Mesmerismus Research Institute
Collaborate & apply
The institute develops its research together with external collaborators. Each role below gives access to the sources of the Magnetic Library, and each contribution is credited by name. All roles are unpaid.
Research Associates
Researchers in psychology, physiology, history of medicine or related fields who develop one question of the research agenda with the institute’s sources and archive.
Visiting Scholars
Scholars who need to consult the Magnetic Library for their own research. Access is granted on application, on the basis of a short proposal.
Source Translators
Translators of nineteenth-century French, German, Italian, Swedish and Dutch who bring key texts of animal magnetism into English, with notes.
Digitisation volunteers
Volunteers who help scan, transcribe and describe historical documents, following the Library’s method.
Research Associates and Visiting Scholars (unpaid)
- No salary or stipend is paid: every role is unpaid.
- Work is mainly remote; the Library can be consulted on site by arrangement.
- Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and every applicant receives an answer within 30 days.
- Selection criteria: a relevant research background (or, for translators, language skills for historical sources), a concrete proposal, and a commitment of time.
- Authorship follows the CRediT contributor roles (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which state what each person contributed.
- Contributions are published under an open licence.
Annual Call for Papers
Each year the institute opens a Call for Papers on one theme of its research agenda. The first theme is “Fascination: the gaze as induction”: historical, experimental or clinical contributions on how a sustained gaze changes attention and bodily state. Accepted papers will appear in the Annals of the Mesmerismus Research Institute (planned), each with a DOI, a permanent identifier that makes it citable; peer review will start once the scientific committee is in place. Submission dates will be announced on this page.
What collaborators receive
- Access to the sources of the Magnetic Library relevant to their work.
- Authorship of the works they contribute to, according to the CRediT contributor roles.
- A certificate of collaboration issued by the Balkan International Academy Foundation.
The annual cycle
The institute’s year follows a regular cycle, so that collaborators know when each part of the work takes place.
- Call for PapersAnnounced in spring, on the theme chosen for the year.
- Research seminar for associatesHeld in summer, where research associates present and discuss their work in progress.
- Annals of the InstitutePlanned: published at the end of the year, each paper with a DOI, once the scientific committee is in place.
- Work of the monthEvery month the Magnetic Library presents one work, with what its contemporaries said about it.