Social Sciences and International Studies
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
The University of Exeter is a Russell Group University in the top one percent of institutions globally. In the last few years we have invested strategically to deliver more than GBP 350 million worth of new facilities across our campuses with plans for further significant investment.
The College wishes to recruit a Research Fellow to participate in the European Research Council Advanced Grant (ERC-ADG-2015 694254 BM) funded project "Becoming Muslim: Conversion to Islam and Islamisation in Eastern Ethiopia" directed by Professor Timothy Insoll. "Becoming Muslim" is examining Islamisation processes and contexts through archaeological research in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia, and comparing this with other regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Excavation at key sites (shrines, abandoned settlements, urban sites) is generating new data permitting the consideration of urban Islam, the veneration of saints, pilgrimage and shrine based practice, rural Islam, architecture and jihad, changes in lifeways, and early and comparative evidence for Islam and long-distance trade, through analysis of, e.g. architecture, ceramics, epigraphy, burial orientation, imported artifacts, and faunal and archaeobotanical remains. This ERC funded post is available from 30th September 2016 to 30th September 2019.
The successful applicant will participate in 3 seasons of fieldwork in eastern Ethiopia under the direction of Professor Insoll where their role will be to complete topographic survey, and to undertake drone and/or kite photography of a range of different sites, and the results of the topographic survey and the aerial photography will be jointly published in the final project monograph by the post-doctoral Research Fellow and Professor Insoll. The applicant will also be undertaking research on the application of aerial imagery of Islamic sites in Ethiopia for site identification, management, and protection, and this they will be encouraged to publish independently, with the guidance of Professor Insoll.
The post will include identifying relevant aerial photographs and satellite imagery, completing topographic survey and drone and/or kite photography in Ethiopia, compiling a database of Islamic sites and associated imagery in Ethiopia, maintaining the project websites, and writing up their component of the fieldwork with Professor Insoll, and their own publications on the use of aerial imagery for site identification, management, and protection. The successful applicant will be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals, and make presentations at conferences and other events.
To view the Job Description and Person Specification document please click here.
For further information please contact Professor Timothy Insoll, e-mail Tim.Insoll@manchester.ac.uk.
Interviews are expected to take place in early September.
The University of Exeter is an equal opportunity employer which is 'Positive about Disabled People'. Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented in the workforce.
