Target group: Early Career Researchers (Master and PhD students as well as postdoctoral researchers)
Time: 17th March – 21st March 2025
Venue: CERES, Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 90a, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Apply: until 30th September 2024
We cordially invite you to participate in the Spring School “Comparative Analysis of Religious Metaphors (CARMe)” which aims to bring together early career researchers of different disciplines in the spring of 2025 to explore similar conceptual domains and conceptual metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and the Qurʾān.
Previous research by Heinrich Speyer, Angelika Neuwirth, Nicolai Sinai, and other scholars already demonstrated the comprehensive impact of Biblical traditions on the Qurʾān. Based on these findings, the offered Spring School will explore shared conceptual frames and mappings underlying religious metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and the Qurʾān. Approaches provided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) will serve as a theoretical and methodological fundament for the offered undertaking.
The Spring School is conceived as a five-day intense collaborative and multidisciplinary study for Master and PhD students as well as postdocs in Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, and Theology (Biblical Studies); however, applications from students of other disciplines are welcome as well. Alongside with text-oriented metaphor analysis involving the close reading of the relevant Biblical and Qurʾānic passages, the Spring School will give you a chance to deepen your understanding of cognitive approaches to metaphor (especially those related to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory), to get to know and use the tools of metaphor analysis developed within the CRC “Metaphors of Religion” (including an online annotation tool and the Thesaurus of Religious Metaphors), and to learn more about the historical and cultural context in which the Qurʾānic message was addressed to its initial audience.
Requirements
➢ Enrolment as Master’s student, PhD student or postdoctoral student in a university is compulsory.
➢ The knowledge of Hebrew or Arabic is desirable but not required.
➢ Acquaintance with the basics of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory is strongly recommended.
Costs
Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed by the CRC “Metaphors of Religion”.
Application
Please apply by sending :
➢ motivation letter (ca. 400 words)
➢ academic CV
For further information or questions, please visit the homepage of the CRC 1475 “Metaphors of
Religion” or contact us via email: Nikita.Artemov@ruhr-uni-bochum.de or Vicky.Ziegler@ruhr-unibochum.de. We look forward to your applications!
Provisional Schedule
- Day, 17 MARCH 2025
➢ Bible and Qurʾān (input by a guest speaker)
➢ Theoretical introduction (CMT, main ideas and terminology; metaphor and metonymy; CBT; DMT – Deliberate Metaphor Theory)
➢ First examples of metaphor analysis - Day, 18 MARCH 2025
➢ Introduction to metaphor annotation – MIPVU, CRC’s annotation guidelines
➢ Introduction to the CRC’s annotation tool tAkita
➢ Sample annotation with discussion - Day, 19 MARCH 2025
➢ Metaphor analysis and its challenges
➢ Analysis and comparison of metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and the Qurʾān
➢ Finding shared metaphors, linguistic and conceptual parallels in Biblical and Qurʾānic texts - Day, 20 MARCH 2025
➢ Collaborative analysis and annotation - Day, 21 MARCH 2025
➢ Individual analysis and annotation work on metaphors