The Ordered Universe team are delighted to announce the success of a linked and related project in Oxford: The Mental and Material Laboratories of 13th Century Science. Based at TORCH, the Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (situated in the former Radcliffe Infirmary), the project is led by Hannah Smithson, Clive Siviour and Carol Harrison (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity). The project won funding for two paired doctoral scholarships, through TORCH and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, one to be supervised in sciences, and one in humanities: which is wonderful news, and warmest congratulations to the Oxford Team. The doctoral projects will commence in 2015.
The Mental and Material Laboratories of the 13th Century promotes an interdisciplinary approach to the medieval interpretation of natural phenomena. The science student will focus on the material world of 13th century science, what was observed, how and in what circumstances. The humanities student will investigate the mental world, and the continued inheritance of Augustinian modes of thought, 
alongside the influence of newly translated Aristotelian works on natural philosophy and their attendant Islamic and Jewish commentaries. Both students will benefit from a wide disciplinary pool for supervision, and the multi-disciplinary environment of TORCH. The Ordered Universe will also support the students and their work, and include them in all relevant aspects of the research programme on Grosseteste’s scientific treatises.
Interested applicants for the doctoral positions should feel free to contact Hannah (hannah.smithson@psy.ox.ac.uk) and Clive (clive.siviour@eng.ox.ac.uk). Members of the Ordered Universe research team can also be contacted for advice on application.