Two PhD Positions In Near And Middle Eastern Studies

The Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Basel are offering two fully funded doctoral positions for the research project Ottoman Afterlife in Jordan and Iraq. Politics of Remembering and Forgetting in New Arab States (1920-1958). The five-year project starting in October 2020, is led by Aline Schlaepfer (principal investigator) and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation – Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship.

This collective research project examines multiple aspects of memory production and memory cultures on the Ottomans in various layers of society, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Arab Middle East (focus on Iraq and Jordan). The methodological purpose of this research project is threefold: A- Identify typologies, profiles and group formations of individuals who produced their own narratives on the Ottomans and then articulate them with the social environment, B- Examine the multiple factors and contexts (socioeconomic, generational, colonial, educational, ethno-religious, and gender) involved in the production and spreading of these memories, and C- Discuss the individuals' or groups' motives and their modus operandi. The main thematic fields of this collective research project are: 1- Ottoman memory within minority groups 2- Memory on the Ottomans in education, and 3- Circulations, exchanges and diplomatic relations between Republican Turkey and post-Ottoman Arab States. In order to conduct the research, members of the team will collect and examine periodicals, memoirs, textbooks, literary and historiographical production, as well as official correspondences and reports, available in various physical or online database, institutions and libraries in the Middle East, Europe and the USA.