{"id":569,"date":"2014-03-10T13:13:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T13:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soundislamchina.org\/?p=569"},"modified":"2014-03-10T14:13:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T14:13:16","slug":"post-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soundislamchina.org\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"Post announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research Studentship in the Department of Music – Sounding Islam in China:<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

A multi-sited ethnographic study<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deadline: 15 May 2014<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\nSOAS is delighted to offer a three-year full-time research studentship within the Department of Music as part of the Leverhulme-funded research project \u2018Sounding Islam in China: a multi-sited ethnographic study\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Studentship provides remission of tuition fees at the Home\/EU rate and a maintenance allowance of \u00a315,590. The position is also open to students paying the higher (overseas) tuition fees; in this case the remaining tuition fees payable will normally be deducted from the maintenance allowance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project \u2018Sounding Islam in China\u2019 aims to provide new, ethnographically grounded research into the changing nature of Islamic belief and practice in contemporary China. We argue that a focus on the local production of meaning provides clearer insights into the nature and ideology of religious practice. The project is essentially interdisciplinary in nature, crossing boundaries between ethnomusicology, anthropology, history, religion, and sinology. The approach indicates a fieldwork-based approach to sound, experience and meaning, seeking to move beyond the habitual academic focus on text-based and visual narratives. The project will focus on sounded religious practices, including the call to prayer, Qur\u2019anic recitation, prayers, sermons, life-cycle and calendrical rituals, and other forms of religious expressive culture, encompassing \u2018live\u2019 practices and the mediated transmission of religious sounds and ideologies.<\/span><\/p>\n

A series of questions are core to the enquiry: as new \u2018visions of transnational ethics\u2019 into Muslim communities across China, by what channels do new Islamic ideologies flow into China, and what actors take on the role of propagating them? \u00a0The state seeks to orchestrate the Chinese Islamic soundscape, through controls, staged competitions, and campaigns, and by promoting some religious sounded practices as \u2018intangible cultural heritage\u2019. What changes are occurring in ways of listening to these reconfigured practices? How are practitioners of local forms of Islam responding to the twin pressures from reformists and the state?<\/span><\/p>\n

The successful candidate will devise and conduct independent ethnographic research on a defined aspect of music and Islam in China of their own choosing and relevant to the project remit. (S)he will be supervised by the principal investigator, Dr Rachel Harris, and work closely with the other members of the project research team. The Department of Music will provide training in methodologies and theoretical approaches through access to appropriate research training courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

(S)he will be expected to conduct periods of intensive fieldwork in China, to participate in, and help to organise project seminars and workshops, contribute to the project website, and provide general project support as required including uploading data onto the project web-based activity log, and collating and sharing information and news with other researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Candidate Criteria<\/span><\/h5>\n