Senior Research Fellowships + 2 PostDoc Positions "Multiple Secularities" (Univ. Leipzig)

Senior Research Fellowships + 2 PostDoc Positions "Multiple Secularities" (Univ. Leipzig)

Employer
KFG "Multiple Secularities"
Place of work
Leipzig
Country
Germany
From - Until
01.04.2020 - 31.03.2024
Deadline
30.01.2020
By
Johannes Duschka

Since 2016, we have been investigating forms of conceptual distinction and arrangements of social differentiation between religious and other social spheres, practices, interpretive frameworks, institutions and discourses. To such arrangements, which are often contentious, we refer with the heuristic term ‘secularities’. Based on the hypothesis that drawing boundaries between the religious and the non-religious is neither an exclusive sign of modernity nor the ‘West’, we have yet explored corresponding emic taxonomies, forms of institutional differentiation and modes of demarcation in different eras and areas especially in the Islamicate World and several regions in Central, East, South and Southeast Asia. In the second funding phase, starting in 2020, we will regionally focus on the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Israel. Systematically, we especially want to shed light on the following aspects:

1.) path dependencies and probabilities, global entanglements, cultural encounters and processes of cultural transfer and translation

2.) processes of both religionisation and secularisation as well as of culturalisation and heritagisation

3.) the heterogeneity of ‘Western’ secularities

4.) the development and use of symbolic binaries and the relation between epistemic and social structures

5.) materiality of the religious and the secular and markers of secularity

We are looking for:

A) Two PostDocs for full-time post-doctoral positions (TV-L E 13), from May 2020 to March 2024.

Applicants should be interested in addressing theoretical questions and able to relate them to historical developments. Both PostDocs will each work both on a research project of their own choice that relates directly to the centre’s overarching research programme and the Multiple Secularities approach, as well as contribute to the further development of this approach itself. Thus, all applicants should fulfil the following requirements:

- research experience on questions of secularity, secularisation and secularism;
- empirical research experience (historical or contemporary) in one of the following regions: the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, or Israel

Additionally, applicants for the first position (Post-doc I) should have research experience in Historical Sociology and in qualitative methodology.

Applicants for the second position (Post-doc II) should have empirical research experience in the (historical) study of religion and in questions of the materiality of the religious and the secular (e.g. arts, architecture, …).

The researchers will have to be present in Leipzig and be willing to work with a group of scholars from Leipzig as well as with international fellows on the topic of the centre. English is the primary language of communication at the centre. However, applicants ideally should have basic knowledge of German or at least be willing to acquire basic knowledge quickly.

Persons, who are interested, please send their CV, research proposal (2000 words max.) publication list, work sample (one published article or chapter) and a letter of intent by 30 January 2020 as one pdf-file

Moreover we are constantly looking for:

B) Senior Research Fellows from April 2020 onwards

As a research group, the KFG intends to provide a stimulating academic environment in which innovative research topics can be dealt with through discussion and debate within a small group of researchers. Since the research group can only be effective with its fellows’ attendance and contribution, we expect fellows to be present regularly at the KFG, to be prepared for meetings, to make active contributions to discussions and to contribute to the KFG’s Working Paper Series as well as to its Companion to the Study of Secularity. The research group and its fellows organise regular workshops, in which fellows also take active roles depending on their research focus.

Fellowships will be awarded for periods between 6 and 12 months, in exceptional cases shorter stays (at least 2 months) will be possible as well. The scholarship amount depends on the scholar’s status:

Experienced Researchers:
- scholars holding a postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) or working at least at the level of Assistant Professor or Junior Research Group Leader or having a record of several years of independent academic work
- €3170 scholarship a month OR reduced fellowship of €750 per month and coverage of costs for the substitute of scholars, who are on paid leave from their home institution (€8.925 per month at maximum)
- actual accommodation costs (up to the respective rate at the university’s guest house)
- actual travel costs to and from Leipzig
- travel costs for trips, that are related to the research within the KFG
- additional allowances for the compatibility of family and career

PostDoctoral Researchers:
- €1750 scholarship and €250 subsidy for material costs a month OR alternatively: reduced fellowship of €750 per month and coverage of costs for the substitute of scholars, who are on paid leave from their home institution (€6.175 per month at maximum) for foreign researchers
- Researchers with German nationality will be employed at the level TV-L E 13
- actual accommodation costs (up to the respective rate at the university’s guest house)
- actual travel costs to and from Leipzig
- travel costs for trips, that are related to the research within the KFG

Applications are possible at any time and should include a CV, research proposal (2000 words max.) publication list, work sample (one published article or chapter), a letter of intent as well as information on the preferred time slot of the fellowship as one pdf-file.