This position consists of a first year as research officer, which, after a positive evaluation, may be followed by a 4-year PhD track.
This five-year position is part of the project 'The Social Life of Early Medieval Normative Texts' (SOLEMNE), funded through the ERC Consolidator Grant awarded to Dr Sven Meeder. A fuller description of the project can be found here: https://canones.org/project/about-the-project/. The SOLEMNE project aims to chart and contextualise the spread of social norms as articulated in specific combinations of canons in a bottom-up approach starting from the vast corpus of manuscript witnesses of canonical collections in every shape and form (4th-12th centuries). A dynamic database forms an essential element of the project, combined with an innovative digital tool that allows for queries of shared content in canonical collections or manuscripts and of levels of affinity based on combinations of authoritative statements.
As a research officer you will work closely with the project's data scientists and IT-team during the first phase of designing and filling the database with the information of manuscripts and of edited and/or unedited canonical collections. Building on the attained affinity with the source material, and after a positive evaluation, the position can then be transitioned into a 4-year PhD track.
As a PhD candidate you will be responsible for one of the subprojects, more specifically, for a subproject that considers how ideas and notions of social hierarchy are transmitted, appropriated, altered, and promoted through clusters of authoritative statements in canonical collections. Your PhD research, which is to result in a dissertation, charts notions of social hierarchy and stratification in canonical compilations throughout the early and high Middle Ages. It represents a novel approach to the genre of canon law and directly contributes to the relevance of canonical sources and studies for the wider historical academic community.
You will contribute research results to the project's database. You will also be expected to contribute to wider communication of the project's results. Furthermore, you will cooperate closely with all other subprojects and participate in the project's programme of meetings as a speaker and organiser.
The supervisory team consists of Dr Sven Meeder and Prof. Maaike van Berkel, but you will work closely with all current and future team members of the SOLEMNE project. The research is embedded in the Radboud Institute for Culture and History (RICH).
Profile
- You should hold an MA or MPhil degree in Late Antique, Medieval or Legal History (if the degree is not yet obtained at the time of application, a statement from your supervisor should confirm that it will be obtained by the time of appointment).
- You have well-developed research skills, including the ability to formulate relevant and creative research questions and hypotheses, descriptive and analytical skills, and a clear and persuasive style of writing.
- You have an affinity with Digital Humanities, data management, and computational analysis, and are willing to acquire additional digital skills.
- You have excellent competence in English, a good command of Latin, and passive knowledge of the relevant modern languages.
- You are an independent thinker.
- You have a strong willingness to work collaboratively in an international research team.
Would you like more information?
For questions about the position, please contact Sven Meeder, Principal Investigator of the SOLEMNE project at (024) 361 27 51 or sven.meeder@ru.nl.
Practical information and applying
You can apply until 6 July 2023, exclusively using the button on the website. Kindly address your application to Sven Meeder. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:
- A letter of motivation.
- Your CV.
- A copy of relevant diploma or statement by master thesis supervisor confirming that the applicant will hold the required degree at the time of appointment.
- Transcript of records (i.e. a certified copy of your MA and BA course lists and results).
- Research proposal of 1000 words (not including the bibliography and (if appropriate) an appendix containing a list of sources, together max. two pages A4).
As part of your application you should write a brief research proposal (1000 words) in which you engage creatively with the topic of your subproject. A fuller description of the project is found here (the PhD project is subproject III). In this preliminary proposal, the committee is especially interested in your ideas and possible avenues of research you see within the subproject, and their relation with the project's overall aim.
The first round of interviews will take place on Thursday 13 July. You would preferably begin employment on 1 September 2023.