Congratulations to three University of Nottingham academics from the Faculty of Arts who have been awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowships in the latest round:
Dr Stephen Barker (Philosophy)
Language Agency: New Foundations for a Theory of Communication
This project describes the philosophical foundations of a new paradigm for understanding communication and the nature of thought, dubbed Language-Agency, which breaks with the currently dominant conception, the Content-first paradigm. Content-first and Language-agency are diametrically opposed to each other. Content-first starts by analyzing message-content using the techniques of modern logic then gets to communicative exchange, whereas Language-agency starts by analysing communicative exchange and only later gets to content. I use Language-agency to illuminate long-standing puzzles about the nature of through, figurative language, expressive and presuppositional modes of speech, and the language of value.
Fellowship start date: 1st September 2015
Dr Maike Oergel (German)
Zeitgeist around 1800: Containing Historical Complexity and Stimulating Cultural Activity
A project that will investigate the emergence of the concept of Zeitgeist, or 'spirit of the times', a term used in both English and German which is still without theoretical definition, to assess whether Zeitgeist provides a methodology for understanding interdisciplinary and transational intellectual transfers. The term's prominence around 1800 is traced to its function as an 'ordering principle', constructed to understand historical discontinuity in politics, aesthetics and philosophy, which itself transferred quickly from Germany to Britain. The feasibility of Zeitgeist as a transfer mechanism is then tested in three Anglo-German case studies, where the same ideas find application in different contexts.
Fellowship start date: 1st September 2015
Dr Monica White (Russian and Slavonic Studies)
The Special Relationship: Byzantium and Rus, c. 860-1453
The first study in any language of the relations between Byzantium and medieval Russia (Rus) in the high and late middle ages, giving equal attention to economic, political, cultural and religious ties. By proposing a new model of the states' interactions over six centuries, this research will move away from the traditional scholarly focus on isolated episodes. This fundamental relationship in the formation and development of eastern Europe will thus become accessible to most medievalists for the first time, and the book will provide important historical context for the development of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Fellowship start date: 1st August 2015
Details on the scheme here: https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/grant-schemes/research-fellowships
Please note: Jean Cater and Anna Grundy from the Leverhulme Trust will visit the University of Nottingham on 6th May, if you would like to hear their presentation please sign up through Eventbrite here.
Posted on Tuesday 28th April 2015