Personal data

 
Name
Thomas Jurczyk

Nationality
German

Contact Data

 
Address
Thomas Jurczyk
Bochum (Germany)

Mail
thomas.jurczyk-q88 at rub.de

Website
https://website.tjurczyk.de/

ORCID
ORCID Profile

Education

 

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, September 2020
PhD, Thesis: “The Notion of surb in Ancient Armenian Texts from the Fifth Century CE” (summa cum laude)

  • Supervisors: Professor Volkhard Krech and Professor Zara Pogossian

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, March 2014
MA, History, Religious Studies (Grade: 1.0)

  • Concentration: Ancient Religions (Greek and Roman Religions; Early Christianity) and Theory of Religions / Systematic Approaches
  • Dissertation: “Differenzierung von ‘Religion’ und ‘Politik’ in der Antike: Das Beispiel Judäa im 2. Jh. v.Chr.” (“Differentiation between ‘Religion’ and ‘Politics’: The Example of Judaea during the 2nd century BCE”)
  • Supervisors: Professor Volkhard Krech and Professor Linda-Marie Günther

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, March 2011
BA, History, Religious Studies (Grade: 1.0)

  • Concentration: Ancient Religions (Greco-Roman Religions; Early Christianity) and Theory of Religions / Systematic Approaches
  • Dissertation: „Das religiöse Feld im Athen des 5. Jh. v.Chr.” (“The Religious Field in Athens during the 5th century BCE”)
  • Supervisors: Professor Alexander-Kenneth Nagel and Jens Schlamelcher

FernUniversität Hagen, since October 2017
BA, Studying Computer Science on a part-time basis

  • Currently 150 ECTS (October 2023)
  • Received Certificate “Applied Computer Science” (focus: Software Engineering) (60 ECTS) (Grade: 1.5)

Publications

 

Monographies

  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2022. “The Notion of ‘holy’ in Ancient Armenian Texts from the Fifth Century CE: A Comparative Approach Using Digital Tools and Methods.” In Digital Humanities Research 5. Bielefeld: transcript. ISBN: 978-3-8376-6181-1

Edited volumes

Peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2023. “The Meaning of agalma, eidôlon, and eikôn in Ancient Greek Texts: A Quantitative Approach Using Computer-Driven Methods and Tools.” Entangled Religions 14 (5). https://doi.org/10.46586/er.14.2023.10442
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2021. “Unsupervised Learning and K-Means Clustering with Python.” The Programming Historian (2021) Link to the article
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2021. “Vorstellung eines (teil-)automatisierten Verfahrens zur Analyse der Multimodalität von Webseiten” Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften (2021) 6. Link to the article
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2019. “Representation of transcendence: the Armenian letter ‘On the image-fighters’ from the seventh century CE.” Entangled Religions 5 (2019): 95–153. Link to the article

Contributions to edited volumes

  • Jurczyk, Thomas, Volkhard Krech, Martin Radermacher, and Knut Martin Stünkel. 2023. “Introduction: On the Relations of Religion and Images.” Entangled Religions 14 (5). https://doi.org/10.46586/er.14.2023.10446
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2019. “Christliche Bilderkontroversen vor dem byzantinischen Bilderstreit.” In Bild Macht Religion: Kunst zwischen Verehrung, Verbot und Vernichtung, edited by Martin Radermacher, Volkhard Krech (a.o.), 114–121. Bochum.
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2024. “Data Science in den Geisteswissenschaften: Eine praxisnahe Einführung” https://website.tjurczyk.de/short_articles/ds_lecture/ds_article.html
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2023. “ChatGPT und Religion: Kann AI Religionswissenschaft?”. In Marginalien. https://marginalie.hypotheses.org/2769
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2022. “Analyzing the Discourse on ‘Climate Change’ in U.S. Media: A Basic Tutorial on How to Do Data Science With Python”. In Medium.com. Link
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2021. “Wie die Welt aus einem großen Familienstreit hervorging: Eine Schöpfungsgeschichte aus der griechischen Mythologie” In Wie die Sterne an den Himmel kamen: Elf Geschichten aus der Zeit unserer Vorfahren, edited by Kianoosh Rezania, Judith Stander-Dulisch, Franziska Burstyn. Leipzig: Edition Hamouda. ISBN: 978-39581-70568
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2020. “Besprechung von Klaus Heinrichs wie eine religion der anderen die wahrheit wegnimmt”. Ça ira Verlag. Link
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2020. “Hintergrundinformation: Christ/innen in islamischen Ländern.” In Religion unterbringen: Regulierung kultureller und religiöser Vielfalt in Flüchtlingsheimen, edited by Sarah J. Jahn, Lisa Wevelsiep. Veröffentlichung des Centrums für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien Ceres, Bereich Wissenstransfer, Bochum.
  • Jurczyk, Thomas. 2019. “Review: Considering Comparison. A Method for Religious Studies by Oliver Freiberger.” JRE 12 (2019): 217-219.

Honors, Grants, and Committees

 
inStudies (RUB) project „ARELINCO“ (50% research assistant position for one year), 2020–2021

Grant “International Realisation Budget” (7,500 €) of the Research School PLUS (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

“Preis an Studierende” (Award for the best MA dissertation during the “Akademische Jahresfeier 2014”), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, November 2014

Professional Experience

 
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Dr. Eberle Zentrum für digitale Kompetenzen
Research Assistant/LBA (50%), since October 2022

  • Teaching introductory/advanced classes on Python and data processing

Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Editor of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) (50%), since April 2023

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Center for Religious Studies (CERES)
Research Assistant THERE project, April 2022 – March 2023

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Center for Religious Studies (CERES)
Managing Editor of Entangled Religions (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter), January 2021 – March 2022

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Center for Religious Studies (CERES)
Conducting the teaching-learning project ARELINCO (“Ancient Religions in Contact”), funded by inStudies, October 2020 – September 2021

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Center for Religious Studies (CERES)
Research Assistant (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter), since October 2014

  • Teaching BA and MA courses on Greco-Roman religions and digital methods in the study of religion
  • Administration and organization of the study program “Religionswissenschaft”
  • Part of the RUB Checks initiative to create a digital portal for the international Master program “Religious Studies” in Bochum

University of Bremen, Institut für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik
Teaching assignment, winter term 17/18

  • BA seminar on “Rituale in der Antike” (2h/w)

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
Research Assistant (Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft), March 2013 – September 2014

  • Assisting the international research fellows at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg
  • Creating conference and workshop flyers with Adobe Creative Suite and Corel Draw

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
Administration Employee (Verwaltungsangestellter), August 2012 – September 2014

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
Research Assistant (Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft), April 2011 – July 2012

Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
Student Assistant (Studentische Hilfskraft), June 2008 – March 2011

Stay Abroad, Conferences, and Other Academic Activities

 
PhiMiSci Publishing-Workflow (Magic Manuscript Maker)
A Docker-based server solution for the Typesetting Workflow of the PhiMiSci Journal (One-Source Publishing via Pandoc). The workflow (currently in development) can be accessed at mmm.phimisci.org (password may be required). All repositories are located in the RUB internal Gitlab instance.

Entangled Religions Typesetting-Workflow
Participation in the automated publishing workflows of the Entangled Religions Journal. The workflow was primarily developed by Frederik Elwert.

Religion Classification Web interface/API (Link)
Prototype of a web application (Flask/Python) consisting of a web interface and a separately controllable API. This allows classifying short texts as “religious,” “non-religious,” or “religion-related.” Initially, custom-trained models were used, but now GPT-3.5-Turbo is accessed via the OpenAI API. The repositories are also located in the RUB internal Gitlab instance.

Pandoc Filter (Lua/Python)
Example of a Pandoc filter for in-text referencing of images.

Personal Website Jekyll/GitHub-Pages (Link)

Website “Klaus und Renate Heinrich Stiftung” (Link)

Stay Abroad, Conferences, and Other Academic Activities

 
Board Member “Netzwerk Digital Humanities” (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Since 2022

Member DHd AG “Digitales Publizieren”
Since 2023

Member CRETA “Centrum für Reflektierte Textanalyse” (CRETA Verein) Link
Since 2022

DHd2024 Passau “#Quo Vadis DH?”
Universität Passau, 26.02.–01.03.2024

  • Poster: „Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.“ Die Zukunft des Publizierens

OJS-Netzwerktreffen 2024, Münster
Universität Münster, 23.–24.02.2024

  • Presentation/Workshop: Automatization of the PhiMiSci-Workflow

Workshop “Softwaregestützte Kategorienentwicklung in Praxis und Forschung”
TU Darmstadt (online), February 2022 (LINK)

  • Presentation: “Annotation und Visualisierung des Artikel-Corpus der religionswissenschaftlichen Open Access Zeitschrift Entangled Religions: Vorhaben, Durchführung und Probleme”

Workshop “Iterative Annotation als linguistische Forschungsmethode​”
University of Heidelberg (online), October 2020 (LINK)

Hands-On Workshop “Finding Metaphor in Discourse”
University of Basel, November 2018

Siebtes InterDisziplinäres Kolloquium (IDK): Wissenskulturen im Vergleich
Universität Innsbruck, November 2018

  • Presentation: “Religionswissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit”

Conference of the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture (ISMRC) “Media, Religion and Public Scholarship”
University of Boulder (Colorado), August 2018
Panel “Religion is struggling with media. Historical and contemporary conflicts about the use and role of media in religion”

  • Presentation: “Struggling with the Use of Images before the 8th Century CE. The example of an Armenian letter from the 7th century CE”

Intensive Armenian Language Summer School 2016 ARMACAD Armenia, July/August 2016

Workshop Armenian Manuscript Studies: An Introduction
Berlin, March 2016

Organizing and conducting the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Iconoclasm” Working Group
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, since 2016

Viertes InterDisziplinäres Kolloquium (IDK): Wissenskulturen im Vergleich
De Haagse Hogeschool Delft, November 2015

  • Presentation: “Darstellung, Veranschaulichung und Wahrnehmung von Geschichte”

Conference XXI IAHR 2015
Erfurt, August 2015
Panel “Researching Religions & Politics – Young German Perspectives”

  • Presentation: “Religious and Political Semantics in the First Two Books of the Maccabees”

Drittes InterDisziplinäres Kolloquium (IDK): Wissenskulturen im Vergleich
Maison Heinrich Heine, Paris, October 2014

  • Presentation: “MOOC, Youtube und Udacity: Universitäres Lehren und Lernen im Zeitalter des Internet”

Doctoral Student Reviewer for Research School PLUS
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, since 2014

Participation in the International Summer School ERiC 2014 (“Eurasian Religions in Contact”) of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, July 2014

  • Presentation: “Differentiation between Politics and Religion: Byzantium after the Council of Chalcedon (451) with a Focus on the Relation between the Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople and Armenia”

ERASMUS Placement at the Università degli studi di Pavia (Italy), Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne
Università degli studi di Pavia, March 2012 – June 2012

  • Offering language courses for the students of German literature and culture
  • Organizing a theatre play with the students (in German)

Computing Skills

General skills

  • Microsoft Office
  • Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Premiere)

Programming and markup languages

  • Python
  • Java
  • Markdown
  • HTML/CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Webdevelopment (front- and backend)
  • Docker
  • Serveradministration
  • Wordpress
  • Gitlab/Git

Languages

Modern languages

German
native

English
fluent

French
proficient

Italian
basic

Eastern Armenian
basic

Ancient languages

Latin
Latinum

Greek
Graecum

Ancient Armenian (Grabar)
basic/advanced