Doctoral scholarship

 

We have a possibility to hire one or two doctoral students, and possibly also a postdoc within the project Modelling Religious Mental Representations (https://mrmr.elte.hu/, PI: Tamas Biro). The project aims at developing the “data structures” necessary for an adequate description of religious phenomena, including but not restricted to rituals. It is located at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, and it is financed by the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NRDIO, or NKFIH in Hungarian).

 

Subprojects to be covered by a doctoral student or postdoctoral researcher should (a) either cover historical and/or contemporary data collection and analysis pertaining to a specific religious tradition (such as one of the Abrahamic religions); or (b) engage with the development of a formal, computationally implementable model (e.g., employing Optimality Theory).

 

Preference will be given to candidates (a) with prior knowledge in a specific religious tradition, including familiarity with the sources and the necessary languages, and/or experience with fieldwork; (b) a background in programming and formal models in any field in the cognitive sciences or linguistics.

 

Informal expressions of interest should reach Tamas Biro (biro.tamas@btk.elte.hu) by April 28, 2026. Doctoral applicants will have to submit a formal application by May 8 to the doctoral school of ELTE University.