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THE ADLER PLANETARIUM – CHICAGO, IL / OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM

Post-doctoral Researcher in Historical Texts (a full-time temporary position)

The Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL, in association with the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project of the University of Oxford, is seeking a post-doctoral researcher in Classics for two years. The successful candidate, who will be based in Oxford for the duration of the post, will work with an international team who are developing online tools to engage a distributed volunteer community in transcribing a large number of papyrus texts written in ancient Greek. The successful applicant will work with Dr. Dirk Obbink in Oxford and the Zooniverse & Galaxy Zoo teams in Oxford and at the Adler and will be expected to begin the scholarly exploitation of the verified transcriptions produced by the project. A doctoral level qualification in a relevant subject alongside knowledge of ancient Greek to a scholarly standard is essential.

The collections of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri project (www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk) are an incredibly rich resource. Previous work to transcribe them en masse relied on image processing techniques which were unable to reliably recover the Greek text. The problem faced in classifying and transcribing large numbers of the papyri, however, is one of pattern recognition, a task to which the human brain is well suited. By using a flexible web-based interface, the job of transcribing can be shared not only with a small number of scholars, but also with a force of volunteers at least 250,000 strong, spread around the globe. The successful candidate would be part of the first large scale application of techniques developed for distributed citizen science to textual analysis and as such will serve as an exemplar of the potential for this technique in the humanities.

The web-based interface, developed by the existing Zooniverse team (www.zooniverse.org) will also provide tutorial instruction and basic testing before users are asked to classify and transcribe documents in graded tiers of difficulty. These tools will make the task of producing an online interface to digitized papyri text much easier, and allow us to access a large database of engaged and interested users from the project’s beginning. Visitors to the site will be asked to classify documents according to types of handwriting, dimensions, and format, and then to identify the location of letters on the papyrus image, before choosing the most appropriate character from a set of examples.

The role of the candidate would be to work with the programming team to ensure that the data produced by the volunteer transcribers is of a suitable level so as to be useful to papyrologists. They would also be expected to take a leading role in using the results of the transcription, both in their own research and in facilitating that of others.

The appointment is grant funded for two years with a start date no earlier than May 1, 2010. Review of applications will begin April 23, 2010 and will continue until the position is filled. Please email a resume including cover letter, list of three references and curriculum vitae to: Marguerite E. Dawson, Director of Human Resources, The Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. E-mail address: hr-PostdocResearcher@adlerplanetarium.org. Telephone: 312.322.0591

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