Postdoctoral Researcher (Post-Doc 4) in PetrIUS: Petrification of ius commune through printed paratexts Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań in Poland

Postdoctoral Researcher (Post-Doc 4) at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, is available within the ERC Starting Grant project PetrIUS: Petrification of ius commune through printed paratexts (Grant Agreement No. 101162091). The position is based in the Centre for Ius Commune, Faculty of Law and Administration, in Poznań, Poland.

This is a full-time, temporary postdoctoral appointment (36 months total, with an initial 6-month contract). The project sits at the intersection of legal history, digital humanities, and computational text analysis. The successful candidate will research printed legal paratexts, help develop digital tools for studying paratexts, and apply methods such as natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning, OCR-based corpus building, named entity recognition, topic modeling, and large-scale database analysis.

Postdoc 4 will implement WP4 under the supervision of the principal investigator. The work package focuses on the large-scale study of paratext variants and their use in scholarly legal literature. It aims to identify paratexts automatically in digitized or OCR-ed early modern legal editions, compare variants, and examine references to paratexts in learned legal writing. The postdoc will contribute to scholarly articles, conference presentations, and project seminars, and will cooperate closely within a research team.

The posting highlights the innovative use of computational approaches for incunabula and early modern legal sources, with particular attention to Latin and abbreviations. Methods mentioned include latent semantic analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation, N-gram models, named entity recognition, large language models, and OCR/digitization workflows using external tools where needed.

Eligibility requirements include a PhD in humanities, social sciences, information technology, or a related field, preferably digital humanities; evidence of interest in digital humanities through earlier outputs; experience using computational methods and tools; excellent English; and at least good command of Italian, German, French, or Spanish. Latin is an important advantage. Strong project management, work organization, and teamwork skills are also expected, along with research experience and international collaboration.

Funding is provided through Horizon Europe / ERC. The salary is listed as 7,600 PLN gross per month, with possible supplementary project remuneration depending on experience and doctoral status. The host institution emphasizes a supportive research environment, international collaboration, seminars, and opportunities for further professional development.

The application deadline is 30 September 2026 at 23:00 (Europe/Warsaw). Applications should be submitted by email, and candidates are instructed to include the suffix “Postdoc 4” in the email subject line.