INSTITUTE OF ASIAN AND ORIENTAL STUDIES / CHINESE STUDIES
The Traditional China Chair at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich is looking for a doctoral candidate in Middle Iranian linguistics. Work towards the Ph.D. will be carried out under the auspices of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) project “Sino-Indo-Iranica rediviva – Early Eurasian migratory terms in Chinese and their cultural implications” (PI: Prof. Wolfgang Behr). The project will investigate Central Asian loan words of Iranian, Indian, Tocharian and other linguistic origins in Chinese epigraphical and transmitted texts from early antiquity to the beginning of the Sui dynasty (581 CE). Linguistic results will be compared to evidence from material culture and the natural environments, as reflected by archaeological, paleobotanical, -zoological or art historical data, with the aim of gaining deeper insights into the development of the flourishing trade routes linking China and Central Asia since the onset of writing in China.
