CSMC Newsletter

We are happy to announce the winners of this year’s edition of the J.P. Gumbert Dissertation Award: Jake Benson and Eugene Matanky receive the price for their outstanding works in the fields of Persian Studies and Jewish Philosophy, respectively. Jake completed his PhD at Leiden University, his dissertation is entitled The Advent of Abrī: The First Wave of Paper Marbling in the Long 16th Century (ca. 1496–1616). Eugene wrote his dissertation on Esoteric Labor: The Making of Cordoverean Kabbalah at Tel Aviv University. The J.P. Gumbert Dissertation Award honours the best doctoral thesis defended in each year that contributes to any aspect of the study of manuscripts and other written artefacts. It includes a prize money of 5,000 Euro in total and a fellowship for a research stay at CSMC.

The relationship between the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and the CSMC is already well established. Notable examples include the exchange of researchers such as Nuria de Castilla, EPHE-PSL researcher and member of the CSMC, and Andréas Stauder, who will join the CSMC as a Petra Kappert Fellow in May 2026. With the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), this partnership has now been placed on a formal and sustainable foundation. The MoU provides a framework for joint research projects, seminars, conferences, workshops, and summer schools, and supports mobility for early-career researchers at both the postgraduate and postdoctoral levels. The agreement also encourages collaborative publications and shared approaches to data management.

Computational paleography has evolved into a key meeting ground for the humanities and computer science. By combining approaches from computer vision, instrumental analytics, and traditional paleography, the field is transforming how ancient handwriting and its material carriers are studied. In 2021, CSMC researcher Hussein Mohammed has launched a series of workshops bringing together specialists from these complementary disciplines to present completed and ongoing projects, fostering in-depth discussion and future collaboration. The 4th instalment of the Workshop on Computational Paleography will take place on 4 September 2026 as part of the 20th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR 2026), held from 30 August to 4 September in Vienna, Austria. The Call for Papers is open, and submissions are accepted until 22 May 2026. For more information on the workshop and other events at ICDAR 2026, please visit the conference website.

Can synchrotron X-rays shed light on the material biographies of cuneiform tablets? A recent study by Riccardo Cameli Manzo, Zsombor J. Földi, Szilvia Jáka-Sövegjártó, and Martin Etter, published in npj Heritage Science, analyses artefacts from Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe (MK&G) and the Hamburg State and University Library by applying synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) at the PETRA III beamline at DESY. Unlike previous methods that required invasive sampling or were limited to surface-level analysis, this transmission-mode approach penetrates whole objects between 10 and 40 mm thick. This allows for a comprehensive and non-destructive mapping of mineral compositions. The paper is available open access.

The computer scientist will hold the Chair of ‘Knowledge-Based Databases’ at the University of Lübeck for one year, starting on 1 April. One focus of this Chair is to develop methods to enrich data with knowledge about context, meaning and user intent, thereby making it intelligently usable. At the CSMC, Sylvia Melzer heads the Data Linking Lab, an important platform for linking the humanities and computer sciences at the cluster. One of her key areas of focus is the application of AI systems in a humanities context.

With five ‘Concepts and Methods Units’ (CMUs), UWA restructured itself at the beginning of its new funding phase. What topics do these CMUs address, what do they aim to achieve, and how do they relate to each other? A new interview series on our blog gives an introduction to the new research groups and their thematic focus. In the first episode, ancient historian Kaja Harter-Uibopuu talks about ‘Material Choices’: ‘We are not only interested in which materials or layout forms were used, but also why they were chosen. This shifts the focus more towards human actors, social practices, and cultural patterns. This theoretical-historical focus also reflects a broader development: in the new cluster, we are paying more attention to historical questions such as social dynamics, transmission channels, and modes of action.’