The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven announces a 2 year research fellowship, starting in October 2010, to work on a project entitled "The Tree of Texts: Towards an empirical model for text transmission and evolution". This project will be carried out at the Faculty of Arts, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Caroline Mac��.
Profile The candidate has a PhD or a Master degree (with research experience) in a field of study related to computer sciences applied to the humanities. The candidate should be able to design a database, apply statistical tools, and draw mathematical models. Some experience in digital philology would be an advantage, but at least an interest in textual scholarship is required.
Description of the work The first step in the research process will consist in creating a data base where data coming from different manuscript traditions in different languages will be gathered and structured. The data will be analysed according to the following questions: what types of variations occur, can these types be divided into sub�\types, do all these variations occur in all types of texts / manuscripts, are some variants reversible and others irreversible, are there indisputable (objective) criteria to distinguish between "original" (or primary) readings and "derived" (or secondary) readings, etc.
Applications (CV + motivation letter) and inquiries can be sent to Caroline.Mace@arts.kuleuven.be