions in contemporary societies, including issues of religious diversity and secularism, and the study of religion in the arts, literature and film.

The successful candidate will teach undergraduate courses (modules) for the new BA degree in Religion, Politics and Society, and for the MA programme Religion in Contemporary Society. S/he will be expected to attract PhD students and will participate in the intellectual life of the Department and School. Teaching experience and evidence of a strong research and publications record are required, as is the commitment to the academic and institutional development of the social scientific study of religions in the Department.

All candidates should have completed a PhD degree, and be in a position to make a strong submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF). They should be prepared to teach both specialist undergraduate and MA modules in their area of expertise.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 15 May 2013

Equality of opportunity is College policy.

The appointment will be made, dependent on relevant qualifications, within the Grade 6 to Grade 8 scale, currently £31,331 to £54,826, per annum plus £2,323 per annum London Allowance.

For an informal discussion of the post please contact Dr. Marat Shterin on 0207 848 2637, or via email at marat.shterin@kcl.ac.uk<mailto:marat.shterin@kcl.ac.uk>.

Further details and application packs are available on the College’s website at www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs. All correspondence should clearly state the job title and reference number A8/AAT/341/13-JM. If you have any queries please contact your Recruitment Co-ordinator at recruitmentteam3@kcl.ac.uk

To apply click http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13073

Appointment of Post-doctoral researcher

Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies seeks to appoint a Post-doctoral researcher to work on a project investigating the Church of England’s involvement in Chaplaincy.

See link for more information: http://stmichaels.ac.uk/job-vacancies.php

A letter of application and CV, with the names of two referees, should be sent to:
The Rev’d Dr Andrew Todd, Director, Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, St. Michael’s College, Cardiff Road, Llandaff, Cardiff. CF5 2YJ. ToddAJ@cf.ac.uk
Closing date for applications: Friday 12th April 2013
Interviews to be held: Tuesday 23rd April 2013 in Cardiff