Understanding Written Artefacts

The doctoral programme is offered at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), a research institute for the holistic study of handwritten artefacts from the beginning of writing to the present day from all African, Asian and European regions that have produced such artefacts. They are studied in an interdisciplinary setting of a broad range of subjects in the humanities, the natural sciences, and computer science. Research is currently organised thematically in eleven research fields: Artefact Profiling, Inscribing Spaces, Creating Originals, (Re-)Shaping Written Artefacts , Archiving Artefacts, Data Linking, Keeping Note(book)s, Exploring Multilingual Written Artefacts, Formatting Multigraphic Artefacts, Situating Graffiti, Selecting Materials as well as six working groups : The Palm-Leaf Manuscript Profiling Initiative; Theory and Terminology (TNT); Facing New Technologies (FNT); the Ethics Working Group; Asian Highland Manuscripts; Permanent Seminar on Manuscript Analysis, Description, and Documentation. Participating disciplines include: African Languages and Linguistics Ancient History Archaeometry Art History Assyriology Austronesian Studies Biology Chemistry Classical Archaeology Computer Science Ethiopian Studies Finno-Ugrian Studies German Language and Literature (Theatre Studies) Indology/Southeast Asian Studies Iranian Studies Islamic Studies Japanese Studies Jewish Philosophy and Religion Medieval and Modern History Mineralogy Musicology Physics Sinology Southeast Asian History Tamil Studies Thai and Lao Studies Turkish Studies Vietnamese Studies