POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW IN COMPLEXITY SCIENCE, STOCHASTIC MODELLING AND INTERDISCIPLINARY MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

13 Oct 2023
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Ecole nationale des chartes

Research Field

Other

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

France

Application Deadline

15 Nov 2023 – 23:59 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

1 Jan 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

H2020 / ERC

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

LostMA is a project funded by the European Research Council, as a Starting Grant, for the period 2024-2029.

LOSTMA aims at understanding how human cultures are constituted and evolve, through the question of the transmission of written cultural artefacts. The project strives to establish in what measure the transmission (and subsequent preservation or loss) of written artefacts, texts and ideas deviates from pure chance, and, if it deviates, by how much and why. This will  be investigated by analysing the way in which texts in manuscript form were copied, transformed or destroyed, in a similar manner to the evolution of living organisms or that of language variants, through processes of innovation/mutation, fixation or extinction. As such, the goal of this project is not only to understand the processes behind the transmission of texts, but also to grasp the extent to which humans are the actors of the transmission of their own culture and how much the survival of texts or the constitution of cultural canons are due to chance.

LostMA will attempt a paradigm-shift in philological methods, by combining artificial intelligence, complexity science and philological expertise. On the mathematical sciences side, the work will range from theoretical to numerical and statistical:stochastic models (birth-and-death processes, branching processes, random trees, …), computer simulations (agent-based models, in particular), machine learning and data analysis will be used to emulate and comprehend the processes and mechanisms of textual transmission. A case study will be undertaken, regarding chivalric literature in European context. Supported by deep learning methods, large-scale data collection will be made on a corpus of 4000 documents in Romance, Germanic and Celtic languages, with a full-text zoom on approx. 1000 Old French manuscripts. Data will provide observable values to be compared to simulation results, in order to measure deviations from chance, make inferences on non observable values such as loss/survival rates of works and manuscripts, and understand the dynamics at work behind the transmission of texts.

Missions

The post-doctoral fellow will be leading work package A.1, in close collaboration and under the supervision of the principal investigator, Jean-Baptiste Camps, and that of Julien Randon-Furling.

The main task of this work package is the design of a null-model for manuscript transmission in the Middle Ages.

Investigations into the shape of text transmission can be done using several modelling approaches. Modelling will start on the basis of a birth-and-death process. Such a general process may be adapted to describe the birth and death of manuscripts, with parameters such as the copy (birth) and destruction (death) rates of manuscripts. In order to study the effect of these parameters and of their variation, simulations of the process will have to be run, simulating the individual behaviour of agents (here, manuscripts) in time according to the parameter values, allowing us to investigate the full range of parameter variation. Methods for this can be borrowed from the field of complex systems and statistical physics (e.g., phase diagrams, phase transitions, criticality…). Results from this work phase will include the conception of a null-model for manuscript transmission, allowing further investigations into the various deviations from a random transmission, and will also feature research into analytical solutions and the adaptation of other relevant theoretical aspects, such as recent developments in tree models and branching processes from evolutionary biology and probability theory.

This modelling will be the main task of the post-doctoral fellow, who will dedicate their (first) two years on the project to the round-trips between model design, simulations, parameter space exploration, comparison to actual data and model improvements. They will work in close collaboration with the PI, with Julien Randon-Furling, and with a research network of experts of complex systems in the humanities and evolutionary sciences. These exchanges will also take place during the project workshops.

 

Objectives and Methodological Design: Gain insight into the mathematical properties of stemmata and provide a null-model of textual transmission.

1. study the mathematical properties of the graphs used in stemmatology;

2. design a model replicating the dynamics of textual transmission, with appropriate parameters;

3. explore the full range of the variation of these parameters;

4. discuss the significance of the model and the results in the light of philological knowledge;

5. improve the model if necessary

6. go from simulations to an analytical formulation of the model if possible.

 

The provisional schedule is:

– Months 1-11 initial model design;

– Months 12-17 model improvements and publication;

– Months 18-24 analyse and discuss model results in light of philological data.

 

The main deliverables are:

– null model, simulations and analysis of the results

– computer code for the model under an open license

– participation in the project workshops

– at least one publication, co-led by the post-doc, regarding the model, in a leading international mathematical science journal

– contribution to at least one team publication in a leading international multi-disciplinary, complex systems or digital humanities journal

– submission/attendance, with team, to international conferences (e.g., Digital Humanities or Computational Humanities Research Conferences).

Requirements

Research Field

Other

Education Level

PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Skills

– stochastic modelling,  evolutionary models ;

– computer simulations and programming (Python and/or C) ;

– taste for interdisciplinary applications, in the human and social sciences ;

– strong interest in evolutionary processes and/or cultural transmission

– taste for multidisciplinary collaboration and team work.

Profile

• PhD in mathematical sciences, theoretical physics, or computational biology
• background in interdisciplinary applications, stochastic modelling, complex systems or statistical physics.

Languages

FRENCH

Level

Excellent

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Research Field

Mathematics

Years of Research Experience

1 – 4

Internal Application form(s) needed
2_Fiche_poste_lostma_PostDoc-1.pdf
English
(311.83 KB – PDF)
Download
Additional Information
Selection process

Applications (CV and letter of application) should be sent to the Director of the École nationale des chartes, by e-mail to :

 

[email protected] as well as [email protected]

 

on a rolling basis, starting from 10 october 2023. Candidates selected on the basis of their application, will then be invited to attend an audition.

 

For more information : 

Jean-Baptiste Camps: [email protected]

Julien Randon-Furling: [email protected]

 

Administrative information  : [email protected]

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Ecole nationale des chartes

Country

France

State/Province

ILE DE FRANCE

City

PARIS

Postal Code

75002

Street

65 RUE RICHELIEU

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://recrutement.psl.eu/post-doctorant-en-science-de-la-complexite

Contact

State/Province

FRANCE

City

PARIS

Website

https://www.chartes.psl.eu/

Street

65 RUE RICHELIEU

Postal Code

75002

E-Mail

[email protected]

Phone

0750159316

Mobile Phone

0750159316

STATUS: EXPIRED