Research projects

Here you can find an overview of all research projects and the corresponding job vacancies in the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence.

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Text in Space and Time: Studies on the textual and iconographic programme of the Temple of Edfu

Department
Egyptology
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The goal of “Text in Space and Time: Studies on the textual and iconographic programme of the Temple of Edfu” is to produce a new edition with a translation, philological commentary and analysis of a specific spatial entity in the Temple of Edfu. Here, a diachronic and synchronic analysis will be conducted, investigating the writing system and the relationship between text and image. Thus, the research project will elucidate how inscriptions have a textual-historical dimension, being located in a room that connects with the wider structure, containing references to the cardinal points and to the other rooms of the temple and their representational programme.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Martin Andreas Stadler
Research Area
A (Writing Systems)

Text in Movement. Dynamics of textual transmission and reception in synchronic and diachronic perspective

Department
Ancient Near Eastern Studies/Cuneiform Philology
Job Vacancy
1x Independent Advanced Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The project “Text in Movement” investigates the dynamic practices of textual transmission and reception in Ancient Near Eastern Studies through a synchronic and diachronic analysis of cuneiform texts. Its focus is on the Sumerian Decade (c. 1400 lines of school texts) and the transmission of the epics Lugale and Angim over nearly two millennia. The project will develop new approaches to premodern textualities through the creation of digital editions and the application of computational methods.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Enrique Jiménez
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

(Dis)continuity and Innovation. Examining the Editorial and Scribal Practices of the Inscriptions of the Kings of Assyria

Department
Ancient Near Eastern Studies; Cuneiform Philology; Ancient History
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The inscriptions of Sargon II of Assyria (721–705 BCE) and his son and successor Sennacherib (704–681 BCE) are ideal for examining continuity, discontinuity, and innovation in the editorial and scribal practices of the Assyrian court, since numerous annalistic-style texts – written in cuneiform script on clay and stone in the Akkadian and Sumerian languages – are preserved for both rulers. Using recently published critical editions and new computational methods, this project will for the first time test assumptions made in modern scholarship about the editorial and scribal practices used in the composition of these inscriptions. More broadly, this project will examine questions of (dis)continuity, tradition, and innovation, with a special emphasis on the production of texts immediately following Sennacherib’s ascension after the unexpected death of his father.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Karen Radner
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

Canon formation in traditional China

Department
Sinology
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
While much has been written about the compilation of the venerable scriptures of ancient China into a canon that changed and grew over the centuries, we know much less about the canonization, glossing, and anthologization of the historical literature and belles-lettres of ancient China. This project will therefore examine the processes of canon formation in ancient China, both in general and through specific examples. Such examples could include the canonical scriptures of Confucianism; the early dynastic histories that became the canon of the “Three or Four Standard Histories”; “The Selection of Literature” (Wenxuan), which served as a model for elegant writing for centuries to come; or the canonical writings in languages other than Chinese that were in use in China for long periods of time.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Hans van Ess
Research Area
D (Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship)

Inscribing Piety: Patronage and Epigraphic Practices Across the Indian and Tibetan Cultural Worlds

Department
Tibetology and Indology
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13; Tibetology) 1x Postdoc (65% E13; Indology)
Project Description
The project investigates the cultural and religious significance of inscriptions across South Asia and the Tibetan cultural sphere, while also contributing to broader comparative studies of epigraphic traditions beyond Asia. The project combines philological, art historical, and digital approaches, and aims primarily to develop digital editions and cross-cultural studies. It focuses on three key regions and historical periods: 1. Early Historic Southern India; 2. Second-Millennium Tibet; 3. Early Modern Nepal.

The Indological subproject, “Monuments of Faith: Patronage and Institution in the Early Inscriptions of the Deccan”, supported by a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in Middle Indo-Aryan languages, early Brāhmī, and TEI/Epidoc encoding, will be dedicated to the integration, expansion, and standardization of earlier editorial initiatives through the creation of the “Early Inscriptions of the Deccan” digital corpus.

The Tibetological subproject, “Layers of Inscribed Meaning: Toward a Typology and Digital Corpus of Inscriptions in Tibetan Buddhist Sacred Art”, supported by a full-time postdoctoral researcher with expertise in Classical Tibetan, Tibetan art history, and epigraphy, aims to develop a classification and typological framework for Tibetan inscriptions, grounded in the first-ever comprehensive digital corpus of inscriptions on Tibetan objects of Buddhist art.
Responsible PIs
Prof. Dr. Vincent Tournier; Prof. Dr. Jörg Heimbel
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

Eudocia’s Homeric Centos

Department
Theology (Biblical reception history, Patristics); Classics
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The project will explore the long-neglected Homerocentones of the highly educated empress Aelia Eudocia (fifth century AD). Inspired down to the details of individual verses and lexemes by Homeric language and mythology, the Homerocentones is an example of an exceptionally artful retextualization of biblical salvation history. This project will analyse the extent to which the by then already well-developed Homeric philology found its way into the composition, and whether the subtle interpretation of the Bible achieved there through the selection of verses had an influence on later exegesis.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Holger Gzella
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Edition and Commentary - Analysis of Paratextual Commentary in Ge'ez Manuscripts Transmitting Originally Jewish Writings

Department
New Testament and Second Temple Judaism
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
Until now, a study of the rich commentary tradition of the Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) in the Horn of Africa has not been undertaken. The reception of 1 Enoch, which occupies a unique position among the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible scriptures in Ethiopian Christianity and Judaism (Beta Israel), shall be undertaken on the basis of several sources of evidence: (1) the Andǝmta (available in print, alongside several manuscripts); (2) paratexts and marginal notes that exhibit commentary to the text in selected manuscripts of the earlier recension of the book; and (3) discrete traditions preserved by traditional scholars of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church (Ethiopia) and Beta Israel (Israel).
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Loren Stuckenbruck
Research Area
D (Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship)

An e-corpus of Judeo-Arabic texts

Department
Judaic Studies
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
This project will develop a comprehensive e-corpus of Judeo-Arabic texts, with the goal of producing digital editions of approximately 30–40 significant works. The project will build on the latest advances in automatic handwriting recognition (HTR) and digital palaeography.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Ronny Vollandt
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

Philosophy and Grammar in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Department
Ancient Philosophy; Medieval Philosophy; Philosophy of Language; Classics; Arabic Studies
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
This project is inspired by the observation that in pre-modern traditions, much of what we now call “philology” was conducted under the heading of the discipline called “grammar.” It will focus on the relationship between grammar and philosophy in the Greek and classical Latin, Arabic, medieval Latin, and Sanskrit traditions. At the core of the project will be the production of a sourcebook on philosophical aspects of ancient Greek and Latin grammar and we will also stage conferences, with a volume of collected papers, on philosophical aspects of grammar in the above-mentioned cultural contexts.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Peter Adamson
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Topics of Editorial Interventions I: Editing Aristotle’s Metaphysics from 1497 to 1654: Methods and Results

Department
Classics (Greek Studies)
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
This project will meticulously document the wording of the Greek text of Aristotle’s Metaphysics from the editio princeps (Venice 1498) to the fourth printing of the Paris edition (1654). Within this range, the sequence of different shapes of the text as offered by these editions will be analysed as resulting from the development of various practices of philological editing.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Oliver Primavesi
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

Topics of Editorial Interventions II: The Parallel Passage Method

Department
German Studies
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
This project examines the “parallel passage method” as a fundamental philological technique in which text passages are systematically compared with one another. Despite theoretical emphasis on the uniqueness of works, practices of creating parallels have dominated philological labour from antiquity to the present. This project will use a praxeological take on historical case studies to analyse how these comparative practices have developed.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Carlos Spoerhase
Research Area
B (Practices in the Layout, Preservation, and Archiving of texts)

Ancient authorities in new political and social contexts

Department
Classics (Latin Studies)
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
Practices of transforming classical texts, such as by adapting them into new genres or by transferring them to different political and social contexts with new relevance, can be observed continuously in Greek and Latin literature, spanning from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period. These practices of transformation are usually associated with certain editing and commentary techniques that support such intertextual methods and processes. The project aims at analysing these practices in case studies.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiener
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Digital edition of the Glossa ordinaria on the Constitutions of Melfi (1231)

Department
Legal History
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
This legal-historical project aims to prepare a critical digital edition of the so-called glossa ordinaria to the constitutions of Melfi (1231). The shaping and transmission of this glossa ordinaria will shed new light on the role of legal practitioners on the canon formation.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. jur. Susanne Lepsius, M.A. (Chicago)
Research Area
C (Practices of Editing)

Medieval and Early Modern Courts as Hubs of Textual Migration

Department
Romance Studies
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
European Courts of the High and Late Middle Ages - as such that of Frederick II at Palermo, of Marie de Champagne, the Anjou court at Naples, or the Plantagenet courts - attracted clerics, scholars, poets, scribes and historians, who brought with them or had access to different vernacular languages as well as Latin, and were also active in creating translations and compilations. Thus, this project will analyse how these courts became hubs for the migration of manuscripts, practices, texts, textual elements or structures, and specific writing techniques from one language and its cultural or political context to another, as well as occasionally between different genres and media.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Florian Mehltretter
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)
Department
German Medieval Studies
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
This project aims to explore textual migrations between German and Romance courts by examining various forms and genres of medieval poetry. While older social-historical research has largely characterised the influence of Romance on German poetry as unidirectional and has attempted to show the connections between individual German and Romance courts, the planned project will instead focus on the multiple “intertextual dynamics” and “literary networks” (Bauschke, 2024) that connected these languages and centres.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Beate Kellner
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)
Department
Indology
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
During the Nayaka and Maratha periods, the Tanjavur court in South India emerged as an important hub in the development of a new performative and literary culture, marked by unprecedented experimentations in theatre, dance and music. This project will investigate the migration of texts and their literary motives—both secular and religious—across genres and media. Combining philological, literary, and social historical approaches, it aims to trace the processes of vernacularization, hybridization, and transcreation that led to the canonization of new repertoires and shaped premodern Indian cultural politics.
Responsible PI
Dr. Elisa Ganser
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)
Department
Musicology
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
The project explores the musical connections between courts and monasteries in the Central European (pre-)Alpine region during the High and Late Middle Ages with regard to musical notation systems. By focusing on shared cultural traditions, this project aims to move beyond traditional genre and style-based research narratives, which have also enforced a strict distinction between 'sacred' and 'secular' music. Instead, the project will examine how individual melodies, texts, manuscripts or entire repertoires were transmitted within a cultural network.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Irene Holzer
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Computational analysis of patterns of canon formation in the European novella tradition

Department
Computational Humanities; Computational Literary Studies; German Studies
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
While canonization has mostly been investigated as a stable result or outcome and with regard to a limited number of canonized works, this project will instead explore canon formation as a dynamic process and place special focus on ‘patterns of canon formation’. The aim of the project is to achieve the following objectives: (a) Detecting relevant patterns of canon formation as part of social practices; (b) establishing a framework for the temporality of such patterns; and (c) connecting the processes of canon formation as social practice with those of retextualization.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Julian Schröter
Research Area
D (Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship)

Migrations of novelistic material in the late Middle Ages

Department
Medieval German Studies; Latin/Romance Languages
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
Retextualization, that is retelling, adaptation, and reworking, exerted a decisive influence on the composition of medieval novellas. Similar narrative material and structures can be found in vastly separate regions and times, but it is often impossible to reconstruct clear dependencies or even routes of transmission between them. While retextualizations spanning different eras and linguistic regions have tended to fall out of favour in recent decades, the planned project aims to analyse them in greater detail, and to reflect on them methodologically by isolating three model cases.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Susanne Reichlin
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Telling stories: Cultural transmission within, along, and across borders

Department
Slavic Philology
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
Storytelling contributes to the establishment and coherence of social communities, their integration into or differentiation within larger cultural spheres. Focusing on the Slavic linguistic and cultural area and its larger embedding, this project aims to model the dissemination of topics and concepts, their adaptation and stabilisation within and across languages, and to understand the sociocultural circumstances that helped to promote – or inhibit – the transmission of ideas.
The project will explore the diachronic and distributional dynamics of cultural transmission on the example of selected case studies, for instance 1) the construction of history following the example of the Kievan Rus’ in Old East Slavic Chronicles and folk epic, or 2) the translation, adaption and transmission of cultural concepts in the Alexander Romance..
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Barbara Sonnenhauser
Research Area
D (Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship)

German reception of Shakespeare

Department
English Literature; Comparative Studies
Job Vacancy
1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
This project will be concerned with the reception of William Shakespeare’s works in Germany. It will research, edit, and make digitally accessible archival material from the Munich Shakespeare Library and beyond. A particular focus will be placed on the many rewritings, editions, and translations of Shakespeare’s plays that were characteristic of early adaptations of his works on the stage.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Claudia Olk
Research Area
E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

Lead Amulets and Embodied Writing

Department
Scandinavian Studies
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The project explores the intersection between writing and the body in premodern Scandinavia, focusing on metal amulets, particularly those made of lead – a small and less commonly researched segment of the runic corpus, with several recent finds that remain unedited to date. It will pay particular attention to folded lead amulets, which often incorporate hybrid scripts (runic and Roman) and languages (Old Norse and Latin) and blur the boundaries between written object, ritual device, and material culture..
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Verena Höfig
Research Area
A (Writing Systems)

Philology of Alchemy

Department
History of Science
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description
The project develops a new perspective on the history of philology through the example of the history of alchemy and alchemic research. Alchemy was a heterogeneous field of knowledge, which was practiced, discussed, and transmitted in different linguistic and cultural contexts, taking on different meanings and formats that ranged from artisanal experimental recipes to occult rituals. Using long-term comparative analysis, this project will reconstruct how knowledge about nature, materials, and artisanal skills was generated philologically, and conveyed in texts. The project spans multiple eras and relies on cooperation within the cluster: it links the alchemical-philological practices of the pre-modern era with their reception in 19th- and 20th-century history of science (e.g. by Julius Ruska), and contrasts these earlier discourses with current methodological approaches such as digital or performative methods. In this context, “philological practices” are understood as a multi-perspective form of knowledge production that has developed historically and is culturally influenced, and which has also exercised an impact far beyond philology in its narrow sense.
Responsible PI
Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen
Research Area
A (Writing Systems)

Epitomizing: The Abbreviation and Expansion of Texts

Department
Early Modern History (with a focus on Spanish and Latin American history); History of Humanities and/or German Philology
Job Vacancy
1x Postdoc (100% E13); 1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description
The project examines methods of text abbreviation and summarization in the Spanish imperial administration (16th-18th centuries) and in the philologies of the European Republic of Letters (17th-19th centuries). We are interested in how texts were compressed and expanded, as well as in the historical development of such practices. This also includes media-related and layout aspects, such as blank spaces and tables. The project employs Digital Humanities methods to determine the relationships between long and short versions of texts with greater seriality.
Responsible PIs
Prof. Dr. Arndt Brendecke; Prof. Dr. Carlos Spoerhase
Research Area
B (Practices in the Layout, Preservation, and Archiving of texts)