PhD student in digital humanities with a focus on Swiss French literature (4 years, 75%)

The Bit Philology project at the Digital Humanities unit, University of Bern, is offering a fully funded PhD position in the field of digital humanities. The position is available from September 2025, with a duration of four years, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The Bit Philology project studies born-digital materials in literary archives, with a focus on Swiss collections in French and Italian. As a significant portion of contemporary literature is created digitally, literary archives increasingly include born-digital documents-posing new challenges for their study. The project seeks to develop methods for cataloguing these archives, create prototypes for scholarly editions, and explore authors' creative processes through digital materials. It also aims to train future researchers and advance practices in textual scholarship and digital humanities.

The general goal of the PhD project is to explore how born-digital sources can be used and represented in scholarly editions. Specifically, the PhD project aims to develop two prototypes of digital scholarly editions, applying established methodologies in textual criticism-such as source classification, collation, encoding, establishment, annotation, publication-while also addressing the unique challenges posed by born-digital materials through innovative solutions. The PhD thesis will be supervised by Prof. Elena Spadini (main supervisor and PI of the project, University of Bern) and Prof. Daniel Maggetti (University of Lausanne).

Tasks

Work on your dissertation and participate in project activities, including

• collaborating with the rest of the team;
• preparing small-scale scholarly editions;
• designing web application prototypes;
• working in archives;
• publishing and presenting your work locally and internationally;
• contributing to the organisation of scholarly events and to the communication strategy of the project.

Participation in teaching is optional.

Requirements

Master's degree in philology or literary studies; or master's degree in digital humanities with a strong focus on philology or literary studies. The master should be completed by July 2025 at the latest.

Prior experience or strong interest in
• Swiss French Literature;
• working with archival materials;
• scholarly editing;
• genetic criticism;
• web development;
• data visualisation.

Strong motivation to work independently as well as with others within a diverse, interdisciplinary environment.

Self-discipline and creative thinking.

Working proficiency in English and French.

We offer

• A dynamic and collaborative research environment at the Digital Humanities unit.
• Work-life balance through flexible work schedules.
• Training opportunities in all areas of the project and related fields.
• A vibrant and interdisciplinary doctoral program.
• Salary according to SNSF regulations (basic monthly gross salary of 3'755 x 13 in 2025).

Contact person: Elena Spadini (elena.spadini@unibe.ch)

If you are eager to work with born-digital literary archives, at the crossroad of digital humanities and textual scholarship, please apply by sending the following documents to digitalhumanities@unibe.ch:

• Academic CV
• Letter of motivation, explaining how you fit the candidate profile
• One writing sample (e.g. MA thesis or chapter, publication, seminar paper)
• Contact details of two references

Please organise all the documents together into one PDF file and name the file as follows: yourSurname_BitPhil_PhD-B.pdf (e.g. Spadini_BitPhil_PhD-B.pdf).

Application deadline: 31 May 2025.

Interview dates: 23-24 June, 1 and 3 July.