Congratulations to PhD student Alexander van Dijk, for receiving the Parker Early-Career Research Fellowship.
This research post is awarded annually by the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, one of the largest collections of manuscripts and printed books from Medieval and Renaissance Europe. It aims to give students the opportunity to provide new perspectives on this collection.
Van Dijk recently completed a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science. During this course, he learned to read Arabic, and now aims to focus on the Parker Library's Arabic manuscripts during the fellowship.
"I started learning Arabic just for fun," he muses. "When this fellowship came up, I wondered if the Parker Library might have Arabic material. It did: there are four Arabic manuscripts, one of which was unidentified. The author was anonymous, but through the research I had done about Arabic in the 17th century in Europe, I managed to identify them as William Bedwell, the 17th century English Arabist."
This discovery formed the basis of his planned research project. He aims to study English translations of the Bible into Arabic, and the Levant Company's role in exporting these to the Ottoman Empire.
"It's going to be a story about trade, religion, Arabic scholarship," Van Dijk explains. "This trinity of themes were also in my PhD. I'm very happy that the fellowship gives me an opportunity for further work on my Arabic, because it's a beautiful language. Hopefully, I'll be able to throw some light on a part of the Parker Library collection that that usually gets a little bit less attention."
As an undergraduate, Van Dijk studied History at University College London. After taking an Early Modern Science module, he became fascinated by the history of natural science, particularly its changing relationship with theology. He began the History and Philosophy of Science PhD to pursue this topic further and recalls what made it conducive to engaging research.
"History and Philosophy of Science is a mixed bag of people, people come to HPS from different disciplinary backgrounds," he says. "You're surrounded by people who are genuinely interested in the same things that interest you, whether they're lecturers, supervisors, and your own peers as a student. People are genuinely interested in discussing any and all questions."
He now hopes to carry this culture of openness and interdisciplinarity to the Parker Early-Career Fellowship.