Call for Applications: Summer School "In Search of the Reader" | Application deadline: 30 April 2021
The AGYA International Bilingual Summer School "In Search of the Reader: New Approaches to Practices, Functions, and Histories of Reading in Arabic Literature, Arts, Media, and Culture" which is a part of the Summer School Project "Towards Multi-Perspectival Arabic Studies | Arabische Philologien im Blickwechsel", welcomes research projects on practices, functions, and histories of reading with regard to various texts and media, including images, music, and film. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: - authors, copyists, publishers, critics, scholars, etc. as readers; - historical and socio-cultural practices and functions of reading (including listening and watching); - textual (or medial) conceptualizations of the reader, reading, and readerships; - empirical approaches to readers, reading communities, and reading practices; - reading practices according to different genres and media; - textual (or medial) reader guidance and its aesthetic and epistemic functions; - theories of the reader and reading in philosophy, literary and cultural studies, media and art studies, etc. Each scholar will have the opportunity to present and discuss his/her research project. In view of the digital format of the Summer School, they are asked to prepare, in advance, a video presentation of their research projects, which will be distributed to all the participants and discussed intensively in small working groups during the Summer School. Professional academic language trainers will offer individual coaching in order to enable the participants to improve their presentation skills. In addition, all participants will discuss in plenary sessions theoretical approaches based on selected Arabic and English texts that will be provided by the organizers beforehand. The Summer School is organized by AGYA members Christian Junge (Philipps-Universität Marburg) and Enass Khansa (American University of Beirut) and AGYA alumni Barbara Winckler (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster) and Bilal Orfali (American University of Beirut). It is part of the research projects of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). Important dates: - Preparatory meeting: 29 May 2021 - Two individual coaching sessions: mid-June and mid-July 2021 - Summer School: 16−20 August 2021 | Online - Application deadline: 30 April 2021 All sessions are mandatory. Requirements Interested researchers are invited to submit an abstract of his/her research project in English or Arabic (3−5 pages, including a passage related to the Summer school’s thematic focus, i.e. readers and reading practices), a short letter of motivation, a short CV, and the names of two academic references (one single pdf file) to arabic-philologies@agya.info by 30 April 2021. The selected participants will be requested to prepare a short video presentation of (parts of) their current research project (30 min.) in English or Arabic; they are expected to use the language they are less familiar with in their academic practice. The participants will have two individual coaching sessions with an academic language trainer as well as technical support in order to improve their presentation. In addition, they are supposed to prepare the English and Arabic texts distributed beforehand (ca. 60 pages in total) and participate actively in plenary discussions. Good knowledge of Arabic and English is required. More information on the Summer School can be found in the complete call text and the websites provided hereinafter: http://arabic-philologies.de/docs/Arabic_Philologies-Summer_School_2021-Call_Engl_Arabic.pdf http://arabic-philologies.de/en/ http://www.arabic-philologies.de/ar/index.html The Funding of the Summer School is still subject to final project approval. AGYA is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and various Arab cooperation partners. For more information about AGYA please visit: www.agya.info
Keywords
Arabic literature, Interdisciplinary approaches, Cultural studies
