Call for APplications

Research Residencies, ERC AGRELITA 2024

University of Lille

Due By 1 February 2024

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project n° 101018777, “The reception of ancient Greece in pre-modern French literature and illustrations of manuscripts and printed books (1320-1550) : how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities”, directed by Prof. Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (Principal Investigator), opens guest researchers residencies.
The Hypotheses academic blog presents the project and its team: https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/
This call for applications is open to anyone, of French or foreign nationality, who holds a PhD in literature, art history, or history, whose work focuses on the history of books, cultural and political history, visual studies, or memory studies, wherein the competence and project are deemed to be complementary to the ones of the AGRELITA team.
These residencies indeed aim to open the reflections carried out by the team, to enhance its scientific activity through interactions with other scholars and other universities. The guest researchers will have the exceptional opportunity to contribute to a major project, to work with a dynamic team that conducts a wide range of activities at the University of Lille and within the research laboratory ALITHILA where many Medieval and Renaissance times specialists work, as well as to publish in a prestigious setting.

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project

The AGRELITA project is based at the University of Lille. Located in the north of France, Lille is a city in the heart of Europe : 35 minutes from Brussels, 1 hour from Paris, 1 hour 20 minutes from London, 2 hours 40 minutes from Amsterdam, and 2 hours 30 minutes from Aachen. Residing in this metropolis offers the chance to discover the rich medieval heritage of Flanders and to carry out research in nearby libraries, museums, and archives, with very rich collections (Lille, Saint-Omer, Valenciennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Cambrai, Arras, Brussels).
Until now the reception history of ancient Greece in pre-modern Western Europe has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Greek texts. Yet well before the revival of Greek teaching, numerous vernacular works, often illustrated, contained elaborate representations of ancient Greece. AGRELITA studies a large corpus of French language literary works (historical, fictional, poetic, didactic ones) produced from 1320 to the 1550s in France and Europe, before the first direct translations from Greek to French, as well as the images of their manuscripts and printed books. These works and their illustrations – exploring texts/images interactions as well as the distinctive impact they have – show representations of ancient Greece we can analyze from a perspective that has never been explored until now : how a new cultural memory was elaborated. AGRELITA thus examines this corpus linked with its political, social, and cultural context, but also with the literary and illustrated works of nearby countries from Europe. Situated at the crossroads of literary studies, book history and art history, visual studies, cultural and political history, and memory studies, AGRELITA’s ambition is to explore how the role played by ancient Greece was reassessed in the processes of shaping the identity of European communities. The project also aims to contribute to a general reflection on the formation of memories, heritages, and identities.

Missions of visiting researchers

The ERC Advanced Grant AGRELITA Project is funded for five years (2021-2026) and has budgetary support available in order to invite researchers at the University of Lille (France), in the Faculty of Humanities (https://humanites.univ-lille.fr/), and attached to the ALITHILA laboratory (Literary Analyzes and History of Language), housed in the Pont de Bois Campus (Villeneuve d’Ascq). Stays may be 4 to 6 weeks length, and during the year 2024 may take place in May/June.
Visiting researchers will work with the Principal Investigator and the AGRELITA team.
Visiting researchers undertake to produce research for the project during their stays in Lille as follows :

they will write one paper (which must not exceed 50 000 characters, including spaces) published in one of the volumes edited by ERC AGRELITA (Brepols ed.), or in one of the team’s files published in an academic journal
they commit to present the topic of the paper or another topic dealing with AGRELITA’s research during a seminar session organized by the team
they will contribute to the Hypotheses academic blog : https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/

In 2024, the AGRELITA project will focus on these axes : « Inventions of Greek origin myths », « The new lives of Greek divinities (14th-16th centuries) », and « Violence and rape culture in the reception of Greek myths (14th-16th centuries) » (Call for papers will be released shortly.)

Conditions for defraying mission expenses

Visiting researchers will receive, in the form of mission expenses, a maximum fixed amount of 2000 euros per month, based on all necessary receipts of the costs of stay in Lille (accommodation, transport in the North region, and meal costs). A further maximum fixed amount is added to cover their travel expenses from their place of residence to Lille (round trip) :

travel from a European country (based on proof of expenses) : 400 €.
travel from a country outside Europe (based on proof of expenses) : 1200 €.

The expenses will be paid following the mission. AGRELITA will not arrange visas.
The University of Lille has a partnership that allows the rental of studios at the Reeflex University Residence : https://reeflex.univ-lille.fr/chercheur ; as well as at the International Research Residence : https://www.crous-lille.fr/se-loger/je-cherche-un-logement/notre-offre-logement-courts-sejours/4883-2/ . Visiting researchers can request this and the AGRELITA team will assist them to complete the reservation, subject to availability.

How to apply

The application file must include the two following documents :

A completed and signed application form, including the dates of the stay
A scientific project (2 pages) the candidate will be working on during his stay, dealing with the AGRELITA team’s research, from which the researcher intends to write the required article, due at the end of the stay. The provisional title of the paper is required.

Please send your application in a PDF document to the following addresses : catherine.bougassas@univ-lille.fr and erc-agrelita@univ-lille.fr

Application deadlines : by February 1st, 2024.
For more information on the ERC AGRELITA Project, please see : https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/

The ERC AGRELITA project is about the Reception of Ancient Greece in Premodern French Literature and Illustrations of Manuscripts and Printed Books (1320-1550) : how invented memories shaped the identity of European communities.
The AGRELITA project ERC n° 101018777 was launched on October 1st 2021. It is a 5-year project (2021-2026), which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101018777).