The postdoctoral positions are part of the project ‘TransLatin: Transnational Impact of Latin Theatre from the Early Modern Netherlands, a Qualitative and Computational Analysis’. This project is funded by the Dutch Research Council NWO. 

In the Renaissance and beyond, literature crossed borders and in particular playwrights from different countries influenced each other because their plays, especially Latin ones, were read and performed everywhere. The Netherlands played an important role in this. This project investigates how this was done with historical research and modern computational techniques.

Postdoc 1 (1 fte). In this position, the focus is on: literary research and network research of theatre in Latin and vernacular.

Postdoc 2 (0.8 fte). In this position, the focus is on: digital humanities research, in particular distant reading, topic modelling, text reuses, distributional semantics and deep neural language modelling.

The research will be led by Dr. Jan Bloemendal.

A project description is available on request.

The successful applicant must have:

• Excellent command of English;
• A strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research;
• Affinity with research in literary history and network research;
• (for postdoc 1): excellent knowledge of Latin or (the early modern version of) one of the modern European languages; proficiency in English, reading knowledge of French and/or German;
• (for postdoc 2): familiarity with modern forms of distant reading and other digitally controlled research.

The appointment at the KNAW for the benefit of the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands concerns an employment contract of 0,8 fte or 1 fte for a period of one year with a view to an extension of up to 4 years. Startdate is January 1st, 2020.

Terms of employment

Depending on relevant work experience, the gross monthly salary ranges between € 3.637,-- and      € 4.274,-- based on a fulltime appointment (salary scale 11 CAO Dutch Universities). The salary is supplemented with an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities is applicable.

The Royal Academy of Science offers an attractive pension scheme, 6 weeks of holiday per year, the possibility to buy or sell holiday leave, as well as career development opportunities.