[Andalusi Studies] Call for 15 ESRs positions at the ITN MIDA project

[ISABEL FIERRO BELLO]

The Innovative Training Network MIDA “Mediating Islam in the Digital
Age” - funded by  the European union's Horizon 2020  under the Marie
Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement N°813547 - is a consortium of
different European institutions and other partner organisations
coordinated by Prof. Pascal Buresi - Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS) - Institut d’études de l’Islam et des sociétés du
monde musulman.
https://www.itn-mida.org/ (some information below).

15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) positions are now being advertised.
Those attached to the CSIC in Spain (at the Escuela de
Estudios Arabes, Granada, dir. M. Penelas, at the Instituto Mila i
Fontanals, dir. A. Gonzalez Vazquez, and at the Instituto de Lenguas y
Culturas del Mediterráneo, dir. M. Fierro) deal with issues related to
al-Andalus and North Africa.
They are ESRs numbers 4, 12 and 15.

Those interested in applying can find the calls at

https://www.itn-mida.org/callforposition
Application forms:
https://www.itn-mida.org/applicationform

We shall appreciate if you can spread this information.

Maribel Fierro


ITN programs are designed to combine scientific research with an
intensive training trajectory for young scholars in order to equip
them with the necessary comprehensive knowledge and skills. These
researchers work in an inter-sectoral, interdisciplinary and
international environment to deepen their knowledge and to find
answers to pressing contemporary societal issues.

The MIDA-project rests on the premise that digitisation and
technological innovations have a tremendous impact on Islam, the
effects of which are diverse and ubiquitous. They include first and
foremost modes of expression and communication of religious messages
and traditions and modes of engagement with society. Digitisation and
concurrent innovations as they emerged in the past decades belong to
the list of comparable fundamental technological transformations in
human history such as the invention of paper, printing technology,
steam power, electricity and telecommunication, which constituted
major upheavals, even if these were not experienced in all societies
and by everyone at the same time, in the same way.

It is commonly recognised that the digital revolution will indeed
deeply transform human societies, much as the industrial revolution
did in the nineteenth century. However, the rapid changes that are
currently taking place generate a sense of loss of control and
instability among the general public, politicians, journalists,
academics, and, not least, among Muslims themselves. The spread of
modern digital media and new technologies of communication, production
and dissemination, prompts researchers and social actors, Muslims and
non-Muslims alike, to make sense of, and to understand these
developments. Consequently, they have shaken up Islam as a field of
academic study and have impacted on the ways Islam is to be studied in
the future. The specificity of the current digital revolution calls
for a re-evaluation of past situations and reflection on future
prospects.

MIDA assesses these developments in all their dimensions by
formulating three major questions: How does digitisation (1) shape
Islam (i.e. beliefs, practices, societies, political organizations,
social institutions, and outlooks); (2) modify the relation Muslims
have with their past; (3) modify and reorganize scholarship and
research on Islam?

MIDA takes Islam as a broad field, not confined to theological
dimensions as such. The study of Islam implies the study of mediating
practices and concomitant social, political and cultural implications
in past and present and consists of three interlocking dimensions. The
first concerns texts, doctrines, material culture, and rituals as
means to bridge the distance between the individual and the divine and
to generate religious experience and reflection. The second dimension
concerns the social, cultural, visual and institutional environments
and settings in which mediation takes place, and the actors that are
involved. The third dimension concerns social and political
institutions and power relations in which mediation is embedded. An
overall aim of the project is to understand how digitisation
instigates renewed attention for the impact of similar processes in
the past.