Postdoctoral Position in Language

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top universities. The University has around 47 000 students and more than 8 800 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset.

About the doctoral programme

The doctoral student will be part of the research school StoryPharm. StoryPharm is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Doctoral Network with the participation of a total of five universities: Cyprus, Bamberg, Salerno, Cardiff and Lund. The coordinator of the research school is Professor Stavroula Constantinou (Cyprus). Professor Christian Høgel is responsible at the Centre for Language and Literature at Lund University. The project grant agreement number is 101169114.

Read more about the doctoral network at: https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/ 

The research school will admit a total of 19 doctoral students, of which 3 at the Centre for Languages and Literature at Lund University. The three doctoral students will be employed at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology. The entry salary will be 32 600 SEK/month, plus mobility allowance (3 000 SEK) and, only if applicable, family allowance (4 500 SEK).

Information about doctoral studies at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology can be found at https://www.ht.lu.se/en/education/doctoral-studies/.

The overarching common theme for all will be stories in pre-modern medical literature (medical works, various genres of health and healing stories, etc.) from a literary perspective. The three doctoral students will belong to their respective research projects. See more information about the projects below.

Project 1: “The Medical Case Story in the Kitāb al-mujarrabāt and Other Arabic Medical Collections”

This project will examine the medical case story in its use as instruction to other practitioners and its possible function as part of patient treatment. It will focus on the Kitāb al-mujarrabāt of Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakarīyā’ al-Rāzī (c. 865–925 CE). Other collections of Arabic medical case stories will also be investigated. Case stories formed an important narrative genre in all early medicine, but they have been studied almost exclusively as conveying information from one doctor to the next. This project will examine the case story’s narrative elements, the strategies promoting the physician’s authority and reliability, and doctor–patient interactions.

The training includes a three-month academic secondment at the University of Bamberg (UNI BA) and a one-month non-academic secondment at David Collection (Copenhagen). 

Objectives: The fellow will aim at achieving the following results: (1) illuminate the rhetorical and narrative strategies employed by Islamic physicians to establish their medical authority and power; (2) show how the doctor-patient interaction is manipulated in these narratives to further confirm the physician’s authority; (3) establish the case story as a literary genre with its own conventions and characteristics.

When composing their text regarding Project 1, the fellow may wish to consider:

• What were the generic features governing tales of doctor-patient interaction in the Greco-Roman medical tradition?
• How did these narratives translate across language and cultural borders?
• How do the stories underpin the authority of physicians (in various ages/regions)?
• Were tales told to convince other physicians or to be reused in clinical situations, either as guidelines or as tales to be retold to patients?

Short Bibliography

Álvarez-Millán, Cristina. 2010. “The Case History in Medieval Islamic Medical Literature: Tajarib and Mujarrabat as Source,” Medical History 54, 195–214.

Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros and Sophia Xenophontos (eds) 2018. Greek Medical Literature and its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium. London.

Pietrobelli, Antoine and Marie Cronier 2022. “Arabic Galeanism from Antioch to Byzantium: Ibn Butlan and Symeon Seth,” Mediterranea: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge 7, 281–315.

Project 2: “The Pictorial Narratives of Herbal Medicine in Dioskorides’ De materia medica”

This project will study the pictorial programmes accompanying the De materia medica of Pedanios Dioskorides (c. 40–90 CE) in its various traditions (mainly Greek and Arabic) in search of their narrative functions. The herbal medicine of Dioskorides (and other early medical writers) often prompted imaginative pictorial representation, including much more than the specific herb that was to be visually identified. Animals would be included in the images or even scenes of human action. These narrative extensions could in many cases reflect stories told and convey treatment or medical explanation. It is this narrative universe that this subproject will attempt to trace.

The training includes a three-month academic secondment at the University of Bamberg (UNI BA) and a one-month non-academic secondment at the Bamberg State Library.

Objectives: The fellow will aim at achieving the following results: (1) reveal continuities and differences among Dioskorides manuscripts from diverse traditions; (2) illustrate the function of images in medieval understanding of herbal medicine; and (3) show the interaction of text and image in medieval medical practices.

When composing their text regarding Project 2, the fellow may wish to consider:

• What may be known about the interchange of Dioskorides illumination traditions between Greek, Arabic, and other traditions?
• What narrative features do we observe in the illumination tradition of Dioskorides, and what changes through time?
• To which narrative worlds and genres do the Dioskorides illuminations refer to?

Short Bibliography

Saliba, George and Linda Komaroff. 2008. “Illustrated Books May Be Hazardous to Your Health: A New Reading of the Arabic Reception and Rendition of the ‘Materia Medica’ of Dioscorides,” Ars Orientalis 35, 6–65.

Gutas, Dimitri. 2012. “The Arabic Transmission of Dioskurides: Philology Triumphant,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 132 (3), 457–462.

Mavroudi, Maria. 2015. “Translations from Greek into Latin and Arabic during the Middle Ages: Searching for the Classical Tradition,” Speculum 90 (1), 25–59.

Project 3: “The Kyranides and the Tradition of Medical Magic”

This project concerns magic texts which operate as healing means including a multitude of voices. Sometimes numinous powers are voicing the therapeutic knowledge, other times it is a science-like voice speaking, referring to the knowledge of all and imparting empirically based recipes. The recipient is equally a blend of general “you” and a more particular “soul”, also imparting the reader or listener a status within semi-divine categories. The subproject will try to understand the function of magic as pharmakon by analysing the authoritative voices and exalted recipients, the narrators and narratees, of the Kyranides (probably 4th c. CE) and other similar magic texts. The Kyranides will be studied both in its Greek original, in its various editions, and in a selection of its Latin and Arabic translations and reworkings.

The training includes a three-month academic secondment at the University of Cyprus (UCY) and a one-month non-academic secondment at Dr. Pfleger.

Objectives: The fellow will aim at achieving the following results: (1) give a more blended understanding of the vast popularity of magic and its literary modes; (2) a first rhetorical and narrative analysis of influential magic texts; (3) contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which practitioners of magic crafted their words and recipes as healing artefacts; (4) show the similarities and differences between different linguistic traditions of Kyranides.

When composing their text regarding Project 3, the fellow may wish to consider:

• What narrative features characterize magical texts and practices, and which are particular to the Greek and Arabic traditions?
• What place do texts like the Kyranides hold in the transmission and practice of magic?
• Is it possible to develop a literary history of the Kyranides or similar medieval magical texts, based on its narrative or other features?

Short Bibliography

Magdalino, Paul and Maria Mavroudi (eds) 2006. The Occult Sciences in Byzantium, Geneva.

Ullmann, Manfred. 2020. “Die arabischen Fragmente der Bücher II bis IV der Kyraniden,” Studia Graeco-arabica 10, 49–58.

Bain, David. 1995. “π........... as a Medical Term and a Conjecture in the Cyranides,” in Donald Andrew Russell et al. (eds), Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday. Oxford, 281–286.

Work assignments

Doctoral education. Departmental work, such as teaching and administrative tasks, can be assigned.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for doctoral studies in each subject are specified in the relevant general syllabus, available at https://www.ht.lu.se/en/utbildning/forskarutbildning/dina-doktorandstudier/general-syllabi/.

For this positions the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date (mobility rule). Any time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva convention (1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol), compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays do not count towards the total.

Assessment criteria

The selection process will primarily take into account the applicants’ ability to benefit from third cycle studies. This is assessed against the criteria quality, quantity, progression and relevance.

Application

Instructions for applying for a doctoral student position can be found here: https://www.ht.lu.se/en/education/doctoral-studies/become-a-doctoral-student-at-the-ht-faculties/application-and-admission/.

The application must include:

• CV/list of qualifications including relevant administrative and educational qualifications
• cover letter
• records of first- and second-cycle studies (attested copies of official transcripts of records)
• first- and second-cycle theses/degree projects
• any scholarly publications
• documentation of language skills of relevance for the research studies
• project proposal (1500 words max. excluding references).

Please note that you need to upload all documents with your application in PDF format.

Type of employment

Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.

About The Joint Faculties of the Humanities and Theology
The Joint Faculties of the Humanities and Theology have eight departments and carries out large and varied work within research and education with the purpose to understand people as cultural and social beings. The faculties have around 700 employees and around 4000 students.

About the Centre for Languages and Literature
The Centre for Languages and Literature (SOL) is Sweden's largest institution specialising in languages, linguistics, comparative literature and area studies. SOL offers a large number of independent courses complemented by a growing number of undergraduate and graduate programmes. With 36 subjects and some 30 postgraduate programmes, SOL forms a solid unit with breadth and depth in teaching and research and is distinguished by both national and international visibility. SOL is led by a board of which the Head of Department is chairman. In addition, there are three Assistant Heads of Department with special operational responsibilities. The centre has 300 employees and 8 000 students including around 100 doctoral students.

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