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*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 ([log in to unmask]).

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 (
[log in to unmask]) 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 (
[log in to unmask]).

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 ([log in to unmask]).

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 [log in to unmask] 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.

-- 
Ruy Llera Blanes
ruyblanes.com
Postdoctoral Researcher @ Department of Social Anthropology, University of
Bergen
Associated Researcher @ Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Visiting Fellow @ Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics

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