Research projects in Research Area E

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)

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)

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)

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)

Department: German Medieval Studies (with desirable additional skills in Latin or 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)

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)