07/03/2022
Call for applications
Master’s Scholarship
Deadline: 21st March 2022
The Arab Master’s programme in Democracy and Human Rights coordinated by the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University of Beirut invites applications for scholarships funded through the research initiative Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts, based at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI).
Background
Imagining Futures through Un/Archived Pasts is founded on the idea that archives are negotiations about visions of the future – of those whose story will continue to be told and how
– and that these become acute during post-conflict, displacement and reconstruction. It draws on the widest meaning of archive by including documents, material remains and creations, landscapes, oral transmissions, song, bodily movements, daily customs and ancestral laws. Its aim is to build methodologies of egalitarian archiving practices that allows for co-existence and recognition of multiple experiences and narratives of the past that challenge a singular “we”. The project’s aspirations, in recognizing the power of archives, is to make them sites of engagement through exploratory Labs, commissioned projects, creations of new archives, preservation of archives under threat, reading existing archives against the grain, and (re)thinking sites of memory. http://imagingingfutures.world/
Eligibility Criteria
The prospective applicant must gain admission to the master’s programme in Human Rights and
Democratisation at Saint Joseph University of Beirut.
The applicant must be interested in working on the intersection of archival practices (defined in the broadest sense) and human rights, with a specific focus on the theme of archival violence and violence in the archives.
We particularly welcome applicants from the Middle East and North Africa and vulnerable or marginalised groups from the region (or from beyond if currently based in Lebanon).
Research Focus
The research should address the question of archival practice and violence, taking into account the broad definition of the meaning of archive given by Imagining Futures. It can include for example:
· Digital engagement with narratives of violent historical pasts and archive making.
· Archival practices that create imaginaries and expose shared pasts as well as diversity.
· Consideration of over-writing and erasure
· How archives can silence as well as uncover
· How to reveal embodied testimonies – the scream in the archive
· The ethics of showcasing and mapping sites/moments of violence
· Who are the stakeholders, the witnesses, the target audience of these memories
Scholarship Value
10 000 euros (4000 covering tuition costs for 60 credits, and 6000 euros supporting living costs, 4000 for the academic year 2022-2023, and 2000 for the academic year 2023-2024), in addition to a tuition waiver for the second year of the master’s programme.
Application Procedure
Submit your application via email to [email protected] Your application must include the following documents:
· A letter of motivation explaining why you are interested in the scholarship.
· A short draft research proposal (up to 1500 words) outlining the research project.
· A copy of your application to the Arab Master’s programme.
· A copy of your Curriculum Vitae.
· Copies of your Academic records (BA or MA).
· An Academic reference letter.
