Einstein Fellowship 2019 in Humanities, Social & Natural Sciences in Germany. And the Scholarship Amount is EUR 10,000 and reimbursement of travel expenses (Approx. 8 Lakh Indian Rupee!)

Dear readers!

Good Evening!

Do you really dream of spending some quality time in Einstein’s own residency in Germany, thinking something incredible as perhaps Einstein did while he was living in the same house years ago? It sounds great, right? Then this scholarship is for you! And remember this is not only for science students, but even arts students who are bitten by an Einstein bug and who have extra brains as Einstein had can apply for it.  Your age should be under 35 to apply for this fellowship. 

Ok! If you at least dare to dream of this scholarship, what is waiting in your way is Euro 10000 which is more than of 8 Lakh Indian Rupee! Read very carefully the description below and if are planning to apply then prepare a two page proposal and send them today or tomorrow even though you have time till 15^th April

If you need any kind of academic help from my side, you may ask the same in the comment box or email me at msqfiles@gmail.com. Ok, now go for it!

All the best and good luck!

Dr. Musadhique Kottaparamban

Now read about the scholarship...

About Einstein Fellowship 2019 

The Einstein Forum and the Daimler and Benz Foundation are offering a fellowship for outstanding young thinkers who wish to pursue a project in a different field from that of their previous research.

The purpose of the fellowship is to support those who, in addition to producing superb work in their area of specialization, are also open to other, interdisciplinary approaches – following the example set by Albert Einstein.

Benefits

The fellowship includes living accommodations for five to six months in the garden cottage of Einstein`s own summerhouse in Caputh, Brandenburg, only a short distance away from the universities and academic institutions of Potsdam and Berlin.

The fellow will receive a stipend of EUR 10,000 and reimbursement of travel expenses.

Eligibility

Candidates must be under 35 and hold a university degree in the humanities, in the social sciences, or in the natural sciences.

How to apply

Applications for 2019 should include a CV, a two-page project proposal, and two letters of recommendation.

Applications can be submitted by email to fellowship@einsteinforum.de.

All documents must be received by April 15, 2018.

Guidelines

At the end of the fellowship period, the fellow will be expected to present his or her project in a public lecture at the Einstein Forum and at the Daimler and Benz Foundation.

The Einstein Fellowship is not intended for applicants who wish to complete an academic study they have already begun.

A successful application must demonstrate the quality, originality, and feasibility of the proposed project, as well as the superior intellectual development of the applicant.

It is not relevant whether the applicant has begun working toward, or currently holds, a PhD.

The proposed project need not be entirely completed during the time of the fellowship, but can be the beginning of a longer project.

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Contact

For more information, call or fax the Einstein Forum at: phone: +49-331-271780 fax: +49-331-2717827.

Ok! True! It is after a long! I am writing here..

Dear Friens,
I am planning to change the focus the blog into more of an academic one. So you can now find notifications on Conferences, Seminars and Job notification and yea, there will be definetely my writings too..

I wish all your support.

Book Review: The Disabled God: Towards A Liberating Theology of Disability By Nancy L Eiesland

The Disabled God: Towards A Liberating Theology of Disability

Nancy L Eiesland

The bodies we inhabit and the lives those bodies carry on need not be perfect to have value. Bad things do happen, we know-to bad and good people alike-but so do good things. Life curses like life blessings are always mixed

-Nancy Mairs.

This is one of the academically exploded and theoretically well written books on disability studies. Nancy L Eiesland tries to read the Christian believing system in a more inclusive way. Accessibility is the core theme of her book. She considers Jesus Christ as a disabled God whose body was badly broken. This disabled God inspires the entire Persons with Disability and his broken body to make the Christianity a more inclusive and accommodative system hence she proposes a liberation theology which accommodates the persons with disability and creates spaces for  them through refashioning and re-theorising the social-symbolic order of the society to include liberation for all.

The body is vehicle for self perfection and the target through ritual of degradation of social exclusion. There is a deliberate attention to the body in order to prevent it from becoming socially erased or subsumed into notion of normal embodiment so the normal body is projected as the perfect body. This perfect body survives in a network of structures and systems which continually normalise the purity of the body.  Alms to the disabled body strengthen the purity of able-body-ness as persons with disability are help through strategies of paternalistic care to try to adjust like a normal person. It was not an able bodied god, but the disabled god promising grace through a broken body is at the centre of piety prior practise and mission. Here an attempt is made to re symbolise of some of our fundamental symbols. Disabled god represents full personhood as fully compatible with the experience of disability. Persons with disability must game access to the social symbolic life of the church and the church must game access to the socio symbolic life of  the persons with disability are prone to social stigmatisation, marginalization and exclusion that render them silent and invisible  and they are consider as object of pity and patternalisation. 

The dissonants  raised by the non acceptance of persons with disability and acceptance of grace through Jesus Christ broken body necessitates that the church find new ways of interpreting disability. The disabled have been named by medical and scientific professional  or by people who denied full person hood  and the persons with disability are imagined as less realistic less intelligent less capable of decision making less logical less self directional   than non disabled person. Capable bodies define the experience of the disable. She further brings to experiences of two persons Diane Bebries and Nancy Maries who recount their experience of painstakingly inhabiting their bodies and of disputing with society about their proper social place in the process they de-mythologize disability and the refuse to acquiesce to the societies stigmatisation. The alternative knowledge they relate about the bodies and the social relations reveal full bodied resistance to the dominant stereotypes of persons with disabilities and move towards a liberative theology of  disability hence they  teach the world the aesthetic experience of living  in a non conventional body.

Home Journey

It was at 12 at night when I got in at Calicut. Everyone had folded their eyes when I was back to my home town. I walked to the bus stand and caught a bus to Calicut University. Though it was night and alone I was, the whole city and the lonely paths wondered me a lot. It was as if I was traveling first time in a unknown country. Some birds still chirped and tweedled at night to welcome me to the home land. Nobody was there to speak, so I knowingly made a small fuss with the conductor, only to call back that was my land! Around 1.30 I landed at the University of Calicut bus stop. It was thick dark, and there were no autos to bring me home. From university I had to walk at least three kilometer through a paseo to reach at home. I preferred to take the air rather comfortably getting in an auto. I called mother and she strongly advised to catch any auto at any cost. But I wanted to walk in such a calm but frightening night. Dogs were horribly woofing from everywhere. Some dared to trace me! I kept two three concrete stones with me only to get some courage. Fist time in my life I walked alone in such a darkest night. Still I felt a warm feeling to meet my parents. I reached home around 2.15. The doors were open already in expecting me there. Mother served some hot dinner (rather a supper!) that time. She was waiting for me whole the day. I was feeling at home after a long time. Everybody cordially received me to the land. I tried to meet everybody. For a week I completely kept my books away and stayed with the parents. They were very happy to send me to the wonderland.

The following day I set off ‘exploring my city’ journey. I usually do a journey without any destination only to see my home place with wild eyes! That day too, I caught a bus to Kondotty. It was Rs. 5 from Vadakke Bazar to Kondotty. By the time, the government had slightly stepped-up the bus fare, but interestingly the government had extended the minimum fare distance, so I had to give five instead of four. I passed on at Kondotty. Next was either to go to Manjeri or Calicut. I waited for the first bus. Luckily it was to Manjeri. I jumped into it. I was observing what people had  newly constructed on the road side. I wondered the fast and sudden development my land was getting! Everywhere, construction was progressing, new buildings, houses, farms and other concrete forests were coming day by day. The greenness of country was gradually disappearing from the sight. When I reached Manjeri, I took another bus back to Kondotty.  I was sitting near the window watching outside. I was noting only the outside scenes. Suddenly an old man (sorry a senior citizen!) asked me to close the shutter! It was not a request but a kind of demand and command. I helplessly gandered at his face. There was no any sign of understanding and relief. Very politely with a very low tone and trying to make my facial expression gentle I said:

“Hey! Kakka! I am travelling this long journey only to watch these missed sights! Pls don’t ask me to close it down, it’s a request to you, and you can still have a seat other side”

Then he sat very comfortably a bit and whispered in my both ears,

“Son! I am travelling in this only to forget everything and close my eyes at least sometimes..! I don’t want to see the world anymore!”

He was trembling with anger. I did not understand anything. Again I explained:

“I am a pravasi, not an exact pravasi, but I am staying outside of Kerala. I am studying in Hyderabad, the Pearl City and I usually travel on this route only to see what changes my city gets every day, Pardon me if I disturb you by opening the window of the bus!”

He again eased his sitting and held my right hand mildly and asked about the stories of Hyderabad Nizam and Hyderabad. I explained what I could. For a long both did not utter any word. I looked outside and gazed my co-traveller’s face alternatively. He was looking straight and different emotions were flashing on his face.

After a long pause, he mumbled in my ear. “Our land changed drastically!”

True! Kerala is developing day by day and the signs of progress are reaching in every nook and corner.

I agreed and nodded.

“.....That’s why I take this way to go to Calicut everyday in this time!” He added.

I really could not understand what he was averring. I desperately looked his eyes. The silent communication passed my helplessness to him.

“I am travelling to Calicut everyday to forget my place and house. I reach to Calicut around 12.30 and I go to Palayam Masjid for Zuhr prayer. Then I sleep there to dream my childhood. Only when I am in this dreaming my mind gets sharp. That is the time when I am living here in this world. I am dead now; you are speaking to a dead man! But when I sleep I wake up to dream my childhood!”

Then he untied the stocks of endless history and stories he had to say, about his child, Mappila Rebellion, family, the good and better old days, and the nasty and cheating of the present time. It was not a discussion, but he was showering his unhappy to the world, to his family, children. I listened the wild expressions he made in his face. The gestures seemed he lost all trust to the present world. When bus reached at Kodangadu, I said I was getting off next stop. Then he stared at me and held my hands tightly. I was afraid his tight holding might break my hands! His mouth touched my ears and spoke to my eardrums: “Son! Now, first time in my life, I feel that those all good old days are coming back again!

I really did not know why he said so, but our conversation eased his anger and tension. I got down at Kondotty and went to Fish market, even our Mackerel was upgraded to the royal fish, now the poor only have sardine as theirs! But to my surprise every sardine was screaming to save them from there, people changed suddenly their taste and everyone began to think they were part of the rich!

Book Review: Belief or nonbelief? a confrontation; by Umberto Eco and Carlo Maria Martini

This book is a dialogue between a self- acclaimed secularist, Umberto Eco and a catholic scholar priest, Carlo Maria Martini. Umberto Eco, the author of the labyrinthine novel, Foucault’s Pendulum is not a closed skeptic in a strict sense, but he is more a man marked by a restless ‘incredulity’. He is not an anti-religious ex-Catholic, but is a one of those mature sages who is not interested in refuting believers but in illuminating genuine difference and finding common ground. Carlo Maria Martini, the other hand is interested in frank and unfettered dialogue with any kind of people. He usually addresses ‘the believers in non-believers and non believers in believers. It becomes a matter of interest among the public when both come together to share some of their ideas on some complex matters. The  copies of the book were sold out when it published first time, which shows the interest of the readers to know what happened when two big wigs in their own area of interest come together to lock the horn! In his first letter to Martini, Eco addresses his as ‘Mr’ instead of any of the respectful and hierarchical name, and he explains why he addresses him so. Calling by name is an act of homage and of prudence. Usually in French, people are addressed by their own name, so it’s an act of homage, and secondly both scholars come together as free men and representative of the people, so Eco does not want to keep any kinds of reverence. This book is a compilation of four three letters by Eco to Martini on specific issues. Firstly Eco asks about Apocalypse. People are compelled to live in a shadow of fear in the spirit of bibamus, edamus, cras moriemur (eat, drink, for tomorrow we die) because of the presence of religious believes. 

Vegetables sacrifices to preserve animal life and we are horrified at the idea of slaughtering an animal, but eat their flesh, we never squash a caterpillar in the park, but kill a mosquito when it comes to suck our blood, so what is the value of living being according to the religion? If a monkey is taught how to read and react, could it be recognized as human being and asserted all the human rights? What is the status of women in a religious set up? For all his questions in another letter Carlo Maria Martini explains from a religious platform. Though the book is fascinating, it loses its continuity. The letters were written in different time, and very different topics, so the reader may not be more interested to engage with the discussion. It is very passive discussion, that Eco asks something, and Carlo Maria Martini replies. It seems that there is not much interaction between each other.