ANTHONY JAMES WATSON Office: + 1 401 863 3695 111 Thayer Street, Watson Institute for International Studies Providence, RI 02912 Anthony_Watson@Brown.edu EDUCATION PhD History, University of Cambridge 2012 The Negotiation of Authority between the Latin Papacy, the Mongol Empire, and the Church of the East, 1245-1295. Supervisor: Erica CD Hunter. Advisor: Rosamond McKitterick. MDiv, Harvard University 2007 Medieval History, Islamic Studies, Comparative Theology. MS, The Johns Hopkins University 2001 Finance and Business Information Systems. BA, The Johns Hopkins University 1992 International Studies and History. Certificates and Other Study: Certificate in Arabic Language. American University in Cairo 2006 Mandarin Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 1991 TEACHING EXPERIENCE and TRAINING BROWN UNIVERSITY Providence, Rhode Island (2012-Present) Adjunct Assistant Professor in History Teaching HIST 1978V: Islamic Political Thought, Global Islam, and Globalization Thesis Advisor: Rahel Dette, Tunisia: Post Revolution Tourism Meghan Koushik, Reimagining Good Muslim, Bad Muslim : Public Theologies of Citizenship and Belonging in the Republic of India THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Baltimore, Maryland (2012) Visiting Lecturer in History Developed and taught Christian-Muslim Relations in the Middle Ages. McDANIEL COLLEGE Westminster, Maryland (2011-2012) Visiting Lecturer in Religion and Philosophy Developed and taught Islamic history courses on Islam, Islam in America, and Global Islam. 1 Watson CV
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES (SOAS), UNIVERSITY OF LONDON London, England (2010-2011) Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of the Study of Religions Taught two undergraduate lecture courses in religious history, Eastern Christianity and Orthodox Christianity, and ran a year-long graduate level seminar, Eastern and Orthodox Christianity on the historical development and theology of the Eastern and Orthodox churches, and their context, with relation to Islam. Thesis Advisor: Samuel Dakin, Christian Influences of the Mongol Sack of Baghdad in 1258. Rebecca Patience (PhD Candidate, Univ. Southampton), The Exegetical Symbolism of the Trees of Life and Knowledge in Ephrem the Syrian s Hymns on Paradise. UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Cambridge, England (2007-2010) Thesis Supervisor Tripos Part I, Themes and Sources class on Medieval Migrants. HARVARD UNIVERSITY Cambridge, Massachusetts (2004-2007) Teaching Fellow Religion E-1550: Introduction to Islam and Foreign Cultures 70: Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies. WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Montgomery, West Virginia (2002-2004) Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science PUBLICATIONS Author Dissertation Manuscript, Between Pope and Ilkhan: the struggle to negotiate political and religious authority by the Church of the East in medieval Persia. In Progress with Catholic University Press. Editor Co-editor, with Lars Kjaer, Special Issue: Feasts and Gifts of Food in Medieval Europe: Ritualized Constructions of Hierarchy, Identity, and Community in Journal of Medieval History, 37:1 (March, 2011). Chapters in Books The Transmission of the Theology of Evagrius in the Medieval Church of the East in Dumbarton Oaks Papers: The Legacy of Evagrius in Eastern Thought, (South Bend: Notre Dame Press, Forthcoming 2013) (Invited). Evagrius and the History of Mar Yaballaha: Preliminary Findings on a Virtue Tradition in the Church of the East in Winkler, D. and Tang, L. eds., Proceedings of the 3 rd International Conference on Research on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, June 4-9, 2009 (Forthcoming 2013). 2 Watson CV
The world we have cast behind : Jerusalem Pilgrimage in the medieval Syriac Church in Greeley, June-Ann. ed. Medieval Pilgrimage and Travel (London: Anthem Press, Forthcoming 2014). The early Franciscan mission to Asia as related in William of Rubruck s Itinerarium in Cornelison, Sally, and Howard, Peter (ed.) Word and Deed: Mendicants to the World (Forthcoming 2015). Journal Articles Normative Inculturation? A Thirteenth Century Example of the Middle Ground in Relations between the Latin Church and the Church of the East. Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, Issue 5, II (February, 2011). Feasts and gifts: sharing food in the middle ages and Mongol inhospitality, or how to do more with less? Gift giving in William of Rubruck s Itinerarium in Journal of Medieval History, 37:1, (March, 2011). Nothing to Gain From the Forest? Ramon Llull s Radical Monotheism and Islamic Thought. Missiology: an International Journal, XXXVII:3, October, 2009 (American Society of Missiology). Listening to God: Using Meta-Terminology to Describe Revelation in a Comparative Theistic Context Dialog, A Lutheran Journal of Theology, Vol. 48, No. 2, Summer 2009 (Blackwell Publishing). Book Reviews Review of Baker-Brian, Nicholas, Manichaeism. An Ancient Faith Rediscovered in The Medieval Review (2012). ACADEMIC RESEARCH and SERVICE BROWN UNIVERSITY Providence, Rhode Island (2012-Present) Associate Director, Middle East Studies Inaugural Associate Director for a substantial Brown University initiative. I provide critical leadership and direction in support of programmatic initiatives, strategic growth and curricular development of Middle East Studies at Brown, including outreach, recruitment, hiring and development. During my tenure, the program has more than doubled in size to become the largest Area Studies Unit at Brown, and has become a programming force on campus. UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Cambridge, England (2007-2011) Co-Convener, Central Medieval Workshop, Faculty of History, Cambridge Organized and chaired a bi-weekly medieval studies graduate seminar and workshop. Co-convener and moderator for International Conference on Medieval Feasting, Gift Giving, and Hospitality, 15 August, 2009, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Obtained funding for and co-organized a major international academic conference, publishing the proceedings in the Journal of Medieval History. HARVARD UNIVERSITY Cambridge, Massachusetts (2004-2007) Various Positions: Program Assistant, Islam in the West 3 Watson CV
Teaching Fellow for Religion E-1550: Introduction to Islam, and Foreign Cultures 70: Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies. Research Team Leader, The Pluralism Project Research Assistant to the Committee on the Study of Religion Committee on Academic Programs, Harvard Divinity School Student Coordinator for Academics, Harvard Divinity School Islamic Faculty Search Committee, Harvard Divinity School GRANT AWARDS AND FUNDING 2011 Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: Travel Funding Grant 2010 Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: Research and Publication Workshop Grant; Travel Funding Grant Harvard University: Honorarium 2009 Cambridge Faculty of History: Training Grant; Archive Grant; Workshop and Conference Grant (obtained for Central Medieval Workshop) Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: Pre-Doctoral Residency Grant, 2009 2008 Cambridge Faculty of History: Training Grant; Archive Grant 2007 Georgetown University: Doctoral Tuition Grant and Stipend, 2007-2013 (Declined) Harvard University: Tuition Grant; James S. Gallo Scholarship 2006 Harvard University: Tuition Grant; James S. Gallo Scholarship 2005 Harvard University: Tuition Grant 2004 Harvard University: Tuition Grant 1989 Boston University: Colin Kerr Merit Award, 1989 LEARNED SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS Society for the Exploration of Eurasia, International Medieval Congress, American Historical Association, American Academy of Religion, Middle East Studies Association RECENT PRESENTATIONS/ CONFERENCES Middle East Studies Lunch Seminar, Brown University, April 30, 2014 Providence, Rhode Island Pedigrees that have grown with the grass: Medieval Islamic perspectives on Mongols and Christians, Vanderbilt University workshop Reconsidering the Non-Muslim Other: Internal and External Religious Differentiation, September 26-28, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee (Invited) 4 Watson CV
Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium: The Legacy of Evagrius Ponticus, The Transmission of the Theology of Evagrius in the Medieval Church of the East, April 15-16, 2011 Washington, DC (Invited) Panelist, Renaissance Society of America, Annual Meeting, Franciscan Missions to the Mongols, March 27, 2011 Montreal, Canada (Invited) Panelist, Comparative Theology Section, When the Other is Us : the Comparative Theological example of 13 th Century Latin and Eastern Christian Relations American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 8, 2009 Montreal, Canada International Conference on Medieval Feasting, Gift Giving, and Hospitality, Mongol Inhospitality? Or, How to Do More with Less: Gift Giving in William of Rubruck s Itinerarium 15 August, 2009 Cambridge, England Panelist, International Medieval Congress, Heretic, Sinner, or both? William of Rubruck s Itinerarium. July 14, 2009 Leeds, England 3 rd International Conference on Research on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, A virtue tradition in the Church of the East? Research on the Tashīthā Dhemār(I) yaballāhā June 9, 2009 Salzburg, Austria University of Heidelberg, William of Rubruck s Itinerarium and the use of sin January 10, 2009 Heidelberg, Germany Cambridge Medieval Seminar, Questions of research on Sin and Franciscan Missionary Accounts November 29, 2008 Cambridge, England Central Medieval Workshop, William of Rubruck, Scholastic Rationalism, and Sacred History February 28, 2008 Cambridge, England 5 Watson CV