Post-doctoral scholarship in international mobility on the BICROSS project

The KU Leuven, Belgium, invites applications from suitably qualified candidates for a post-doctoral scholarship in international mobility examining bilingual evidence in New Testament manuscripts with computational tools for a duration of 10 months. The successful candidate will form part of the research team of the European Research Council (ERC) funded Consolidator Grant project “BICROSS – The Significance of Bilingual Manuscripts for Detecting Cross-Language Interaction in the New Testament Tradition”. The project is situated within the Research Unit of Biblical Studies of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (https://theo.kuleuven.be) and the LEMMA research centre (www.lemma-centre.org).

Project
BICROSS is an interdisciplinary project linking Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian and Arabic philology, New Testament textual criticism, manuscript studies, ancient history and digital humanities. The project investigates bilingual New Testament manuscripts from the 4th century to the 15th century. It aims at establishing the significance of bilingual manuscripts for the formation and transmission of New Testament texts by uncovering mutual exchange and cross-language interaction through a multilingual approach. The project assesses bilingual manuscripts as artefacts (codicology) and analyse their texts by means of digital tools in order to classify their readings and relationships.

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Responsibilities

The successful candidate will contribute to the project’s objective of assessing bilingual NT manuscript by means of digital tools of digital tools in order to conduct cross-language examinations and interpretations. The work of the candidate is expected to build directly on the candidate’s previous knowledge and expertise.

The successful candidate will

• assess bilingual manuscripts using digital tools within an individually designed work package that reflects the candidate’s prior computational research and experience with New Testament manuscripts.
• explore and, where appropriate, develop digital tools tailored to the specific needs of a bilingual tradition.
• investigate and compare bilingual manuscripts textually, including morphological, syntactic, and semantic analyses. This may involve digitally transcribing, studying, and analysing bilingual manuscripts and their text using electronic transcription tools and databases.
• work independently to achieve the project's goals.
• present research findings at international and national conferences and colloquia and publish research results at the highest scientific level.

Profile

The successful candidate 

• has lived outside Belgium for at least 24 months of the 3 years preceding the start date of the postdoctoral fellowship and has not worked or studied in Belgium during this period.
• has completed a PhD in Theology (New Testament Studies or Patristics), Computer Sciences or a related field before the start of the scholarship.
• has experience in digital humanities and is familiar with standard programming languages, including Python and Java.
• has experience with encoding standards for electronic transcriptions in TEI and XML format and is familiar with Natural Language Processing (NLP) modules, grammatical taggers and syntactical parsers. Additional knowledge of technologies for analysing New Testament manuscripts would be advantageous (e.g. phylogenetics).
• has an excellent command of Greek and at least one other major language of the project, ideally more, to compare bilingual texts on equal footing.
• has significant experience with working in the field of manuscript studies and textual criticism, including codicology, and is familiar with the tedious scrutiny of variant readings. Experience with manuscript databases, digital platforms and tools is desirable.
• has published articles on New Testament textual criticism in leading journals.
• is enthusiastic about digital humanities and manuscripts studies, is hard-working, organised, reliable, independent and cooperative.
• is open to scholarly collaborations in the field of digital humanities and open to artificial intelligence applications.
• has an excellent command of English (project language).
• is willing to work in Leuven and to travel on project business (incl. conferences).

Offer

We are offering a scholarship in an intellectually challenging and inspiring environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied research. It is highly inter- and multidisciplinary focused and strives for international excellence. 

The successful candidate will be part of an innovative research team in Leuven, a historic, dynamic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam. KU Leuven provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, etc. Further information can be obtained on: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/en/academic-staff/academic-staff-research-education-information#working-conditions

The postdoctoral researcher is scheduled to start on 1 December 2025. The project team is led by Prof. Christina M. Kreinecker. 

Interested?

Your application should include (and be limited to) the following attachment(s):

– letter of motivation (max. 1 page);

– curriculum vitae including details of computational skills;

– outline of the work planned during the scholarship with a clear link to the BICROSS project and the profile of this vacancy (max. 2 pages).

Further enquiries may be addressed to Prof. Christina M. Kreinecker, email: [email protected].

Applications for this job are possible until 17 July 2025 via the KU Leuven online application tool.

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at [email protected]. 

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