IMéRA: Call for applications┋Mediterranean Programme

IMéRA (AMU) is an institute for advanced study and a member of RFIEA (French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study), NETIAS (Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study) and UBIAS (University-Based Institutes for  Advanced Studies).

Each year the Institute hosts about thirty artists and scientists of all disciplines (residents), selected after an evaluation procedure with the most stringent international standards, shortlisting of applications and external evaluators.

IMéRA promotes innovative experimental interdisciplinary approaches in all areas of knowledge. Since September 2016, the research activity within the institute has hinged around four thematic programmes : Art, Science and Society ; Crossing paths: explorations of interdisciplinarity ; Mediterranean programme ; Global Phenomena and Regulation

Mediterranean Programme

Each year, IMéRA hosts researchers, writers and artists working in the field of “Mediterranean Studies” as part of the Mediterranean Programme.

As an observatory of cross-disciplinary Mediterranean issues, IMéRA focuses on opening up to the Mediterranean world. Residents hosted by IMéRA within the Mediterranean Programme will be selected on the basis of their own questions and through a cross-disciplinary approach exploring the Mediterranean world in its diversity.

The Mediterranean Programme addresses all issues of interdisciplinary interest related to the Mediterranean area, including mainly the following three :

• Mediterranean Islam

The notion of Mediterranean Islam stems from the works of Jacques Berque and Mohammed Arkoun.
The aim is to contextualise Islam, far from any essentialism or literalism, in its Mediterranean dimension. Mediterranean Islam crosses borders, embraces population flows and diasporas, from one side of the Mediterranean to the other, takes into account multiple historical and civilizational heritages as well as secular contexts, and recognizes the place of the Other, especially religious minorities.
To consider Mediterranean Islam helps open other paths and offer possible alternatives to the rigorist, literalist or Salafist visions currently pervading and deeply influencing contemporary Islam.
The approach will be resolutely cross-disciplinary, encompassing philosophy, law, history, anthropology, the study of texts and their translations, as well as issues of transmission between Greco-Latin and Judeo-Arabic legacies.

Residents working on this theme will be invited to contribute to the expression of critical thought in contemporary and Mediterranean Islam and to the circulation of ideas in the Mediterranean. They will work in conjunction with the holder of a dedicated Chair, Averroes Chair, sponsored by the Aix-Marseille University Initiative for Excellence (Fondation A*MIDEX) and Fondation de l'Islam de France.

• Ways of life in the Mediterranean

The question “How to live?” or the "Ways of life" issue is a sensitive plate, an analyser that helps reveal the transformation of our ways of life, at the crossroads of thought and creation.

Mediterranean ways of life are the subject of an IMéRA research workshop to which residents will be called upon to contribute actively. This will be about exploring everyday Mediterranean-scale culture, styles and forms of life that are at work and being transformed before our eyes, taking in new visions and opening up new perspectives.

Way of life approach is interdisciplinary by nature, involving research in human and social science as well as hard science, critical thinking, literary or visual creation. Researchers, such as writers and artists, can answer the call in this domain.

In particular, they can work with the holder of the Camus Chair - open to applications in this call (details below) - dedicated to literature and new forms of writing, sponsored by the Aix-Marseille University Initiative for Excellence (A*MIDEX).

• Tomorrow(s)

How to give the future a new face? Can we imagine the post-disaster scene? Can new prospective approaches emerge in the Mediterranean world?

Considering climate change and the current upheavals in our eco-systems, how can we anticipate the future? What transformations of our ways of life can we expect in the Mediterranean?

Residents working on this theme will be invited to contribute to an open reflection on international issues in the Mediterranean, drawing upon the diversity of their questionings and disciplines. The Chair “Germaine Tillion, tomorrow the Mediterranean” is now open in this 2019 call, for a residency in 2020-2021 (details below).

CONTACT : Thierry Fabre, director of Mediterranean Programme - thierry.fabre@univ-amu.fr

Application

Applicants to this call may submit applications either to:

• the general programme described above
• the Chair Camus IMéRA/A*MIDEX.
• the Chair Germaine Tillion IMéRA/Région Sud

The choice must be specified in the application form ("Application options").

Schedule

Deadline : 26 September 2019 at 1:00 pm (french time)

Duration of residences: 5 or 10 months

Residence periods (to be chosen by the candidates, several choices are possible):

• 7 Sept 2020 to 3 Feb 2021 (5 months - Semester 1)
• 15 Feb 2021 to 9 July 2021 (5 months - Semester 2)
• 7 Sept 2020 to 9 July 2021 (10 months - Full year) - only for scientists

Who can qualify ?

For the 4 programmes, applications are open to scientists of all disciplines, both junior and senior.

Applications are also open to artists for “Art, Science and Society” programme and to writers for “Mediterranean” programme.

IMéRA also participates in the programs for “Researchers in exile” supported by the French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study (RFIEA) and the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research (MESR).

To be eligible, applicants must meet the following conditions:

- Carry out a project related to one of the 4 programmes (see above)

- For scientists :

• Not to have lived in France more than 12 months during the three years preceding this call for applications;
• Hold a Doctorate or PhD;
• With the exception of applicants to the programmes for "Researchers in exile", have an employment contract (permanent or not) in a foreign university or research institution during the residency.

- For writers :

• Not to have lived in France more than 12 months during the three years preceding this call for applications.

- For artists : no conditions of diploma, employment contract or country of residence.

Remuneration and accommodation

Scientist remuneration

• Junior: €2,000 net monthly allowance
• Senior: €3,000 net monthly allowance

Junior Class: Researchers who have 2 to 9 years of full-time research experience after obtaining the PhD (PhD training is not considered in the calculation of experience) as at the closing date of the call for applications.

Senior Class: Researchers with minimum 10 years’ experience in full-time research after obtaining the PhD (PhD training is not considered in the calculation of experience) as at the closing date of the call for applications, and university professors.

Artist and writers remuneration

Artists and writers receive an allowance or salary (depending on their candidate status), which amounts to 2000 euros net per month for artists and 2300 euros for writers.

Residents will also benefit from paid travel expenses and free accommodation on IMéRA premises.

Selection Criteria

Application assessment criteria include, but are not limited to:

• Candidate's course
• Research project / writing project / research project for a creation;
• Interdisciplinary component;
• Relevance of the research project in terms of its connection with the Aix-Marseille area (potential local resources – field, archives, etc.).

Application

Online applications must include:

• Duly completed application form (mandatory fields);
• Files to be downloaded :
  • Curriculum Vitae with a list of publications and/or creations/exhibitions for artists;
  • Presentation of the project (maximum 5 pages) with selective bibliography;
  • For junior researchers: one to three letters of recommendation.

Mediterranean Programme 2020-2021- Camus Chair IMéRA/A*MIDEX : Application and residency conditions 

Every year, IMéRA hosts researchers, artists and, since 2019, has also welcomed a writer in residence as part of the Mediterranean Programme, with particular and invaluable support from the Aix-Marseille University Excellence Initiative (A*MIDEX).

The aim is to give literature pride of place in an Institute of Advanced Studies as a form of knowledge in its own right and open up a space for writing, for telling the world’s stories. The Mediterranean only exists if it is told; this, as Paul Ricœur would say, is “narrative identity.” It has been produced, in text after text from the Iliad and Odyssey or the Arabian Nights down to the most contemporary stories and novels.

Named after Albert Camus, a both universal and deeply Mediterranean writer, who gave a face to "la pensée de midi"—ideas of moderation in the face of excess—this Chair will offer a writer residence and, thereby, a space open to writing, literature and imagination.

The holder of the Camus Chair will contribute to the research workshop on Way of Life in the Mediterranean. (S)he will also be expected to contribute to publications, seminars, conferences or events planned as part of the Mediterranean Programme.

Schedule

• Deadline : 26 September 2019 at 1:00 pm (french time)
• Duration of residence: 5 months
• Residence period : 15 Feb 2021 to 9 July 2021 (5 months - Semester 2)

Who can qualify ?

• Camus Chair is open to internationally renowned writers.

To be eligible, applicants must meet the following conditions:

• Have already been published by one or more nationally and internationally recognized publishing houses
• Have already been translated into at least one language of the Mediterranean
• Not to have lived in France more than 12 months during the three years preceding this call for applications

Mediterranean Programme 2020-2021- Germaine Tillion Chair IMéRA/Région Sud : conditions de la candidature et de la résidence 

The Germaine Tillion* Chair is the result of a partnership between the South (Provence Alps-Riviera) Regional Council and the Aix-Marseille Institute for Advanced Studies (IMéRA), an Aix-Marseille University (AMU) foundation. The objective is to develop cross-disciplinary and prospective research at the highest international level on the general theme “The Mediterranean Tomorrow”: the Mediterranean world and its future.

This call for applications for researcher residency in Marseille is aimed at academics and senior researchers from all disciplines, who have acquired international scientific recognition (prizes, publications, international expert reviews, etc.).

The Germaine Tillion Chair holder selected by a Scientific Committee will be hosted in residency in Marseille to carry out research work in collaboration with AMU teams and laboratories, as well as partner structures in the South Region. The residency duration is 10 months, or 5 months for two holders.

The general theme of the Germaine Tillion Chair—“The Mediterranean Tomorrow”—is open to various research avenues such as:

• Major human challenges raised by the Anthropocene in the Mediterranean area;
• Evolving lifestyles in the face of climate change;
• Urban changes and territorial policies to be anticipated;
• Political, identity and religious dynamics at work in the Mediterranean;
• Social, democratic and freedom movements that are claiming ground;
• The expectations of the younger generations.

As Germaine Tillion said, “Inventing something else will be the next millennium’s imperative duty.” A call for research and intelligence to try and better understand the world in store.

The Chairholder shall address these research themes in a framework ensuring public visibility of the Germaine Tillion Chair's work, including through a series of public lectures.

*An anthropologist of the Mediterranean, Germaine Tillion has never ceased to be “in search of the true and the just.” She fought many battles throughout her lifetime against the concentration camps, including Ravensbrück where she was interned, also against the Algerian war and the torture that occurred during that conflict. Germaine Tillion, or the quest for “resolutely action-oriented thinking.”

Schedule

• Deadline : 26 September 2019 at 1:00 pm (french time)
• Duration of residences: 5 or 10 months

Residence periods (to be chosen by the candidates, several choices are possible):

• 7 Sept 2020 to 3 Feb 2021 (5 months - Semester 1)
• 15 Feb 2021 to 9 July 2021 (5 months - Semester 2)
• 7 Sept 2020 to 9 July 2021 (10 months - Full year) - only for scientists

Who can qualify ?

The IMéRA/South Region Chair is open to experienced researchers from all disciplines, with precedence given to social science.