Early Languages – Digital Philology (DigPhil)

The aim of the research school DigPhil is to create a strong and state-of-the-art doctoral research environment for PhD students in early languages in Sweden.

In light of recent developments in digital philology and Digital Humanities at large, many of the comparatively small research units for ancient and medieval languages (ranging from Greek and Latin to various medieval and early modern languages) are struggling to keep a sound balance between traditional methods and modern developments.

The proposed research school would allow an efficient coordination of competences and resources, so that Sweden will equip PhD students in early languages with relevant tools to work as modern philologists.

These tools include a better understanding of the philological tradition and its relation to Comparative Literature and Linguistics, but also a general competence in Digital Humanities that enables not only a successful career in digital philology, but also interdisciplinary collaboration with computational linguists and computer scientists.

Such a development would stop the current trend towards isolation and, on the contrary, help put philology back into the Humanities and in touch with the Social Sciences.