Project description
Understanding science, language, and power in the Ottoman world
Scientific language has long shaped how knowledge is communicated and how political authority is legitimised. This is the case with mathematical and astronomical terminology in texts drafted during Ottoman rule in the 15th and 16th centuries and evolved into an imperial language of authority. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the GEOP-AI project will analyse a corpus of 15 manuscripts to model the life cycle of technical terms during this period. It will combine historical linguistics, the history of science, digital humanities, and AI. The findings will be used to develop methods for discourse analysis and gender measurement. GEOP-AI will advance understanding of the relationship between science, language, and power by producing the first data-driven digital epistemology of Ottoman science and reusable AI-enabled methodologies.
Objective
GEOP AI: The Geometry of Power asks how scientific language became a tool of political authority. It focuses on Ottoman texts in mathematics and astronomy from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and traces how technical terms were recast as an imperial language of power. Recent work has shown that early modern states placed science at the heart of governance; however, the Ottoman case is rarely examined linguistically. Most accounts map people and books, while the mechanisms of authority, the life cycle of terms, and the gender dimension remain unclear.
GEOP AI aims to close this gap. It reconceptualises the linguistic notion of supradiscourse for the history of science and then operationalises it to explain how technical vocabulary acquired political force. The project combines historical linguistics, the history of science, digital humanities, and AI. Using a corpus of fifteen manuscripts taught in madrasas, circulating at court, and preserved in European collections, it reconstructs how technical language formed and became institutionalised. Methodologically, it introduces Discursive Hermeneutic Computing, which integrates discourse analysis, ontology engineering, semantic web standards, and transformer-based NLP, and it develops the Epistemic Silence Index to measure women in STEM texts.
The research plan comprises four linked objectives: modelling the terminology life cycle, redefining the supradiscourse framework, measuring gender through the ESI, and building a FAIR-aligned digital epistemology model. Expected outcomes include a reusable digital ontology, the first data-driven digital epistemology of Ottoman science, and an interactive Supradiscourse Explorer. Beyond the Ottoman field, DHC and ESI could be adapted to other languages and corpora. As a fellow, I will consolidate strengths in philology and linguistics, gain advanced skills in digital humanities and AI, and be prepared for independent research leadership in Europe.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy epistemology
- humanities languages and literature linguistics
- natural sciences computer and information sciences knowledge engineering ontology
- social sciences sociology governance
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
14195 Berlin
Germany
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