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Vasileios Syros awarded by Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship
Vasileios Syros, a senior fellow and at the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Political Thought & Conceptual Change and Docent at the Department of Social Sciences & Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä has been awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn) the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers.
The Fellowship offers top researchers from around the world the opportunity to spend up to 18 months in Germany conducting cutting-edge research in collaboration with their host institutions. Syros, who holds a PhD in Medieval and Modern History from the University of Heidelberg, will pursue his project at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, one of the world’s leading universities in the Social Sciences and Humanities and will be hosted by Prof. Johannes Helmrath, an internationally acclaimed expert on European intellectual history and cross-cultural encounters in the early modern period.
Syros’ research seeks to illuminate the early modern antecedents of Comparative Political Theory and Comparative Politics with an eye to Giovanni Botero’s (1544–1617)’ ideas on the comparative study of forms of government and patterns of imperial ascendancy and decline. In particular, Syros attempts a reinterpretation of Botero’s political thought on the basis of a systematic study of his work Relazioni universali (Universal Relations, 1591–98) on the social conditions, culture, mores, political organization, and religious practices of more than forty states around the world, including France, various Italian city-states, Holland, Spain, Russia, a number of Islamic states (Ottoman and Mughal empires, Tunisia), China, Japan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and the Americas.
Syros’ project forms part of a larger research agenda that sets out to revise the existing canon of scholarly narratives about the origins of political science and evolution of political concepts in the West and to recuperate hitherto neglected sources and genres of theorizing on various types of government and political cultures from a comparative perspective.
Syros will be joining a network of ca. 23,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in 130 countries worldwide, including 40 Nobel Prize laureates. The Humboldt Fellowship is considered one of the world’s most competitive and most coveted scholarly awards.
Candidates are selected according to academic performance, publications in international peer-reviewed journals, expert references, and the quality, expected outcome, and feasibility of the research plan. The Fellowship is open only to scholars within 12 years of earning their doctorate and applicants are required to have developed a distinct and individual academic profile and to provide evidence of several years of independent and high-quality scholarship.
Vasileios Syros: Research interest and Publications
Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers
New monograph
Kari Palonen: ‘Objektivität’ als faires Spiel. Wissenschaft als Politik bei Max Weber, Nomos, 205 p. ISBN 978-3-8329-5740-7. 2010.
http://www.nomos-shop.de/productview.aspx?product=12684&toc=222