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Funding/Aug 06, 2015

Post-doc Position: Epistemic Networks and Centers of Knowledge in the Mediterranean

Post-doc Position: Epistemic Networks and Centers of Knowledge in the Mediterranean lead image

The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) is offering 1 Post-Doc Position for 12 months (to start October 1, 2015, or later) on the theme: “The Formation of Epistemic Networks and Centers of Knowledge in the Mediterranean, 5th to 16th Centuries.”

This Post-Doc position is part of the larger project “Convivencia: Iberia to Global Dynamics, 500–1750” 1750’ of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt (Thomas Duve), the KunsthistorischesInstitut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute (Gerhard Wolf), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (Jürgen Renn), and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale (GüntherSchlee), in cooperation with David Nirenberg (Chicago University), associate to the Max-Planck-Society. The position is also part of the project “Globalization of Knowledge” of the MPI for the History of Science, Department I.

The project will investigate the process of formation and evolution of knowledge in the Mediterranean region. It looks for mechanisms that allowed for the organization and expansion of epistemic networks.

We invite proposals for one of the following research topics:

  1. Social and economic history of remedies as objects of knowledge, healing, commerce and legal practice across different faith-communities from the Western Mediterranean to the Northern Black Sea.
  2. The integration of natural philosophy in theological-philosophical networks of higher education or/and princely households in the Mediterranean region (1200–1500).
  3. Portolan books and sea charts (13th to 16th Centuries) as objects of cross-culturally constructed knowledge and identities.

Preference is given to approaches that aim to explore the factors that determined possibilities and constraints for the codification and modification of knowledge.

The MPIWG is an international and interdisciplinary research institute. The colloquium language is English; it is expected that candidates will be able to present their own work and discuss that of others fluently in that language.

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