Application and Residency Conditions 2024-25
Born in Cordoba in 1126 and died in Marrakech in 1198, Averroes/Ibn Rushd was a medieval thinker at the crossroads of multiple cultures: Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. As an Andalusian philosopher and jurist, he produced one of the most influential philosophical works of the medieval period. It was primarily his commentaries on Aristotle that earned him great renown in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim worlds. His Decisive Treatise / Fasl al maqal is a major work that established the role of reason in Islam and paved the way for critical thinking.
The Averroes Chair aims to restore the rightful place of critical thinking in contemporary Islam. Beyond all forms of literalism and exegesis, it seeks to situate Islamic thought within history and contextual frameworks that invite comparative analyses of religious phenomena.
This chair embraces a resolutely interdisciplinary approach, while placing Islamic studies at the center of its inquiries. It also engages philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, the study of texts and their translations and re-translations in the absence of the original text, as well as issues of transmission between cultural and religious heritages.
The Averroes Chair aims to foster new forms of understanding of Muslim religious phenomena and Islamic practices in the Mediterranean, in relation to other religions of the Mediterranean region (Judaism, Christianity).
Regarding Mediterranean Islam: This reference to Mediterranean Islam, inspired by the writings of Jacques Berque and Mohammed Arkoun, seeks to go beyond the classical boundaries generated by a certain Orientalism. Questioning Mediterranean Islam from the perspective of the Averroes Chair is a way to transcend borders, both in terms of knowledge and temporal, symbolic, and institutional boundaries. It is also a way to take into account religious plurality and the diversity of historical heritages, including the Judeo-Arabic heritage and the Greco-Latin and Greco-Arabic legacies. Situating Muslim religious phenomena within migratory trajectories that connect the shores of the Mediterranean is also a way to weave alternative genealogies in the Mediterranean history of Islamic thought.
Deadline : October 16, 2023 at 1:00 pm (french time)
Duration of residence: 5 months
Residence period: September, 2, 2024 to January 31, 2025
Candidates meeting the following conditions are eligible for selection:
- Hold a doctorate or PhD;
- Not have resided in France for more than 12 months in the three years preceding the call for applications;
- Have an employment contract (permanent or not) in a foreign university or research institution during the residency.
Future holders of the Averroès Chair will be called upon to :
- Develop critical thought.
- Be intellectual and scientific authorities in their field.
- Have the capacity to transmit knowledge to the public, notably through the organization of conferences.
- Propose an original approach to their field of research.
- Be in touch with the major issues of knowledge and, if possible, the major challenges of our time.
The chairholder will receive a 3,000 euro fixed monthly allowance during their stay.
They will also benefit from paid travel expenses and free accommodation on Iméra premises.
The criteria used by an international, multi-disciplinary jury to evaluate the applications are:
- Scientific excellence of the researcher, in line with the highest international standards in the field;
- The scientific quality of the project, and in particular its interdisciplinary dimension, which is decisive for its integration into the collective thinking process at Iméra;
- The researcher’s ability to think ahead;
- The researcher’s international recognition and the originality of the proposed series of public lectures.
Online applications must include the following supporting documents:
- A duly completed application form (mandatory fields);
- A curriculum vitae including a list of publications;
- A presentation of the project (maximum 5 pages) followed by a selective bibliography (compulsory for researchers);
- A letter of support from an Aix-Marseille University researcher or associate/assistant professor.