Call for Applications
In Search of the Reader:
New Approaches to Practices, Functions and Histories of Reading
in Arabic Literature, Arts, Media and Culture
AGYA International Bilingual Summer School
Online Summer School
16-20 August 2021
as part of the summer school project
“Arabische Philologien im Blickwechsel / ”نحو دراسات عربية برؤى متعددة
arabic-philologies.de
The summer school project “Arabische Philologien im Blickwechsel / نحو دراسات عربية برؤى متعددة ” has a
twofold agenda: to facilitate the systematic exchange of perspectives and experiences between
scholars based in the West and in the Arab world, and to foster the use of Arabic as an academic
language. Addressing young scholars (PhD students, postdocs) in the field of Arabic literary and
cultural studies based in Germany and other European countries and the Arab world, it provides them
the opportunity to present their own research in an international academic context, to discuss current,
innovative approaches to Arabic philology, literature and culture, and to practice the respective
foreign language (English or Arabic).
This year’s summer school seeks to bring together junior and senior scholars from universities in
Germany, Europe, and the Arab world working in the field of Arabic literary and cultural studies, both
classic and modern, in a wide sense (including arts, history, philosophy etc.) in order to discuss topics,
methodologies, and theories related to readers, readership and reading practices in Arabic literature,
arts, media and culture.
The reader is an essential key to understand Arabic literature, arts and culture in their historical
contexts, political discourses and societal functions. From the perspective of cultural studies, the
reader is far more than a passive recipient of a given cultural product but becomes a crucial coproducer
in the “circuit of culture” (Stuart Hall et al.). Moving away from the reader and focusing
instead on different readerships (or audiences) with their different sociocultural backgrounds is a way
to understand the different interpretations of a text or media (see e.g. John Fiske). In the field of
literary studies, the reader response criticism has developed models of the “implied reader”
(Wolfgang Iser) in the text and the “horizon of expectations” (Hans-Robert Jauss) of real readers or
“interpretative communities” (Stanley Fish). In recent times, moreover, approaches of cognitive
poetics seek to analyze cognitive-psychological frames and scripts that guide the process of reading
(e.g. Peter Stockwell, Reuven Tsur).
Despite the importance of the reader, literary and cultural approaches in the field of Arabic Studies
for a long time seem to have paid little attention to readers and readerships as well as reading
practices and communities. One challenge is the seeming lack of sources, the other is the absence of
concrete methods that may help to unveil the reader and to frame their role theoretically in the circuit
of cultural production. In recent years, however, Arabic and Islamic Studies have made several new
attempts to approach the reader. This includes the study of individual and collective reading practices
(e.g. Konrad Hirschler, Ami Ayalon), the circulation of the written word (e.g. Shawkat Toorawa),
libraries and networks of readers (e.g. Boris Liebrenz), the reception of particular authors or genres
(e.g. Marwa Elshakry, Andrea Haist), popular literature and culture (e.g. Richard Jacquemond) as well
as empirical studies on Arab readerships (e.g. “What do Arabs read”). Against this background, adab,
for instance, can be studied with regard to the way they address their patrons and rulers (e.g. Suzanne
Stetkevych), but also the ways they seek a wider audience (e.g. Samer Ali, Muhsin al-Musawi).
Moreover, the Arabic periodical press is being revisited as an important site for author-reader
interaction, various reading practices and for building up a community of readers (e.g. Elizabeth Holt,
Barbara Winckler), and the internet has facilitated new forms of interactive readership, where the
ordinary reader may easily become a digital critic (e.g. Teresa Pepe and Sameh Fayiz).
The summer school “In Search of the Reader” seeks to bring together different methodological and
theoretical approaches to the reader in Arabic literature, arts, media and culture. It welcomes research
projects on practices, functions and histories of reading with regard to various texts and media,
including images, music and film. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
- authors, copyists, publishers, critics, scholars etc. as readers;
- historical and sociocultural practices and functions of reading (including listening and
watching);
- textual (or medial) conceptualizations of the reader, reading and readerships;
- empirical approaches to readers, reading communities and reading practices;
- reading practices according to different genres and media;
- textual (or medial) reader guidance and its aesthetic and epistemic functions;
- theories of the reader and reading in philosophy, literary and cultural studies, media and art
studies etc.
In the framework of the summer school, each junior scholar will have the opportunity to present and
discuss his/her research project. In view of the digital format of the summer school, they are asked to
prepare, in advance, a video presentation of his/her research project, which will be distributed to all
the participants and discussed intensively in small working groups during the summer school.
Professional academic language trainers will offer individual coaching in order to enable the
participants to improve their presentation. In addition, all participants will discuss in plenary sessions
theoretical approaches based on selected Arabic and English texts that will be provided by the
organizers beforehand.
The schedule of the summer school consists of a preparatory meeting (29 May), two individual
coaching sessions (mid-June and mid-July) and the main summer school (16-20 August). All sessions
are mandatory. Participants will be requested to prepare a short video presentation of (parts of) their
current research project (30 min.) in English or Arabic; they are expected to use the language they are
less familiar with in their academic practice. They will have two individual coaching sessions with an
academic language trainer as well as technical support in order to improve their presentation. In
addition, they are supposed to prepare the English and Arabic texts distributed beforehand (ca. 60
pages in total) and participate actively in plenary discussions. Good knowledge of Arabic and English
is required.
Please submit, in English or Arabic, an abstract of your research project (3−5 pages, including a
passage related to the summer school’s thematic focus, i.e. readers and reading practices), a short
letter of motivation, a short CV, and the names of two academic references (one single pdf file) to
arabic-philologies@agya.info by 30 April 2021. Do not hesitate to contact us for general inquiries.
The summer school is organized by AGYA members Christian Junge (Philipps-Universität Marburg)
and Enass Khansa (American University of Beirut) and AGYA alumni Barbara Winckler (Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität Münster) and Bilal Orfali (American University of Beirut). It is part of the
research projects of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). Funding
is still subject to final approval.
