[Bilimsel Haber] Call for Applications: Urban Violence Middle-East

[Onur Inal]

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2 DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPs FOR 2011/2013 (65% TvöD)

ZMO is advertising two doctoral positions for participation in an
Anglo-German collaborative research project, sponsored by DFG and AHRB, on
“Urban Violence in the Modern Middle East”.
The main purpose of this collaborative project is to develop an Anglo-German
research group to produce original research on urban violence in the
Ottoman, Arab and Iranian worlds in the 19th and 20th centuries. The main
academic objective of this project is to investigate the emergence and
different forms of public violence in selected Ottoman, Arab and Iranian
cities from the early 19th century to the 1960s in a wide geographical
setting which stretches from Tunisia to Iran, and to integrate the
findings into discussions on urban violence which were developed with
regard to other world regions, thus contributing to a globally comparative
understanding of the phenomenon. The historical context of this
investigation is provided by processes of Ottoman and Qajar reform in the
19th century and the consolidation of nation states after the First World
War, a period characterised by both urbanisation and state centralisation.
The central proposition of the project is to study cities as the
‘landscapes’ of contestation between imperial subjects and rulers on the
one hand, and between citizens and states after the First World War on the
other. The aim is to develop a coherent framework of analysis in order to
understand the crucial relationship between political and social protest,
the evolution of the urban public sphere and the physical expansion of
urban centres.
The overarching themes of the project which will inform its comparative
framework are:

• manifestations of violence as the expression of changes in urban
governance and in the wider political environment with reference to both
indigenous and external factors. Of relevance here is what episodes of
urban violence tell us about changes in the urban public sphere during the
period of reform of the Ottoman and Qajar empires and in the age of nation
states, and how these changes reflected wider trends across the region and
European or western influences;

• physical and symbolic violence as a ‘ritual of power’ and a ploy for
popular and state legitimacy in the context of street politics, the
enforcement of the ‘rule of law’ through state agencies, political
propaganda, ritual performance and public ceremonial;

• relationship between episodes of violence and processes of urbanisation.
In what ways do episodes of violent protest relate to the transformation
of the physical landscape of the city and to changes in the specific
settings of popular contestation and state action?

One of the doctoral researchers should be able to demonstrate a background
in Iranian history and work on urban violence in Qajar Iran, with a
comparative view to the Ottoman Empire, while the second will be asked to
investigate urban resistance in Saudi Arabia between the 1920s and 60s.
Both researchers will also be asked to co-organise and participate in the
joint activities of the research group.

PREREQUISITES AND APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Applications outlining the necessary disciplinary (history, political
science) and linguistic qualifications should contain a letter of
motivation, CV, copies of the relevant university diplomas, a sample of
academic writing (e.g. parts of MA thesis) and a letter of recommendation
by one university instructor. They will be reviewed from October 10, 2010,
until the positions are filled. The application should be submitted in
paper, by fax or by E-mail in German, English or French to

Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Berlin
Attn: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag and Dr. Nora Lafi
Subject: “Urban Violence”
Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin
Fax +49 (0) 30 - 80 307-210
E-mail: zmo at rz.hu-berlin.de and nora.lafi at rz.hu-berlin.de

For information on the ZMO in Berlin please visit: www.zmo.de
The successful applicants will receive a monthly salary on the basis of
TvöD 13(65%).

Zentrum Moderner Orient Kirchweg 33 14129 Berlin
Telefon: 030/80307-0 Fax: 030/80307-210
Email: zmo at rz.hu-berlin.de
Internet: www.zmo.de