News in Jesuit Studies
The following are notices of significant events related to the field of Jesuit Studies.
The notices appear chronologically, and all entries are indexed into the Portal’s search capabilities.
To contribute news of significant publications and events, both recent and forthcoming, please contact the Portal’s editors (jesuitportal@bc.edu)
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies welcomes applications for its in-residence fellowship program for the 2022-2023 academic year. Applications are due January 15, 2022.
The Institute offers one- and two-semester fellowships to facilitate the completion and/or publication of academic work related to the Society of Jesus. Both types of fellowship come with a stipend, furnished housing, and personal office space at the Institute.
A full call for applications appears below. More information is available at the Institute’s website: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/iajs/research-/in-residence-fellows/in-residence-fellows.html
The one- and two-semester in-residence fellowship appointments seek to facilitate the completion and/or publication of academic work related to the Society of Jesus. Preference will be given to applications that propose publication projects for the Institute of Jesuit Sources and IJS Studies during their fellowship at the Institute. Applications are now welcomed from scholars in the fields of history, spirituality, and pedagogy, among others. The submission deadline is January 15, 2022.
The Institute offers two types of in-residence fellowships: Institute Fellowships, a year-long appointment (September-May), and Senior Research Fellowships, a semester-long appointment.
The year-long fellowship includes a stipend of $20,000, while the semester-long fellowship offers a stipend of $12,000. Additional support for research-related travel during the residency may be available. The Institute also provides furnished housing as part of both fellowships. Please contact the Institute with any questions, and please indicate in your application’s statement of purpose if you would require special arrangements for your housing.
Fellowships include personal office space at the Institute and access to the collections in the University’s libraries and those of the colleges and universities in the Boston consortium. Candidates are encouraged to consult the extensive listings of Jesuitica holdings at Boston College prior to submitting their applications. Preference will be given to applicants in the final stages of writing or revising substantive scholarly work. Please indicate in your statement of purpose if you have a preferred publisher or have already signed a contract with one.
While in residence at the Institute, fellows will make one presentation of their work each semester. They are encouraged to collaborate with the Institute’s initiatives and programming and with the Institute’s Research Scholars. They are also expected to engage with the wider academic community by attending events and meeting with the University’s faculty members and other visiting scholars. The fellowships are not academic appointments and have no teaching responsibilities.
In addition to a completed application, candidates should email the following materials to iajs@bc.edu (please include in the subject line “fellowship”):
- Curriculum vitae
- A sample of scholarly work of no more than 30 pages
- Statement of Purpose of 1,500-2,000 words. This statement should describe the project, its scholastic contributions, and how it relates to existing works (with authors, titles, and dates). Also, it should explain the ways in which the fellowship and being in residence at the Institute would assist with the project.
- Please indicate if you would require special housing accommodations and if your project already has a publisher.
- Official transcript (for applicants enrolled in school)
- Lastly, two letters in support of an application should be emailed directly to the Institute by the recommenders.
If necessary, application materials may be mailed to:
Boston College
Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies
Simboli Hall
Attn: Fellowship Programs
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Applications are due January 15, 2022, and candidates will be notified of decisions by January 31, 2022. Questions can be directed to the Institute (iajs@bc.edu, with “fellowship” as the subject).
Four texts — recently restored and digitized — are now available through the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu. Descriptions and links appear below.
Spiritual Exercises
This codex contains the earliest surviving text of the Spiritual Exercises, in Latin, prepared in Rome in 1541. It also contains the earliest Spanish text, prepared in Rome between 1544 and 1548, with annotations in the hand of Ignatius.
Spiritual Diary
This codex contains the surviving manuscript of Ignatius’s spiritual diary, in his own hand, with entries ranging in date from 2 Feb. 1544 to 27 Feb. 1545.
Constitutions Codex A
This is the draft that was finished by 1550, supervised by Polanco; it was then revised by Ignatius, with annotations in his hand.
Constitutions Codex B
This is the text considered definitive, finished by 1553; Ignatius worked on further revisions until his death in 1556.
The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History has relocated from the University of San Francisco to Boston College. The institute’s new website is: https://www.bc.edu/ricci
The Ricci Institute has also issued a call for fellowships, including for its doctoral and Luce Postdoctoral programs.
The doctoral program is open to all doctoral candidates who have completed all course work and have defined their specific research topic that might include Chinese-Western cultural history, local society and politics, history of education and other charitable enterprises, history of Christianity in China, history of diplomacy, art and art history, science and history of science, comparative studies of Christianity and cultures in China, and the “Sino-sphere”, namely, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The three-month fellowship is in residence at the institute and offers a stipend up to $4,000 per month.
The Luce program is open to post-doctoral level applicants, including junior faculty members (i.e. those within five years of having received the PhD), whose research focuses on Chinese-Western cultural history, history of Christianity in China, comparative studies of Christianity and cultures in China, Japan, and Korea, etc. The three-month fellowship is in residence at the institute and offers a stipend up to $4,500 per month.
More information on both programs can be found at: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/Ricci-Institute/fellowships.html