One-month Research Opportunity Focusing on Visual Materials Related to Mount Athos Held by Princeton University Library and/or the Department of Art and Archaeology

We invite applications for a one-month in-person research visit to consult Mount Athos-related visual materials held in the Princeton University Library Special Collections department and/or the Slobodan Nenadović Collection of Drawings and Photographs of Hilandar Monastery in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. The Nenadović collection (obtained by his collaborator Professor Slobodan Ćurčić) is located in Visual Resources and includes photographic negatives, prints, architectural plans and drawings, many, but not all, of which became part of Ćurčić’s 1987 publication Hilandar Monastery: an archive of architectural drawings, sketches, and photographs. The Special Collections department of the Princeton University Library holds Mount Athos collections in a variety of formats, including paper icons and photographs.

Our project aims to draw attention to, and engage with, these holdings related to Mount Athos across the Princeton campus. The successful scholar will have the opportunity to travel to and reside in Princeton with the aim to examine these collections and produce new and original research. Prospective applicants are urged to consult the Library’s website for detailed descriptions of the Special Collections holdings. Applicants should have specific Mount Athos-related visual resources in mind as they prepare their proposals.

This one month-long research opportunity would be held anytime between October 2024 and April 2025. The successful applicant will hold a PhD in Art History or History with a background in visual studies and be fluent in English and Greek or Serbian (if the candidate is primarily interested in the Nenadović collection). This opportunity offers a stipend of $5,000 for travel, accommodation and meals, and has been generously funded by the Mount Athos Foundation of America (MAFA). The successful candidate may have the opportunity to attend a one-week international workshop that will take place in Princeton in spring 2025 as part of the Connecting Histories project in order to meet the other team members and share their research.

To apply, please send a CV and letter of interest addressing which items in the collections the candidate is interested in and how they relate to their proposed research project to gearhart@princeton.edu and marossi@princeton.edu by Friday August 16, 2024.

One-month Research Opportunity in the Kurt Weitzmann Archive of the Department of Art and Archaeology

We invite applications for a one-month in-person research opportunity to undertake new research on the Kurt Weitzmann Archive in the Visual Resources Collection of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. This opportunity will be focused on the archives related to Professor Kurt Weitzmann’s visits to the monasteries of Mount Athos in the 1930s and includes unpublished negatives, prints and notes of manuscripts, made by Professor Kurt Weitzmann, one of the most influential Byzantinists of the 20th century. The collection includes: more than 4000 black and white photographic prints of more than 300 codices from almost every monastery on Mount Athos (including occasionally notes by Prof. Weitzmann on the back of the prints); and roughly 3000 excellent quality negatives of Athonite manuscripts. There are also roughly 18 personal notebooks and documents Prof. Weitzmann gathered from his work on Mount Athos during the multiple trips he took there (1931, 1934, 1935 and 1936 then again in 1951). These notes are primarily inventories of the manuscripts with comments on the photographs, transcribing inscriptions and providing scholarly notes. Most of the documentation is in German with some additions in Byzantine Greek. Digitization of the negatives has been completed, and photography of the prints will occur during the academic year 2024–25.

Our project aims to draw attention to and engage with these holdings related to Mount Athos. The successful scholar will have the opportunity to travel to and reside in Princeton with the aim to examine the Weitzmann Archive and produce new and original research to be shared through the Connecting Histories project. The research undertaken may also inform the digital display of the collection, which is scheduled for no later than Spring 2026.

This one month-long research opportunity would be held anytime between October 2024 and April 2025. The successful applicant will hold a PhD in History or Art History, with a specialized knowledge of Byzantine manuscripts, preferably Byzantine and post-Byzantine. They will need to be fluent in English and German, in order to read the notes of Prof. Weitzmann, and have a reading knowledge of Byzantine Greek.

This opportunity offers a stipend of $5,000 for travel, accommodation and meals, and has been generously funded by a Princeton University Humanities Council Flash Grant, titled “Unboxing Archives: The Untold Story of Professor Kurt Weitzmann’s Work on Mount Athos in the 1930s”. The successful candidate may have the opportunity to attend a one-week international workshop that will take place in Princeton in spring 2025 as part of the Connecting Histories project in order to meet the order team members and share their research project.

To apply, please send a CV and letter of interest detailing the research project that the candidate is interested in pursuing to gearhart@princeton.edu and marossi@princeton.edu by Friday August 16, 2024.