Dear All,
The SAPIENCE Project (2025–2028), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research [FIS Grant no. FIS-2023-00821], invites applications for 2 PhD positions in:  
  1. Cognitive neuroscience applied to study of Palaeolithic and Neolithic signs and symbols from a cognitive and computational perspective
  2. Computational linguistics and computer science applied to prehistoric signs and graphic code formation.

Full details and application instructions:
https://www.sapience-fis.com/jobs/

Deadline: Jul 01, 2025 at 11:59 PM

SAPIENCE Symbols, Preliteracy and Code Evolution is a 3 year project that delves into the evolution of graphic codes, from prehistoric times to the invention of writing. The project is funded by the Italian Ministry of Research through the FIS funding scheme (€2 million). SAPIENCE aims to illuminate our preliterate past and the ways in which we communicate today, through a highly interdisciplinary approach combining computer science, cognitive studies, linguistics and anthropology. 

Join our team today and bring the past to life with cutting-edge research approaches! For any further information, you can contact s.ferrara@unibo.it directly.

Thank you and all best wishes


Professor Silvia Ferrara
Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies
University of Bologna,
Via Zamboni 32,
40126 Bologna
https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/s.ferrara


Latest publications

Trends in Cognitive Science https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12768

Antiquity https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/seals-and-signs-tracing-the-origins-of-writing-in-ancient-southwest-asia/B3C2D400F3F80A7A0162D9035C9C2804

Cretan Hieroglyphic, Cambridge University Press (2024)

Writing, from Invention to Decipherment, Oxford University Press (2024)

Talking Images, the Interface between Drawing and Writing, Routledge (2024)