Irish Research Council Laureate Award PhD Scholarships
Three Department of History staff members - Dr Isabella Jackson, Dr Immo Warntjes, Dr Francis Ludlow - have been awarded prestigious Irish Research Council (IRC) Laureate Awards, which include funding for PhD students in the following areas:
- IFCE: The Irish Foundation of Carolingian Europe – the case of calendrical science (computus) (Dr Warntjes)
- CHINACHILD: Slave-girls and the Discovery of Female Childhood in Twentieth-century China (Dr Jackson)
The Irish Foundation of Carolingian Europe the case of calendrical science (computus)
The project lies at the heart of our understanding of the formation of Europe. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the rise of Islam in the 7th led to a shift from the Mediterranean as the focal point of the known world to a tripartite division with limited interactions (Latin West, Greek East, Arabic South). In the following four centuries, the Latin West developed from its Frankish center to Europe in the form and with the ethnicities and states that we know today. But was the intellectual formation of Europe a development that owed principally to the Carolingian Empire (and its ‘Renaissance’) around the pivotal figure of Charlemagne (†814)? Or were the intellectual achievements of the periphery of the previous century instrumental in shaping European history
The project prosed here aims at systematically analysing, for the first time, the Irish contribution to the intellectual formation of Europe on the basis of one subject, computus (calendrical science), making accessible still unknown key texts and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the computistical manuscript composed between c. 600 and 900 in key areas of Irish influence.
There will be three main elements: (i) edition, translation, and commentary of the two most important texts, the Computus Einsidlensis (composed c.AD 700) and Dicuil’s Liber de astronomia (written in AD 814-6), with the aim of defining Irish diagnostic features (‘objects’); (ii) a newly developed digital ‘Object Based Catalogue’ of computistical manuscripts which will make it possible to trace the transmission of Irish ideas (the ‘objects’) and reconstruct continental networks of Irish thought; and (iii) a synthesis of the findings and defining the Irish contribution to every aspect of this discipline. Overall, the project has the potential to rewrite the intellectual history of early medieval Europe, and to securely define and contextualise the achievements of the Irish ‘Golden Age’.
The 3 PhD students will be involved in the first two parts of the project:
- PhD project 1: First edition, translation, and commentary of the Computus Einsidlensis, the earliest textbook on the reckoning of time in medieval Europe
- PhD project 2: First translation and commentary of Dicuil’s Liber de astronomia, one of the most original and sophisticated scientific texts of the Carolingian Renaissance.
- PhD project 3: The spread of Irish calendrical thought in Carolingian Europe - Object Oriented Cataloguing of computistical manuscripts
Application
Candidates can apply generically for all three positions, or for one in particular. Applicants must meet the general requirements for a PhD at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Candidates have to apply through the TCD system. Applications have to be submitted by following the link for Doctor in Philosophy, History (Full Time) under September 2018 entry here.
The following documents are required (see also these general application guidelines):
- A motivation letter, to be uploaded under ‘research proposal’
- Two letters of recommendation
- Certified academic transcripts for all degrees
- Certified degree certificates for all degrees
- A detailed CV, to be uploaded under ‘additional documents’
- A writing sample (an academic essay, an article, a chapter from a dissertation, or the like), to be uploaded under ‘additional documents’
- For non-native English speakers without a degree from an English-speaking institution, a language test is required (TOEFL or IELTS); the application can be submitted without the test, but any offer made will be conditional until the required test results are submitted
The application may be followed up by a skype interview in mid-June. For any questions or informal discussions, do not hesitate to contact Dr Immo Warntjes
A PhD Scholarship is available for a student to work on the Irish Research Council Laureate Award-funded CHINACHILD project in the Department of History, Trinity College Dublin, under the supervision of Dr Isabella Jackson, beginning in September 2018 (or, exceptionally, March 2019).
Slave-girls and the Discovery of Female Childhood in Twentieth-century China (Dr Jackson)
For much of Chinese history, childhood as a period of education and development when young people should be nurtured and their innocence protected was a category that was applied almost exclusively to elites and boys. Elite girls and poorer boys might access education and some of the other characteristics of childhood, but poor girls were not included. Instead they were treated as small women, often sold in the same way that women could be sold by their families as wives, concubines, or mui tsai/binü, and when they were protected under law or as potential victims of abuse, they were categorised with adult women.
This is the picture that emerges from the current, quite limited, historiography of Chinese childhood, which focuses on the education of elite boys (Saari 1990; Wang 2013) and examines girls only through the prism of women (Kinney 2004, 120-31). CHINACHILD will address how public and official discourse about girls changed between approx. 1919 and 1959 to include the poor and girls in a universal conception of childhood. Dr Jackson’s research as Principal Investigator (PI) will focus on what changing responses to child slavery reveal about conceptions of childhood and girlhood.
The project aims to:
- Open a new field of enquiry in modern Chinese history that explains the expansion of the category of ‘child’ to include girls of all social classes between 1919 and 1959. This will dramatically alter the existing landscape of the field of childhood studies, not just in relation to China but highlighting the need for gender to be central to examinations of childhood in all contexts. It will also have ramifications for women’s and gender history and the study of women and gender in contemporary China.
- Redraw the line between gender and childhood, showing how women and girls developed into separate categories in Chinese society and challenging scholars to take better account of this in their research.
The PhD student will undertake research that contributes to one or both of these aims. It is anticipated that the student will undertake oral history research examining memories of childhood experiences and attitudes towards childhood, but alternative proposals that address the aims of the project are welcome.
Scholarship
€16,000 annual stipend + €5,750 towards fees p.a. for four years.
Academic requirements:
- Excellent English and Chinese language skills.
- Preference will be given to an applicant who has completed or is completing a Master’s degree in History with a good grade, especially if they have training in oral history methodologies.
- Applicants must also meet the general requirements for a PhD at Trinity College Dublin, including a good undergraduate degree in History or a closely related subject.
How to apply
Applicants should contact Dr Isabella Jackson prior to applying. Applications should then be submitted by following the link for Doctor in Philosophy, History (Full Time) under September 2018 entry here.
The following documents are required:
- Two academic references
- A research proposal showing how a student’s research plans meet the project aims (proposal guidelines)
- Certified academic transcripts for all degrees
- Certified degree certificates for all degrees
- A writing sample (e.g. an academic essay, article, or dissertation chapter)
- For non-native English speakers without a degree from an English-speaking institution, a language qualification is required; the application can be submitted without the certificate, but any offer made will be conditional until the required test results are received
For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://histories-humanities.tcd.ie/postgraduate/IRC-PhD-scholarships.php?utm_source=ARMACAD.info&utm_medium=ARMACAD.info