Within the framework of Poetry from the Margins: Literary, linguistic, philological and cultural-historical analysis of a new corpus of Byzantine book epigrams (800-1453), a research project closely connected with the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams, the Greek Section of the Department of Literary Studies at Ghent University (Belgium) is seeking well-qualified applicants for a fully-funded and full-time doctoral research fellowship (four years). The successful applicant will be part of an international team of pre- and postdoctoral scholars and is expected to work on the literary analysis and/or editing of selected book epigrams (metrical paratexts in Byzantine manuscripts). (S)he will be supervised by project director Professor Kristoffel Demoen and start employment between 1 October 2016 and 1 January 2017.

The successful candidate will have

• an MA degree in Classical Studies (with an emphasis on Greek) or Byzantine Studies;
• excellent knowledge of ancient Greek;
• good notions of medieval Greek (at the least);
• very good grades (including BA and MA dissertations of high quality);
• good knowledge of ancient and medieval Greek literary history;
• an interest in literary and/or cultural history, as evidenced by her/his study trajectory (e.g. optional courses, subject of papers and dissertations, etc.);
• the willingness to attend training courses in Greek paleography, codicology, textual criticism and/or book history (if these skills have not been acquired previously).

In order to be eligible, candidates must have obtained their MA degree at the time of application or demonstrate convincingly that they will have their degree in hand by 1 October 2016.

We expect that the successful applicant

• will write and successfully defend a PhD dissertation within the four years of the fellowship;
• will contribute to the strong research tradition of the Department and the University by pursuing excellence in her/his research and publishing her/his results in peer-reviewed journals and with academic publishers that are internationally accepted as being of the highest quality;
• will come and live in Belgium, work closely together with the other team members, and contribute to a pleasant and stimulating atmosphere;
• will actively contribute to the scholarly activities of the research group (e.g. by organising events in collaboration with the other members of the team).