Topic: Borderland Communities and Economies in Late Antique Upper Mesopotamia: Prosopography and Models for Digital Historical Knowledge
Université de Lille – HARTIS (UMR 9028), in collaboration with CRIStAL (UMR 9189) and Austrian Academy of Sciences
Starting date: Autumn 2026
Funding: Fully funded PhD (GRAEL Graduate Programme)
Project overview
This doctoral project investigates the social and economic dynamics of borderland communities in Upper Mesopotamia (3rd–7th c. CE), a key region at the intersection of the Roman and Sasanian worlds, while integrating a digital humanities perspective on the formalisation of historical knowledge.
The research will focuse on:
- communities in cities and rural hinterlands
- economic practices (production, labour, landholding, taxation, distribution)
- cross-border mobility, displacement, and captivity
- the role of institutions such as monasteries in local economies
The project adopts a prosopographical approach, using individuals as entry points to reconstruct social and economic networks across imperial frontiers.
In parallel, it explores how historical reasoning processes—including source criticism, contextualisation, and the construction of hypotheses—can be made explicit and structured, and how digital tools (such as knowledge graphs) may be used to represent and analyse complex historical data without reducing their interpretative nature.
Interdisciplinary dimension
The PhD will combine:
- Late Antique history (Greek, Syriac, Latin sources)
- economic and social history of borderlands
- digital humanities and knowledge modelling
The project will be jointly supervised by historians and computer scientists, ensuring a continuous dialogue between historical analysis and formal modelling approaches.
Expected profile
Applicants should have:
- A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in:
– History (Late Antiquity preferred),
– Ancient Iranian history,
– or closely related fields (Classics, Near Eastern studies, etc.) - Strong interest and competency in:
– social and economic history
– borderland and mobility studies
– prosopography - Knowledge of ancient languages (required):
– Greek
– Latin
– Syriac
Other languages of the Late Antique world (e.g. Armenian, Middle Persian, etc.) are an asset - Knowledge and some experience in digital humanities, notably:
– work on historical projects
– databases
Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and international environment
Research tasks
The PhD candidate will:
- Build a prosopographical corpus of individuals in Upper Mesopotamia
- Analyse economic and social practices in borderland settings
- Study mobility, displacement, and institutional dynamics
- Document and formalise historical reasoning processes
- Contribute to a pilot digital environment (knowledge graph)
- Produce a dissertation combining historical analysis and methodological reflection
Application procedure
Applications should include:
- CV
- cover letter
- Master’s thesis (or equivalent work)
- academic transcripts
- PhD project proposal
- (optional) letters of recommendation
Deadline: 24/04/2026
Contact: ekaterina.nechaeva@univ-lille.fr