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Founded in 1640, the University of Helsinki is one of the best multidisciplinary research universities in the world. The University of Helsinki is an international academic community of 40,000 students and staff members. It operates on four campuses in Helsinki and at 15 other locations. The high-quality research carried out by the university creates new knowledge for educating diverse specialists in various fields, and for utilisation in social decision-making and the business sector.

The project “Digital Grammar of Greek Documentary Papyri” (PapyGreek) at the University of Helsinki will run from March 2018– February 2023 and is directed by Dr. Marja Vierros. It is funded by the European Research Council (ERC-Starting Grant 2017). The project creates a digital grammar of Greek documentary papyri. It fills a void in Greek scholarship: the papyrological corpus represents the Post-Classical variety of Greek, a bridge between Classical and Medieval Greek, which has hitherto been very difficult to use as a source for studying historical linguistics. This project will develop new digital methods for studying this fragmentary but vast text corpus.

Applications are invited for a

DOCTORAL STUDENT

for a fixed term of up to 4 years, starting in the fall of 2018 to work in the University of Helsinki. The selected doctoral candidate will also need to apply for acceptance in the Doctoral Programme for Language Studies at the Faculty of Arts during the fall application period. The candidate’s main duties will consist of PhD studies and writing of a dissertation.

The doctoral candidate will study a topic of his/her choice within the historical development and linguistic variation of Greek in Egypt (e.g. certain morphosyntactic variation as a sign of bilingualism), by way of producing a selected, morphosyntactically annotated corpus of documentary papyri, according to Dependency Grammar. The candidate’s duties include participation in regular team meetings and presenting his/her research at seminars and academic conferences. The candidate is expected to also take part in designing the online portal that presents the results of the project.

The appointee to the position of doctoral student must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant field and must subsequently be accepted as a doctoral candidate in the Doctoral Programme mentioned above. A solid knowledge of Ancient Greek is essential. Experience in linguistic annotation, corpus linguistic methods or programming are an asset, but not a requirement. The appointee must have the ability to conduct independent scientific research. The candidate should have excellent analytical and methodological skills, and be able to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary scientific community. The successful candidates are expected to have excellent skills in written and oral English. Skills in Finnish or Swedish are not required. Relocation costs can be negotiated and the director will offer help and information for the practicalities, if needed.

The project PapyGreek is functioning in the Faculty of Arts, located in the City Centre Campus. The city of Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, with a population of ca. 600 000. It has been consistently ranked amongst the top cities in the world for quality of living. Founded in 1640, the University of Helsinki is an international academic community of 40,000 students and staff members. It operates on four campuses in Helsinki and at 15 other locations.

The salary for the position will be based on level 2 of the demands level chart for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal performance. The salary is EUR 2,186–2,873 per month, depending on the appointee’s qualifications and experience. The position will be filled with a 4 months trial period.

Applications should consist of the following English-language documents:
(1) CV including a possible list of publications (max. 3 pages)
(2) Contact information for two referees
(3) A research statement (max. 2000 words) consisting of
i) a brief description of previous experience, such as MA thesis
ii) a proposal for the PhD project that the applicant wants to conduct in PapyGreek (including suggested starting date)
iii) statement of motivation for the position applied for

Further information on the position may be obtained from the director Marja Vierros ().

Please submit your application, together with the required attachments, through the University of Helsinki Recruitment System via the link Apply for the position. Applicants who are employees of the University of Helsinki are requested to send their application via the SAP HR portal. Deadline for applications is 30 April 2018.

If you need assistance with the University’s electronic recruitment system or SAP HR portal, please contact .

Apply at latest 30.04.2018

Due date
Monday, April 30, 2018