ESSWE announces three travel bursaries of €300 each to assist students and/or members from economically disadvantaged countries to participate in the forthcoming ESSWE4 conference in Gothenburg.
One further bursary of €100 is available for other purposes. Guidelines and application form are available on the ESSWE website (under "ESSWE Bursaries"). The deadline to apply for funding to travel to ESSWE4 is 1 May 2013.

The Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion announces two funded positions as postgraduate student, one in Comparative Literature and one in Religious Studies (cf. announcements and general syllabi). Applications are assessed by the disciplines, respectively, and interviews may be arranged. The head of department will make decisions in May–June, and all applicants will be informed of the outcome.

The first day of employment is September 1, 2013. Applicants must be aware that the University's principle of announcing full postgraduate positions, rather than stipends, means that the postgraduate as employee is required to be physically present at the workplace, interacting actively with the research environment in order to benefit from the education provided there.

A complete application must be submitted no later than Monday March 25, 2013 (local time: CET, GMT+1). You can apply from Monday February 25, 2013. The application is made in The University of Gothenburg’s net-based Job Application Portal.

Friday 15 March, 10.30-17.00

What role do museums play in visitors’ religious and spiritual lives? Join us for a unique day of discussions on the varied ways visitors practise their faith and encounter the sacred in museums. Featuring speakers from a mix of museum and academic backgrounds, this event will explore the visitor experience at venues including the Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall, the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the recent ‘spiritual journeys’ exhibitions at the British Museum.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Karen Armstrong, British Museum Trustee
  
• Rickie Burman, The National Gallery (and former Director of the Jewish Museum)
  
• Qaisra Khan, Project Curator at The British Museum
  
• Dr John Troyer, Deputy Director of the Death and Dying Practices Associate, University of Bath.
  

Event details:
£35, Members/concessions £28
The Stevenson Lecture Theatre, the British Museum, London
Morning and afternoon refreshments will be provided
The Museum will remain open until 20.30

Glasgow University Library,
Henry Heaney Room (Level 12)
Tuesday 5 February 2013, 5pm,

As part of the Stirling Maxwell Centre Seminar Series, Luca Guariento (University of Glasgow) will be giving a paper on ‘Cosmos, man and their musical interrelation in Robert Fludd’s visual symbolism’.

Studiemiddag of the C.G. Jung Vereniging Nederland

9 February 2013 at Antropia in Driebergen

If you're interested in the life and thought of the psychologist Carl Jung and live in the Netherlands, you might like to attend a lecture by Punita Miranda, an MA student at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and practising psychotherapist.

The title of the talk is 'From Experiment to Method: Jung's Active Imagination in the Context of his Red Book'.

Click Here to visit Punita's webpage and Here for the Jung Vereniging announcement.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) and the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) are pleased to invite applications for the 2013-2014 Rumford Scholarship.

This annual award will enable the Rumford Scholar to travel to Europe in order to undertake original research in the history of chemistry or alchemy in libraries/archives/museum collections using their particular resources.

The award may be held in any European country. The value of the award is £2300. Applications are due April 7, 2013. 

Call for Articles: Correspondences
Deadline: February 28, 2013

Correspondences is a new, biannual online journal devoted to the academic study of Western esotericism. The journal seek to create a public academic forum devoted to discussion and exposition of issues and currents in the field commonly known as ‘Western esotericism.’ The editors acknowledge that the use of “Western esotericism” as an umbrella term for a widely variant field of alternate scientific and religious ideas is problematic. Thus, articles related to esoteric currents from other global cultural centres may be accepted if a connection to alternative currents in “western culture” is implicitly established. The following list of areas of study is provided for clarification:

Alchemy, Anthroposophy, Astrology, Eco-spirituality, Esotericism in art, literature, and music, Freemasonry, Geomancy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Illuminism, Initiatory secret societies, Kabbalah, Magic, Mesmerism, Mysticism, Naturphilosophie, Neo-paganism, New Age, Occultism, Occulture, Paracelsianism, Rosicrucianism, Satanism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Traditionalism, Ufology, Witchcraft.

Correspondences intends to promote a wide forum of interdisciplinary debate regarding such areas of study, and therefore does not require academic credentials as a prerequisite for publication. Students and non-affiliated academics are encouraged to join established researchers in submitting insightful, well-researched articles that offer new ideas, positions, or information to the field.

We are currently accepting book reviews (max. 1500 words) and articles (5000-10000 words) for our first issue. The deadline for submission is February 28. Following a peer-review process, the first issue will be published June 1, 2013. Manuscripts should be submitted as per our submission guidelines, available at http://www.correspondencesjournal.com/. Please send your manuscript and any enquiries to

Sincerely,
Jimmy Elwing and Aren Roukema, Editors.
Click HERE to visit the website

The second annual election for a student representative will be taking place during the first week of December.

The duties of the person elected consists of attending the annual ESSWE board meeting as a non-voting representative of the students in order to put forward views on topics under discussion from the perspective of the students.
(The next board meeting will take place during the 4th ESSWE conference in Gothenburg).

Anyone interested in this position must confirm their candidacy by 21 November 2012. This will allow seventeen days for voters to reflect on their choice.

The election will take place over the course of seven days, from December 10-16, inclusive. Announcement of the successful candidate will follow on, or before, 21 December 2012.

Anyone interested in applying for the position or learning more about the voting procedures, please contact Kevin Hataley for further details:

Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project: Second Millennium BC Academic
Supervisor: Dr Kasia Szpakowska

Two fully-funded PhD studentships form part of a three-year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust entitled Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project: Second Millennium BC.

Demons abound in the media today-from tales of possession to the labeling of political policies as demonic, to the channelling of spirits for healing. Some of the most prevalent rituals in the ancient and modern world are those designed to target demons and those that call upon their superhuman power for benefit. But thus far, there has been no comprehensive systematic study of benevolent and malevolent demonic entities in Ancient Egypt. This project, Demonology 2K, applies Second Millennium AD technology to create a classification and ontology of those supernatural entities we will call demons, and the means used to harness their powers in Ancient Egypt during the Second Millennium BC. The approach combines archaeological, iconographic, and philological analysis of specific material, representational, and textual evidence. The research is data-driven, and includes the development of an interactive collaborative database and website. This project illuminates the darker and more private side of Ancient Egyptian religion that impacted daily lives, driving individuals to perform rituals and to access divine beings, with or without priestly assistance.

The PhD studentships are available from 2 January 2013. Applicants must have:

• demonstrated Egyptological expertise
  
• ability to work with both texts and artefacts familiarity with and desire to
  
• study Middle to New Kingdom religion reading knowledge of German and French
  
• Digital expertise will be integral to one of the studentships detailed below.
  

Please provide details in your statement of interest of experience of working with:

• relational databases
  
• quantification
  
• Web 2.0 (interactive websites, blogs, virtual spaces) multimedia
  

The PhD studentships differ in expertise as follows:

PhD 1 should have a particular interest in working with artefacts and have a solid archaeological background both in terms of theory and post-excavation analysis. The successful student/candidate will focus on the material evidence, in particular types identified as primary targets for the project: apotropaia, inscribed headrests, and figurines. The student should have demonstrated aptitude for working with excavation reports (recent and dated) as well as museum and collections searching; be familiar with materials and technology; have a background in the archaeology of religion; and a dedicated attention to detail.

PhD 2 must be fluent in reading Middle Egyptian and have a background in reading religious compositions (ideally Coffin Texts and magical papyri). The successful student/candidate will be responsible for a relational examination of hostile and demonic entities encountered in the texts. The investigation must be contextual, and take into account associated imagery, findspots, the location of imagery and text in relation to each other and on each individual coffin, time period, and status, gender and identity of the owner. Because most of the Coffin Texts have different versions, the candidate must be skilled in reading the texts to spot differences and similarities. The student must also have a thorough grounding in Egyptian religion in general in order to be able to achieve a nuanced understanding of the texts, as well as being able to undertake literal translation.

Both Ph.D.'s are based in the Department of History and Classics, College of Arts and Humanities. The successful candidate will join a vigorous and friendly postgraduate community supported by theGraduate Centre for Arts and Humanities at Swansea University. The Academic Supervisor will be Dr. Kasia Szpakowska, a specialist in Ancient Egyptian private religious practice and co-founder of the international Ancient Egyptian Demonology Project.

Applicants must have an MA or equivalent qualification, obtained or due to be obtained by October 2012, in any relevant discipline.

Preliminary application materials consist of

• academic CV
  
• 1-2 page expression of interest (include why you are interested, a bit about your background and how you fulfil the brief) research proposal (no more than 1200 words or 5 pages) focussing on one of the areas (or both if you have no preference)
  
• referee information (names, contact details, and emailsof 2 referees)
  

To submit materials or for more information please contact Kasia Szpakowska: . Please note that I will be on annual leave 6-15 and 27-31 August and will not be able to respond to emails.

Eligibility: Home/EU students

Closing date: 17 September 2012

Kasia Szpakowska, PhD, FSA
Senior Lecturer in Egyptology, Dept. of History & Classics Centre for
Egyptology & Mediterranean Archaeology (CEMA) Swansea University, Wales, SA2
8PP, UK

Dr. Kasia Szpakowska, Uwch-ddarlithydd mewn Eifftoleg Yr Adran Hanes a
Chlasuron Y Ganolfan Eifftaidd ac Archeoleg Mediteranaidd (CEMA) Prifysgol
Abertawe, Cymru, SA2 8PP

The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (Max Planck Research Group Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe; Director: Prof. Dr. Sven Dupré) announces

three postdoctoral fellowships for up to three months

between January 1 and December 31, 2013. Outstanding junior and senior scholars (including those on sabbatical leave from their home institutions) are invited to apply.

Candidates should hold a doctorate in the history of science and technology, the history of art and art technology or related field (junior scholars should have a dissertation topic relevant to the history of science) at the time of application and show evidence of scholarly promise in the form of publications and other achievements.

Research projects should address the history of knowledge and art up to the eighteenth century (with a preference for the period between 1350 and 1750), and may concern any geographical area within Europe, and any object of the visual and decorative arts. Also welcome are projects falling within the scope of the history of optics, colour and perspective, the history of alchemy, or the history of collecting, but those relevant to the writing of an epistemic history of art will receive preference.

Visiting fellows are expected to take part in the scientific life of the Institute, to advance their own research project, and to actively contribute to the project of the Max Planck Research Group Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe.

The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science is an international and interdisciplinary research institute (http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/index.html). The colloquium language is English; it is expected that candidates will be able to present their own work and discuss that of others fluently in that language. Fellowships are endowed with a monthly stipend between 1.900 € and 2.300 € (fellows from abroad) or between 1.468 € and 1.621 € (fellows from Germany), whereas senior scholars receive an honorary commensurate with experience.

The Max Planck Research Group Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe is also accepting proposals for non-funded Visiting Fellowships from one month to a year. These are normally open to junior and senior post-docs who have external funding. For projects highly relevant to the research platform of this Max Planck Research Group, Sven Dupré will support a limited number of applications for funding at organizations such as Fulbright, DAAD, and the Humboldt Society.

Candidates of all nationalities are encouraged to apply; applications from women are especially welcome. The Max Planck Society is committed to promoting handicapped individuals and encourages them to apply.

Candidates are requested to submit a curriculum vitae (including list of publications), a research proposal on a topic related to the project (750 words maximum), one sample of writing (i.e. article or book chapter), and names and addresses of two referees (including email) who have already been contacted by the applicant to assure their willingness to submit letters of recommendation if requested, to:

Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Max Planck Research Group Dupré Boltzmannstr. 22
14195 Berlin
Germany

(Electronic submission is also possible: )

by September 15, 2012. Successful candidates will be notified before October 31.

For questions concerning the Max Planck Research Group on Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe, please click here or contact Sven Dupré (); for administrative questions concerning the position and the Institute, please contact Claudia Paaß (), Head of Administration, or Jochen Schneider (), Research Coordinator.