Post-Doctoral Researcher (48 Month Contract), Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University

The position is available in the research project LEIGHEAS: Language, Education and Medical Learning in the Premodern Gaelic World (2022–2026), led by Dr Deborah Hayden. The central aim of LEIGHEAS is to advance our knowledge of the nature and scope of medical learning in the premodern Gaelic world by charting the vernacular translation and transmission of medical texts across Ireland and Scotland, ca 1350–1700. The project will integrate state-of-the-art digital tools for network analysis of all scribes, locations and texts attested in the extant vernacular medical sources of this region with detailed philological and historical research on a subset of manuscripts associated with Connacht, Ireland. It is argued that the sources at the heart of this case study shed new light on the relationship between Irish-language medical learning and other aspects of contemporary literary culture, including narrative, legal, religious and historical writing. The project aims to illuminate the social, pedagogical and manuscript context for the production and circulation of medical texts throughout the Gaelic world, while also positioning this corpus firmly within a wider intellectual framework by exploring the complex multilingual and cross-cultural interactions that shaped the development of scientific writing across northern Europe more broadly.

The Postdoctoral Researcher position will primarily involve textual editing and compilation of material from printed and manuscript sources, as directed by the Principal Investigator, as well as entering data into a database in collaboration with a Technical Research Assistant. In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to assist the Principal Investigator in organising two international conferences and in preparing material for publication.