Research projects in Research Area E

Important information about the application process

The application period for all positions listed below runs from September 23 to October 21, 2025. Applications must be submitted via this online portal by 11:59 p.m. on October 21, 2025, at the latest. Please submit your complete application via the application portal.

If you have any questions during the application process, please contact us at this email address.

Eudocia’s Homeric Centos

Department: Theology (Biblical reception history, Patristics); Classics
Job Vacancy: 1x Postdoc (100% E13)
Project Description: The project aims to comprehensively explore the Homerocentones of the highly educated empress Aelia Eudocia (5th c.), a long neglected hexametric retelling of biblical salvation history. Inspired down to the details of individual verses and lexemes by Homeric language and mythology, the Homerocentones is as an example of an exceptionally artful retextualization of biblical salvation history. The project will analyse the extent to which Homeric philology, already highly developed at that period, found its way into the composition, and also investigate whether the subtle interpretation of the Bible achieved here 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)

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)

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)

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 like that of Frederick II at Palermo or that 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 made translations and compilations. Thus, these courts became hubs of 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, sometimes also between different genres and media. Applications are invited for a postdoc project on these migrations including, optionally, their impact on related phenomena such as canonization, practices of editing or commentary.
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: The project aims at exploring textual migrations between German and Romance courts. It will address this question by examining various forms and genres of medieval poetry. While older social historical research focused primarily on the monodirectional influences of Romance on German poetry and attempted to prove connections between individual German and Romance courts, the planned project will focus on the analysis of “intertextual dynamics” and “literary networks” (Bauschke, 2024) rather than solely on unidirectional influences from Romance countries on the German sphere.
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 forms. The project investigates 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 vernacularisation, hybridization, and transcreation that led to the canonization of new repertoires and shaped premodern Indian cultural politics. The doctoral candidate should have expertise in Sanskrit and at least one of the Indian languages relevant to the Tanjavur archives (Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Persian), or be willing to acquire additional language skills during the Ph.D. period.
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, the project aims to move beyond traditional genre and style-based research narratives, which also made a strict distinction between 'sacred' and 'secular' music. Instead, it 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)

Migrations of novelistic material in the late Middle Ages

Department: German Medieval Studies (with desirable additional skills in Latin or Romance languages)
Job Vacancy: 1x PhD-Position (65% E13)
Project Description: Retextualization, i.e., retelling, adapting, and reworking, has a decisive influence on medieval novella writing. Similar narrative material and structures can be found in very different regions and periods, but it is often impossible to reconstruct clear dependencies or even transmission routes. While retextualizations spanning different eras and linguistic areas have tended to fall out of focus in recent decades, the planned dissertation project aims to analyze them in greater detail and reflect on them methodologically using three model cases.
Responsible PI: Prof. Dr. Susanne Reichlin
Research Area: E (Migration and Translation of Texts)

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 digitally make accessible archival material from the Munich Shakespeare Library and beyond. A particular focus will lie on the many rewritings, editions and versions of Shakespeare’s plays, that were characteristic for the adaptation of his works in early theatrical practice.
Responsible PI: Prof. Dr. Claudia Olk
Research Area: E (Migration and Translation of Texts)