Assyriology and Hebrew-Judaic Studies Doctoral Programme

The program, which has been in operation since 2004, represents two major fields of study, which are interdisciplinary in nature (e.g. Ancient Near East, Classical Philology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics). The topics, which are preferred match the expertise of the program's faculty, but there is also a collaboration possibility with faculties from other programs. The aim of the program is to equip doctoral students with the knowledge and skills to get to know the latest research methodologies and to prepare them to be active shapers and participants in the development of their discipline. The workshop seminars will prepare students both to participate in international conferences and to produce work that meets international standards in the discipline.

Head of the program: Tamás Dezső PhD, Professor

Assyriology

The program focuses on the history, art, and archaeology of Ancient Mesopotamia; the age and ideology of empires; Sumerian and Akkadian linguistics, philology, and language history; the processing of literary and historical text corpus.
The research work is integrally linked to the preparation of doctoral dissertations and is based on two three-year OTKA projects started in 2008, led by Dr. Tamás Dezső (The Assyrian Imperial Expansion) and Dr. Gábor Zólyomi (The Historical Morphology of the Sumerian Verb as part of the international project Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, see http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/). The research work carried out here enables doctoral students to conduct research in museum collections, participate in conferences, exchange experiences with foreign researchers, and publish their dissertations and research results in printed or digital form.
Students will have access to academic research in the framework of the Tamás Dezső OTKA projects Assyrian army (2012-2015) and the Network Reconstruction of Imperial Structures in the Ancient Near East (2016-2020).

Hebrew-Judaic Studies

The program focuses on the following areas in the field of Hebraism-Judaic studies:

Hebrew Bible (literary, linguistic, stylistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic analyses)
biblical interpretation, biblical hermeneutics, and cultural history (the Bible in ancient Judaism and Christianity; comparative analysis of the interpretation of the Bible and other authoritative texts; linguistic, literary, religious, and cultural-historical analysis of the Targums)
Bible translations
History (Jewish history in Hungary in the Early Modern and Modern periods; Hebrew historical sources in modern Europe; Modern Jewish History)
Literature (Ancient Rabbinic literature; Hellenistic Jewish literature and its antique context; linguistic, literary, religious, and cultural history of the Targums; Hebrew literature in modern Europe; Yiddish literature)
History of ideas and culture (ancient rabbinic thought; Judaism and Hellenism; history of Jewish culture and culture in Hungary in the Early Modern and Modern periods; Jewish education in the modern period; Yiddish cultural history; history of Jewish studies in Hungary; Jewish religious ideologies in 19th-21st century Hungary)
Linguistics (Hebrew linguistics; "Jewish languages"; Jewish sociolinguistics)
Religious studies (Jewish religious law; Judaism and cognitive religion; the ancient religious environment of Judaism)

In all cases, knowledge of the source languages relevant to the chosen topic is essential.