General information
Job title: Researcher (M/F) in data science for textual data analysis (Arabic) / ERC MCILRaP
Reference: UPR841-HANMUL-003
Number of Posts: 1
Place of work: AUBERVILLIERS
Publication date: Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Contract type: Scientific fixed-term contract
Contract duration: 12 months
Expected start date: November 1, 2024
Workload: Full time
Remuneration: between €3081 and €4756 gross depending on experience
Desired level of studies: Level 8 – (Doctorate)
Desired experience: Indifferent
CN Section(s): Ancient and Medieval Worlds
Missions
As part of the MCILRaP (Mapping Change in Islamic Law: Rules and Practices) project aimed at studying legal thought in Islam and the textual analysis of a large corpus of Arabic texts, the IRHT (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, CNRS) is offering a one-year renewable fixed-term contract for the research and indexing of legal works in Islamic lands (axis 1 of the project).
Activities
Contribute to the MCILRaP project in the following ways:
– bibliographic research (printed and online catalogs)
– identify legal texts in Arabic and index them by type
– participate in the development of textual typology and its implementation
– feed the project database with the description of the works and the entry of information
– participate in monitoring the project on a scientific level
– participate in a work collective, in the development and management of projects
SKILLS
Knowledge-knowledge
– research experience in the field of legal thought in the pre-modern period (doctoral thesis).
– excellent knowledge of the Arabic language
– good knowledge of English
Know-how:
– Ease and ability to learn in the use of digital humanities tools
Soft skills
– a taste for teamwork
Work context
The work will be carried out within the team of the Arabic Section of the Institute for Research and History of Texts (CNRS-IRHT) under the supervision of Christian Müller, Research Director at the CNRS in collaboration with the other members of the MCILRaP project. The IRHT is a CNRS Unit attached to the InSHS which is dedicated to the study of medieval manuscripts and the transmission of ancient texts (irht.cnrs.fr).
The MCILRaP project, led by Christian Müller, is funded by the ERC for five years (Nov 2024 – Oct 2029).
This project undertakes a historical investigation of legal authority in Islam. Sharia, long associated with the law of Muslim jurists, remains a crucial topic in Muslim and Western societies where it is often perceived as divine law. MCILRaP takes an innovative approach by examining legal casuistry rather than isolated rules to understand the paradox between timeless law and observed adaptations. In casuistry, rules are established as laws and additions, for specific cases, allow for different solutions, thus constituting legal changes.
The historical deconstruction of Sharia laws and their growing authority through applied law is structured around three research axes: 1) cataloging the thousands of preserved works according to a new typology; 2) mapping the rules of legal casuistry of dozens of major works, available in electronic text form, using machine learning methods; 3) studying the links between legal innovation and notarial practices through selected cases. In doing so, MCILRaP will fundamentally change the study of Islamic law. The recruited person will participate in feeding a relational database to store the texts studied, information on their authors, the corresponding metadata, and rich annotations on these texts (in particular segmentation results). This work is inspired by the existing CALD database.
Finally, the person recruited will participate in the implementation of semi-automatic and automatic text processing techniques intended for the automatic segmentation of the texts studied and more generally for their large-scale analysis.
Constraints and risks
Working on screen
Additional information
Contract duration: 1 year renewable up to 5 years
The MCILRaP project, led by Christian Müller, is funded by the ERC for five years (Nov 2024 – Oct 2029).
This project undertakes a historical investigation of legal authority in Islam. Sharia, long associated with the law of Muslim jurists, remains a crucial topic in Muslim and Western societies where it is often perceived as divine law. MCILRaP takes an innovative approach by examining legal casuistry rather than isolated rules to understand the paradox between timeless law and observed adaptations. In casuistry, rules are established as laws and additions, for specific cases, allow for different solutions, thus constituting legal changes.
