We are excited to announce two research opportunities related to the new multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy.

I.
The first one is a part-time graduate opportunity at the Index of Medieval Art. This is a two to three-month remote research opportunity to help incorporate key works of art on Mount Athos into the Index database.

The successful student should be enrolled in a PhD position and currently based in Greece and have relevant training in art history, preferably with a medievalist background. A reading knowledge of modern and Byzantine Greek is preferable. This opportunity offers a stipend of $2,500 and has been generously funded by the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, with the support of the Dimitrios and Kalliopi Monoyios Modern Greek Studies Fund and Art & Archaeology Department at Princeton University.

The work position will require roughly 5-10 hours of remote work for a two/three-month period, beginning in spring 2024. The successful applicant will work with the Index research staff to catalog monumental art, icons, enamels, and manuscript on Mount Athos. The position would require the student to examine the Index legacy records, update the metadata, identify new color images, and incorporate them on the online database. They will be trained in Index norms in cataloging , describing the iconography of the works of art, transcribing inscriptions, and adding bibliographic citations. Staff guidance and scans of the relevant print material will be provided. The timeline for this work is somewhat flexible but must be completed by the end of the funded period, June 30, 2024.

II.
The second is a one-month remote research opportunity centered on the 1929 Princeton-Mount Athos expedition. The successful applicant will have access to the entire collection, including the film, prints, and lantern slides.

In 1929 a group of three men, including Princeton alumnus and architect Gordon McCormick ’17, traveled to Mount Athos on an expedition “to obtain cinematographic and pictorial record of life and architecture of ancient monasteries.” A 33-minute film, a rare and early cinematic documentation of Mount Athos, and 336 photographs are what survive from that journey. They were discovered late in 2017 in the Visual Resources Collection, in the Department of Art & Archaeology. The project was titled “No Woman’s Land” and was aimed at conveying images from the “strange” world of Mt Athos which was (and continues to be) inaccessible to women. The successful applicant will have access to the entire collection, including the film, prints, and lantern slides.

We will offer a remote research opportunity centered on the 1929 expedition in spring/summer 2024. This could focus on the travelers’ connection to Thessaloniki, analyze the film as an example of early Hollywood salvage ethnography or expand on the significance of expeditions to Mount Athos in the twentieth century. The successful candidate should hold a PhD or be in the late stages of completion (ABD) and have a background in art history, history or film studies. This opportunity offers a stipend of $2,500 and has been generously funded by the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, with the support of the Dimitrios and Kalliopi Monoyios Modern Greek Studies Fund and Art & Archaeology Department at Princeton University.

To apply, please send a CV and letter of interest (and a supervisor’s letter if the candidate is still enrolled in a PhD program) to gearhartprinceton.edu and marossiprinceton.edu by December 1, 2023.

For more details about eligibility criteria and the application process, please check the 'Announcements' page: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/announcements/