Postdoc “The Brill Fellowship” at Centre for the History of Arabic Studies — LIMITE : 31/01/2014

The publishing house Brill (Leiden) is sponsoring an annual research Fellowship at the Warburg Institute’s Centre for the History of Arabic Studies in Europe. The Fellowship has been made possible by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for publishing, which Brill won in 2012.

The Brill Fellowship at CHASE, of two or three months duration, is intended for a postdoctoral researcher. The Fellowship will be awarded for research projects on any aspect of the relations between Europe and the Arab World from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The Brill Fellows will have access to all Brill encyclopedias online for the duration of the Fellowship. The Fellow will be expected to contribute to the academic activities of the Warburg Institute and to give a seminar and a lecture on the topic for which they have been awarded their Fellowship.

Details for Applicants

Eligibility: Candidates must normally have been awarded their doctorate within the preceding five years, i.e. after 1 October 2008. If their doctorate was awarded before this date, they should explain the reasons for any interruption in their academic career in a covering letter.

General Conditions: Those employed as Professor, Lecturer or equivalent in a university or learned institution may normally hold an award only if they are taking unpaid leave for the whole of the period. Those who have previously held a short-term Fellowship at the Institute or are registered at the Institute for a degree are not eligible to apply. The Fellowship may not be held concurrently with another Fellowship or award. Other things being equal, preference will be given to candidates who do not live within daily travelling distance of the Institute.

Fellows may teach elsewhere during tenure of the Fellowship only with the express permission of the Director. They will be required to present a brief written report at the conclusion of their appointment. A Fellowship may be terminated if the Appointing Committee is not satisfied that the conditions of the award are being met. All publications containing results of work done with the aid of the Fellowship shall include adequate acknowledgement of the fact.

Value of Fellowships: The Fellowship does not provide a stipend but gives financial support towards living and subsistence costs in London and towards travel expenses. The value of the Fellowships (at 2013/14 rates) are: £2,500 for two months, £3,600. The amount of these payments is absolute; no additional costs will be paid.

Tenure: The Brill Fellowship is tenable at the Warburg Institute the Brill Fellow must hold at least three-quarters of the award during term-time. The approximate term dates for 2014-15 will be early October to mid-December 2014; mid-January to mid-March 2015; late April to the end of June 2015. Applicants should specify the length of Fellowship for which they are applying (see 1 below) but do not need to state in their application when they would wish to hold a Fellowship. Those awarded a three-month Fellowships will need to stay at the Institute for a full three month period, i.e. for longer than one term.

Selection: No interviews will be held. Shortlisted candidates only will be contacted in early February 2014 to ask them to submit samples of their written work. All shortlisted candidates will then be informed of the final outcome of their application in March 2014.

Applications

There is no application form. Applications should be made by email to warburg@sas.ac.uk by 12 noon on Friday 31 January 2014, and should include the following information:

1. Completed cover sheet (download cover sheet by clicking here).

2. A curriculum vitae giving full details of name, date of birth, address (including email address) and present occupation, school and university education, degrees, teaching and research experience. Please ensure that you include start and end dates for all positions/scholarships/study periods etc held.

3. An outline of proposed research (of no more than 1,000 words) and the title of your research project.

4. The names and addresses of not more than three persons who have agreed to write, without further invitation, to the Director, Professor Peter Mack,  in support of the application. These letters of reference should reach the Director by Friday, 31 January 2014. They must be signed by the referee and sent separately by the referee direct to the Director of the Institute. References may be scanned and sent by e-mail to warburg(at)sas.ac.uk or forwarded in hard copy by post.  It is the responsibility of candidates to ask their referees to submit references by 31 January 2014.

5. If you wish to add any additional comments you may enclose a covering letter.

Persons who submitted an application for the award of a Brill Fellowship as part of the Warburg Institute general short term fellowship scheme which closed on 29 November 2013 do not need to submit any further information.  For technical reasons the call for applications for the Brill Fellowship for 2014-15 has been extended until 31 January 2014.

Notes: Please note that all application documents must be sent as a single PDF document by email to warburg(at)sas.ac.uk. Please name your application document as follows: Surname_ST Fellowship application, e.g. Smith_ST Fellowship application. Candidates should NOT submit publications or written work with their application. Those shortlisted will be contacted in early February and will be asked to send material at that stage of the application process.

Closing date

Applications must be emailed to the Institute by no later than 12 noon on Friday, 31 January 2014. All enquiries regarding the Fellowship should be made to the Institute Manager (catherine.charlton@sas.ac.uk)