Digital Humanities: Fully Funded PhD Studentship: Big Scripture: Tracking Translations, Citations and Paraphrases in Multilingual e-Corpus Text Data
Marco BÜCHLER
Text:
Digital Humanities: Fully Funded PhD Studentship: Big Scripture: Tracking Translations, Citations and Paraphrases in Multilingual e-Corpus Text Data
Closing date: 30 April 2016
Key Information
The College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Science, Swansea University, invite applications for a fully funded PhD in Digital Humanities.
The project’s objective is to create new ways of discovering, tracking and understanding past and present uses of scriptural texts (Bible, Quran) in massive text corpora, leveraging multiple translations in diverse languages in diverse sources. The sub-objectives are: (a) to track the translational (in)stability of concepts, passages, events, and named entities; (b) to track citations/paraphrases across linked e-corpora (archives of books and newspapers, new web corpora); (c) to develop techniques using dynamic, interactive visualisations to support exploratory analyses of this kind of big, fuzzy natural language data; (d) to encourage public engagement with this research.
The project is significant for comparative religious studies, politics, sociology, cultural histories, area studies, linguistics and translation studies, web studies, digital humanities and big text data analytics. It aims to transform academic and public understandings of cross-language religious tradition and change.
Corpora of complete or near-complete scripture texts include Bible.com (1143 Bible texts in 822 languages, including 42 English versions: corpus total c.800m words) and smaller online Quran corpora. Fragments of scripture are extant in translations in vast numbers in diverse online sources, and new ones constantly appear. Multimedia (audio/visual) corpora may also be exploited.
Translations vary due to language usage changes, differing interpretations by translating organisations and individuals, differing purposes and differing target audiences. Differences in selections of citations and paraphrases, and differences between versions used and/or adapted, reflect theological and political controversies around concepts, events, characters and places. Innovative digital methods can make this rich research material accessible. This is of very wide public interest, from ISIS to GOP.
Translations corpora will be used to train automated searches in other corpora, to discover which elements of which versions are cited (and adapted) in what contexts. Modelling intertextualities among corpora at scale requires use of Wales’s High Performance Computing facilities, testing different combinations of different analytic models and their approximations to “ground truth”.
Supervisors
Dr Tom Cheesman (College of Arts and Humanities, Dept of Languages, Translation and Communication) and Dr Robert S Laramee (College of Science, Dept of Computer Science). Both are co-directors of Swansea University’s Centre of Digital Arts and Humanities (CODAH) and collaborate on a project enabling research on variant translations.
Advisory team
A multi-disciplinary advisory team will also guide the project, offering the PhD student advice, facilities, and potential opportunities for travel, training, and dissemination. The team includes Professor Roderick Thomas, training mentor for High Performance Computing Wales (Swansea University) and external advisors: 1. Professor Rens Bod, Centre for Digital Humanities, University of Amsterdam; 2. Dr Marco Büchler, Göttingen Centre for Digital Humanities, Göttingen University; 3. Professor Min Chen, Oxford E-research Centre, Oxford University ; 4. Professor Thomas Lebarbé, Dept of Digital Pedagogy, University of Grenoble; 5. Professor Karina van Dalen-Oskam, Dept of Literary Studies / Textual Scholarship, Huygens ING, NL; 6. Professor Wido van Peursen, Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (ETCBC), VU University Amsterdam.
This is a great opportunity to carry out leading research in a supportive environment with top facilities and an internationally recognised track record of success. Swansea offers an excellent balance between city and country life and a great working environment with comprehensive training opportunities for PhD candidates both at University level and in the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Science.
Eligibility
Candidates should have a good Bachelors (2.1 or higher) or Masters degree in Computer Science or a closely related discipline such as Digital Humanities, or computer-based Textual Studies.
Applicants with proven humanities research software skills and some relevant domain knowledge (scripture, languages/translation) are highly desirable.
Candidates should be highly motivated, ambitious, focused, like to collaborate in a team and have:
- Solid programming abilities with a strong interest in improving their software development skills
- An interest in carrying out internationally leading, scholarly research including dissemination through conferences and journals
- Experience in computer graphics, e.g., OpenGL and an interest in improving their computer graphics programming skills
- Fluent and articulate communication in both written and spoken English – particularly with experience in academic writing.
Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is open to UK/EU candidates only.
For more information on eligibility critera, please visit: www.ukcisa.org.uk
Funding
The studentship covers the full cost of UK/EU tuition fees, plus a tax free stipend of £14,057 p.a for three years.
There will also be an additional £600 per annum available for research expenses.
Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is open to UK/EU candidates only.
How to Apply
To apply for this studentship, please complete the College of Arts and Humanities Research Scholarship Application Form and return, along with:
- CV
- A response (in no more than 500 words) to this question: What specific skills, experience, knowledge and research interests do you bring to the Big Scripture project?
to:
Gabriella
Wasiniak,
Graduate Centre Administrator,
College of Arts and Humanities,
Keir Hardie Building,
Swansea University,
Singleton Park,
SA2 8PP
Gabriella Wasiniak: g.was...@swansea.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)1792 295926
The deadline for applications is 30 April 2016 .
Informal enquiries about this studentship are welcome, and may be directed to Dr Tom Cheesman by email (t.che...@swansea.ac.uk) or by telephone (+44 01792 604030).