Graduate School

Thomas Harriot studied the motion of falling objects independently of Galileo, discovered Snell’s law of refraction before Snell, pioneered interpolation before Newton, and invented binary before Leibniz. Stefano Farinella studies the notebooks of this remarkable and still remarkably unknown figure.

In West African manuscript cultures, written artefacts were produced to address all kinds of life problems, offering their owners relief if used correctly. PhD researcher Jannis Kostelnik investigates what these manuscripts can tell us today about the lives of their owners and colonial history.

Early Tamil poetry, rich with tales about journeys, patrons, and cultural exchange, reveals a vibrant blending of languages. PhD researcher Maanasa Visweswaran explores how Sanskrit influences and the use of Grantha script shaped these classical Tamil manuscripts.

Once a vital hub of Ottoman culture, Süleyman Efendi’s library was dispersed across Europe as a result of conquest. PhD researcher Rawda El-Hajji shows how tracing these scattered manuscripts helps reconstruct lost intellectual communities and reveals the fate of cultural heritage in times of conflict.

In 19th-century Damascus, Khālid al-Naqshabandī builds a library that becomes a centre for scholarly exchange. Later, its preservation requires legal ingenuity on the part of his heirs, until it is eventually scattered around the world. In our PhD research series, Joud Nassan Agha tells its story.

The desire to create lists connects people across continents and centuries. What makes these documents so fascinating? Doctoral researcher Michael Hensley, who studies Ethiopian and Eritrean book lists, reflects on the significance of these special written artefacts.

Centuries before modern linguists, Andalusi scholar Isaac ibn Barūn laid the groundwork for comparative Semitic linguistics with his pioneering 12th-century Judaeo-Arabic grammar. Carlos Jacobo Puga Medina introduces his influential work in our PhD Research Series.

How did Christianity spark the rise of written Georgian culture? In our PhD Research Series, Sandro Tskhvedadze explores the evolution of Georgian Gospel lectionaries and the pivotal legacy of George the Athonite in shaping liturgical traditions.