Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften - Ostasien und Vorderer Orient

research assistant (postdoc) full-time job limited to 2 years Entgeltgruppe 13 TV-L FU reference code: 13043500/ERC/AnonymClassic/WiMi/PostDoc

Bewerbungsende: 05.11.2018

AnonymClassic is the first ever comprehensive research project on Kalila and Dimna (a book of wisdom in fable form), a text of premodern world literature. The work’s multilingual history involving circa forty European and Asian languages has never been systematically studied. Even the actual shape of the Arabic key versions is still in need of investigation. AnonymClassic´s methodology relies on a cross-lingual narratological analysis of the Arabic versions including the indirect transmission and all medieval translations, supported by a synoptic digital edition.

The five-year AnonymClassic project started in January 2018 and is funded by the European Research Council. It is hosted by the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies, Institute of Semitic and Arabic Studies: www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/semiarab/arabistik/index.html

 

Job description: The central piece in the AnonymClassic project is the textual history of a corpus of circa 100 Arabic manuscript versions. The "indirect transmission" expert will locate both direct quotes of and comments about Kalila wa-Dimna in the writings of Arabic works from the 7th to the 13th century. These passages will then have to be ordered, collated, commented and arranged to create a time line viz. a central spine serving as the orientational backdrop for both dating issues and a chronological grid for the text´s development before the appearance of full versions in manuscript form. After two years of work, the project will be provided with a fully operational working tool, the candidate shall also present the first draft of his or her monograph on the subject to be published before the termination of the AnonymClassic project end of 2022.

This requires for an expert in classical Arabic literature and philology (in the wide sense), cultivating broad academic knowledge and experience; he or she is expected to be familiar with codicology manuscript search, and the state-of-the-art online research tools on Arabic sources. A certain ‘hunter’s instinct’ as well as precision and effective team work will be helpful, excellent knowledge of classical Arabic is a prerequisite.

Requirements: PhD in Arabic Studies or an adjacent academic field; excellent knowledge of Arabic at native speaker’s level, very good knowledge of English, basic knowledge of German.

Desirable: Experience in manuscript handling, transcribing and corpus building; experience in the field of codicology; experience in working within a Digital Humanities project; please send the application portfolio (including a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, list of publications and two letters of reference) to us.

Weitere Informationen

All applications quoting the reference code should be addressed Prof. Dr. Beatrice Gründler: beatrice.gruendler@fu-berlin.de or postal to

 

Freie Universität Berlin

Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften

Ostasien und Vorderer Orient

Frau Prof. Dr. Beatrice Gründler

Fabeckstr. 23-25

14195 Berlin (Dahlem)