Research projects in Research Area A

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 Edfu. By investigating the writing system and the relationship between text and image, a diachronic and synchronic analysis across different media and genres is conducted. Thus, the research elucidates how inscriptions have a textual-historical dimension, while they are located in a space that follows certain specifications of the built ensemble with references to the cardinal directions and to other rooms of the temple and their representational programme.
Responsible PI: Prof. Dr. Martin Andreas Stadler (JMU)
Research Area: A (Writing Systems)

Department: Scandinavian Studies
Job Vacancy: 1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description: The postdoctoral 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 to-date unedited. This project pays 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.
In addition to producing new scholarly work, the Postdoc project will contribute to the continued development of critical research infrastructure. The inscriptions studied—particularly folded lead amulets and other small-format objects—are intended to be incorporated into the database of the long-term Academy project Runic Writing in the Germanic Languages (RuneS, 2010–2025). With the RuneS project scheduled to conclude in 2025, the postdoctoral position will ensure the ongoing documentation, interpretation, and integration of newly discovered or reassessed runic amulets into this digital corpus.
Responsible PI: Prof. Dr. Verena Höfig
Research Area: A (Writing Systems)

Department: History of Science
Job Vacancy: 1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description: The project develops a new perspective on the history of philology at the example of the history of alchemy and alchemy research. Alchemy was a heterogeneous field of knowledge, which was practiced, discussed, and passed down in different linguistic and cultural contexts and took on different meanings and formats: from artisanal experimental recipes to occult rituals. In a long-term comparative analysis, this example is used to 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 alchemical-philological practices of the pre-modern era – antiquity and the Middle Ages – with their reception in 19th- and 20th-century history of science (e.g., by Julius Ruska); and it 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 has had an impact far beyond philology in the narrow sense.
Responsible PI: Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen
Research Area: A (Writing Systems)