진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

Working Conditions

• Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) – “in international mobility” (cf 'specific requirements')
• Field: History (medieval history or contemporary history)
• Duration: 9 months – October 2025 to June 2026
• Full-time position, in person
• Work environment: sociAMM (Histoire, Arts, Cultures des Sociétés Anciennes, Médiévales et Modernes); Ratio DH (research centre specialised in Digital Humanities, part of the Maison des Sciences Humaines)
  Amount of the fellowship: €3,116.45 net minimum /month

Description of the project

The selected candidate will carry out postdoctoral research as part of the “Action Blanche” project called "De main de maître. Vers une transcription automatique des archives de l’historien Henri Pirenne et leur analyse ‘génétique’ et intellectuelle", led by Sébastien de Valeriola (ULB, Faculté de Lettres, Traduction et Communication, Ratio DH) and Alexis Wilkin (ULB, Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales, sociAMM).

This project has two main objectives:

• To develop an HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) model capable of reading the handwriting of the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne (1862-1935), in order to automatically transcribe handwritten documents from the Henri Pirenne Archives held at the ULB. This work is being carried out in close collaboration with ULB’s Department of Libraries and Scientific Information.
• By applying text-mining tools to the transcriptions that will have been obtained, to conduct an ‘intellectual genetic’ analysis of one of the major works of Henri Pirenne: Mahomet et Charlemagne.

Job & Role Description

This postdoctoral position, as part of the project "De main de maître", will be carried out at the ULB, on the Solbosch campus in Brussels, for 9 months, under the supervision of Sébastien de Valeriola (LTC Faculty, Ratio DH) and Alexis Wilkin (PhiSoc Faculty, sociAMM). Remote work will not be possible (a dedicated workstation will be provided on site).

The research will focus on the second objective, namely the ‘intellectual genetic’ analysis of Mahomet et Charlemagne. Thanks to the first transcription phase of the project, the postdoctoral researcher will have at their disposal the various versions of Pirenne’s Mahommet et Charlemagne (from its first version as an article to the manuscript that was not finalised before Pirenne’s death), preparatory reading notes and manuscripts of his Histoire de l’Europe, as well as some older archives that will allow to examine the possible origins of Pirenne’s ideas before the First World War. By applying text-mining tools, the aim will be to study the genesis and evolution of the theory as presented in the successive versions of Mahomet et Charlemagne. The successful candidate will also be responsible for organising a seminar on the results of the ‘De main de maître’ project and for publishing a paper on the results of the ‘intellectual genetic’ analysis of Mahomet et Charlemagne.

The selected candidate will participate in the activities of sociAMM and Ratio DH. These combined work environments will ensure the researcher’s access to diverse areas of expertise relevant to the completion of the project for which he/she will be responsible.