Job Vacancy
The DFG-Sonderforschungsbereich/ Collaborative Research Centre 1150 “Cultures of Decision-making” starting on July 1st 2015 at the University of Münster invites applications for 2 Research Associates
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterinnen/ Mitarbeiter (PhD student positions) – Salary Scale 13 TV-L 65% – in the Project C02 “The Role of the Supernatural in Procedures of Imperial Decision-making in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 12th Centuries” under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Michael Grünbart at the earliest possible date.
The positions will be fixed-term during the first phase of the Sonderforschungsbereich/ Collaborative Research Centre 1150 until June 30th 2019. Currently, the regular employment time is 26 hours and 33 minutes per week. All posts can, as a rule, also be filled as part-time positions if there are no compelling work-related reasons against doing so.
The Collaborative Research Centre / SFB 1150 “Cultures of Decision-Making” examines the social prac-tice of decision-making in a historical-comparative and interdisciplinary perspective from the Middle Ages to the present. The SFB addresses decision-making as a form of social action which is neither self-evident nor invariant, but which is based on changing social and cultural conditions. In three Project Areas and 20 Projects different historical “cultures of decision-making” are reconstructed by examining selected social fields, asking: how decision-making was framed, modeled, performed and reflected in different historical contexts; what the culture-specific conditions underlying decision-making were in every case; in what ways it in turn shaped the institutional and power structure of society; and how and why cultures of decision-making changed over the long term. The Collaborative Research Centre com-prises several disciplines (History, Literature, Law, Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology, Jewish and Byzantine studies) as well as a Graduate Centre.
Project C02 will investigate, how imperial decision-making was supported and influenced by prophetic competency and supernatural expertise (“occult sciences”) in medieval Byzantium.
The scope of duties includes:
• The Research Associates participate in and contribute to the Project C02 by doing research either on the PhD-project A “Occult Sciences and Fortunetellers in Procedures of Decision-making at the Byzantine Imperial Court from the 6th to the 12th Centuries” or on the PhD-project B “Prophets and Divine Afflatus in Procedures of Imperial Decision-making in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 12th Centuries”.
• The Research Associates will also take part in the interdisciplinary collaboration with other pro-jects as well as in workshops, meetings and research groups of the Sonderforschungsbereich/ Collaborative Research Centre 1150.
The Research Associates have the possibility for further academic qualification by submitting their the-sis (Promotion) and therefore participate in the syllabus of the Graduate Centre (“Integriertes Graduiertenkoleg”) of the Sonderforschungsbereich/ Collaborative Research Centre 1150.
The following requirements must be met:
• Completion of a course in Byzantine studies or similar studies with a focus on Byzantine studies with top grades (Master or Magister)
• Language skills in Ancient/Byzantine Greek
• Experience in coping with and interpreting of Byzantine sources
• The candidates should have a main area of interest in Byzantine history, Byzantine imperial history, Byzantine historiography and Byzantine scientific disciplines (esp. astrology and oneiromancy). In addition candidates should indicate an interest in Byzantine learned culture and knowledge transfer and they should be receptive to interdisciplinary methods as well.
The University of Münster is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the proportion of women academics. Consequently, we actively encourage applications by women. Female candidates with equivalent qualifications and academic achievements will be preferentially considered within the framework of the legal possibilities. We also welcome applications from candidates with severe disabilities. Disabled candidates with equivalent qualifications will be preferentially considered.
Please submit your application by post / by e-mail / by post or e-mail together with the usual documents by July 10th 2015 to the following address:
Prof. Dr. Michael Grünbart
Historisches Seminar / Abteilung Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik
WWU Münster
Rosenstraße 9
48143 Münster
E-Mail-Adresse: gruenbart@uni-muenster.de
If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Dr. Michael Grünbart.
http://www.uni-muenster.de/byzantinistik
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/forschung/projekte/b11.html
http://www.uni-muenster.de/Fruehmittelalter/
gruenbart@uni-muenster.de