Vanderbilt University and Syriaca.org are pleased to announce the hiring of William Potter as a Research Assistant for Digital Cultural Heritage effective August 5, 2019. His appointment is jointly sponsored by the Vanderbilt Center for Digital Humanities, Vanderbilt’s Digital Cultural Heritage Research Cluster, Vanderbilt Divinity School, and Vanderbilt’s Chancellor’s Faculty Fellows program.
William received a B.S. in Audio Engineering from Belmont University and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School (Class of 2019), with a concentration in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies. His primary research interests center around the various religious communities and their interactions in the Persian empire in late antiquity (ca. 100-700 CE), late ancient attitudes towards dying and old age, and digital methods for improving the availability, reliability, and usability of primary sources. To that end, as part of his master’s thesis William created a TEI-XML eclectic edition and translation of a fifth-century homily on the book of Job by the Syriac poet, Narsai. He also worked as a research assistant on the 2019 season of the new Vanderbilt excavations at Caesarea-Maritima in Israel, tasked with laying the groundwork for a bibliographic database of primary and secondary textual corpora related to Caesarea.
During his time as Research Assistant for Digital Cultural Heritage, William will edit existing TEI-XML records in Syriaca.org as well as mint new records for The Syriac Gazetteer. Additionally, William will work as a technical editor for the forthcoming Beth Qatraye Gazetteer and will assist with alignment of the Comprehensive Bibliography of Syriac Christianity with the Syriaca.org Bibliography Module.