The Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Program of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at ACU in Melbourne invites applications for six competitive PhD scholarships in connection with its new research project ‘Religious Mobilities: Medieval and Early Modern Europe and the World.’ A major new international research collaboration with partners in Leuven, London, Princeton, Stanford, and Toronto, ‘Religious Mobilities’ seeks to investigate the multiple and intersecting roles that religion has played in relation to mobility in this critical period for the formation of a globalised world.
ACU’s MEMS program is a dynamic, supportive, internationally engaged research community based at ACU’s Melbourne Campus, with activities also on ACU’s Rome Campus. MPhil and PhD students in ACU’s MEMS program are fully immersed in the intellectual life of the program, work closely with supervisors, draw extensively on the talents of the MEMS team, participate in the program’s seminars, workshops, and special lectures, contribute to our international collaborations, and pursue research opportunities with our international partners and in relevant archives.
Two scholarships will be offered in each of the project’s three strands:
- Pathways of Power focuses on organistions and structures, and on their capacity to cultivate, manage, and restrict mobility.
- Mobile Matter focuses on materials and objects of religion as they moved across the medieval and early modern world.
- Crossroads of Communication focuses on the nature of pre-modern communication in religious contexts.
Successful applicants to these PhD scholarships will possess a prior academic record that demonstrates foundational knowledge of the sources, methods, and languages relevant to the geography and chronology of the proposed project and the aptitude to contribute to the intellectual life of our team. Applicants are asked to propose a well-defined research project that engages the theme of mobility and the links or entanglements between Europe and the wider world, within one of three project strands.
Applicants must meet the eligibility requirements of ACU's PhD program.