진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

The project’s overarching aim is to study the development of the epigraphic written culture in medieval Scandinavia, investigating the introduction and spread of Latin and the Latin alphabet in Scandinavian inscriptions, and their relationship to the vernacular languages and to runes.

During the high and late Middle Ages, Scandinavian epigraphy was characterized by sustained coexistence and interaction between different languages and writing systems. The simultaneous presence of Latin and the Latin alphabet, and various vernacular languages and the runic script, resulted in a written culture shaped by three overlapping processes: 1) the initial spread of Latin alongside the runic tradition; 2) increased Latinization and decline of the runes; 3) ‘re-vernacularization’, the increasing use of the Scandinavian languages but written in the Latin alphabet. EpiCentres aims to investigate these processes through the study of an extensive corpus of Scandinavian inscriptions and graffiti in the Latin alphabet – largely overlooked as a source for these far-reaching cultural transformations – together with the contemporaneous runic inscriptions.

The EpiCentres team is led by Associate Professor Alessandro Palumbo and will be comprised of one PhD candidate (3 years), two postdoctoral fellows (3 years), and Professor Anna Blennow. The postdoctoral fellow will be a full member of the team aiming at successfully completing the project’s goals. The project consists of three work packages, and the candidate will contribute in particular to work package 1 and work package 2.

Work package 1 aims to geographically and chronologically map the introduction and spread of the Latin alphabet in Scandinavian epigraphy. Through geospatial analyses, the team will investigate which hubs emerge as central for the production and display of epigraphic texts, and how their linguistic and alphabetic composition changed over time.

Work package 2 aims to investigate the intersections and interactions of epigraphic traditions in different languages and writing systems. Within this work package, the postdoc fellow will contribute to examining the evolution of epigraphy in the Latin alphabet in medieval Scandinavia, focusing in particular on the relationship between the development of writing practices in the vernacular languages and in Latin. Their research will focus on how textual composition, orthography, palaeography, and text display develop within traditions in different languages, and the extent to which such practices are shared or diverge across Latin-language and vernacular inscriptions.

For more information and how to apply: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/301750/postdoctoral-research-fellowship-in-medieval-latin