Jobs and positions

Announcements
#21

Junior researcher CANAL AI Lab

Link to vacancy: Junior researcher CANAL AI Lab — AcademicTransfer

The Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities is looking for a junior researcher for the newly-formed CANAL AI Lab. The mission of this lab is to examine cultural data using methods from Cultural Analytics and Artificial Intelligence without losing sight of the critical perspectives on data, methods, and broader sociocultural factors. CANAL is co-located with the Faculty of Humanities research program Creative Amsterdam: An E-Humanities Perspective (CREATE) and is directed by dr. Melvin Wevers (@melvin.wevers) d dr. Nanne van Noord (@Nanne).

The interviews will be held Thursday 27 July or Friday 28 July.

As a junior researcher you will assist with ongoing research in the lab. This offers an opportunity to further expand your skills and learn about new methods. Additionally, you are tasked with helping out with the organisation of workshops, talks, and meetings as well as managing our website and social media channels.

What are you going to do

Cultural factors impact how we interpret data. These factors can vary over time and place. Existing methods for cultural analytics, including AI, generally overlook these factors. The CANAL AI Lab aims to develop methods that are culturally-aware. As CANAL AI is in its start-up phase we are looking for a junior researcher / research assistant who is interested in participating in research projects, supporting us with organisational tasks, and playing a role in increasing the visibility of CANAL AI across the University of Amsterdam.

Your tasks and responsibilities (with provisional division of time spent):

  • Participate in ongoing research, with options for co-authored publications (75%)
  • Organise workshops, events, and meetings (15%)
  • Survey possible affiliated researchers (5%)
  • Manage the CANAL AI website & socials (5%)

Requirements

A curious, creative attitude towards research with demonstrable experience or a clear willingness to learn new ways of analysing cultural data using computational means. You are well organised and able to work on different tasks without losing focus of priorities.

Your experience and profile

A degree (MA/MSc or RMA/Sc) in a related field, including but not limited to programs in Digital Humanities, Data Science, Informatics, Digital History (required);

  • Excellent written and spoken English and Dutch (required);
  • Experience with data science methods and programming languages;
  • Experience with website management.

An interest in digital methods in the humanities and/or an interest in artificial intelligence and data ethics would be preferred for this position.

Conditions of employment

We offer a temporary employment contract for a period of 1.5 years with a probationary period of two months. Preferred starting date is September 1st 2022. The employment contract is for 25 hours a week.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and relevant experience, ranges between between € 2,818 to € 3,764. This sum does not include the 8% holiday allowance and the 8,3% year-end allowance. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

What else do we offer

  • opportunity to develop a PhD proposal, ideally related to the topic of the position or the area of AI, or digital humanities;
  • the opportunity to collaborate and publish with leading researchers at research institutes that - partly as a result of their interdisciplinary approach - are world renowned;
  • opportunity to get acquainted with new research methods and topics of research.
1 Like
#22

Assistant Director, Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton University

The Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) seeks an Assistant Director to help accelerate impactful and ethical research at the intersections of data, computation and the humanities at Princeton. As a collaborative and strategic thinker, the Assistant Director will bring expertise in digital humanities program design and administration, project management, and software development to expand current programs and launch new initiatives. The Assistant Director may serve as PI or co-PI on faculty collaborations or (with University approval) on externally-funded grants. The Assistant Director is expected to contribute to digital humanities scholarship through publications, presentations and outreach to the community. This position qualifies for 20% R&D time.

  • Overseeing the CDH Grants and Fellowships Program
    • Runs sponsored project intake process (CFPs, publicity, evaluation)
    • Onboards grantees, provides project management and implementation guidance, tracks project progress and assesses success.
    • Develops collaborative grants or programs with campus partners.
    • Consults with Princeton faculty on grant applications for both internal and external funding.
  • Coordinating Princeton’s Humanities Research Software Engineering (RSE) Community
    • Works closely with campus partners to facilitate the successful expansion of the humanities RSE community at Princeton
    • Helps determine staffing models, participates in recruitment, hiring and onboarding of humanities RSEs
    • Works with faculty PIs and other stakeholders to design, scope, and staff projects
    • Provides high-level project management oversight for humanities RSE projects
  • Overseeing CDH Educational and Curricular Initiatives
    • Helps determine priorities for CDH programs and initiatives for Princeton graduate and undergraduate students
  • Overseeing CDH Postdoctoral Fellows program
    • Helps recruit, hire, onboard and oversee work of postdocs based at CDH
    • Collaborates with departments and other campus partners to expand DH postdoc community at Princeton
  • Staff Management
    • Serves as indirect supervisor for humanities RSEs campus-wide
    • Supervises CDH postdoc(s)
    • May supervise CDH staff working on graduate and undergrad initiatives
  • Research and Development
    • Maintains an active research profile, publishes and presents at academic venues, and contributes to digital humanities scholarship at Princeton and beyond.

Required Qualifications

  • Advanced degree and postgraduate research experience in the humanities, social sciences, or a related discipline (MA required)
  • Minimum work experience: 4-6 years in a DH, academic or research library setting
  • Proven success managing or coordinating a range of digital humanities projects
  • Demonstrated familiarity with emerging data-driven and computational methods for research (such as quantitative and algorithmic methods, text mining, image analysis, network analysis, dataset curation, humanities mapping, critical big data studies).
  • Knowledge on current trends in software development tools, techniques, and programming languages used in humanities research.
  • Demonstrated success working with diverse teams (faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, library staff, technologists, administrators) from various divisions of a university or college
  • Excellent organizational skills, interpersonal skills and ability to manage multiple priorities
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills; able to make presentations to faculty, staff, leadership

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience supervising staff at various levels
  • Experience working with a nationally or internationally known digital humanities center or project
  • Successful grant-writing experience

Please provide a cover letter along with your application materials.

This position is based on campus and allows for flexible work arrangements in accordance with University policy.

Preliminary review for this position will begin on Monday, October 17, 2022. Please contact cdh-info@princeton.edu with any questions.

Apply for this position on the Princeton University Careers website.

2 Likes
#23

Postdoc(s) | 2 years | ChangeIsKey! | Gothenburg, Sweden | Deadline: Nov 15

(reposting from the corpora list)

We (the Change is Key! program) are hiring a second postdoc! Do you have a lot of drive and are interested in getting engaged in a vibrant, new research field with the chance to work with some of the best in the field?

We are announcing one or more 2-year postdoc positions in identification and analysis of lexical semantic change using computational models applied to diachronic texts. Application deadline November 15!

Our languages change over time. As a consequence, words may look the same, but have different meanings at different points in time, a phenomenon called lexical semantic change (LSC). To facilitate
interpretation, search, and analysis of old texts, we build computational methods for automatic detection and characterization of LSC from large amounts of text. Our outputs will be used by the lexicographic R&D unit that compiles the Swedish Academy dictionaries, as well as by researchers from the humanities and social sciences that include textual analysis as a central methodological component.

We are looking for a researcher with a phd in a relevant area (for example, language technology/natural language processing, computer science, complex systems, mathematics, linguistics with experience in computational methods, or informational sciences).

The Change is Key! program and the Towards Computational Lexical Semantic Change Detection research project offer a vibrant research environment for this exciting and rapidly growing cutting-edge research field in NLP. There is a unique opportunity to contribute to the field of LSC, but also to humanities and social sciences through our active collaboration with international researchers in historical linguistics, analytical sociology, gender studies, conceptual history, and literary studies.

Application link below.

1 Like
#24

Postdoc in digital humanities/history and philosophy of science (TU Berlin)

The project “Network epistemology in practice (NEPI)”, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through a Consolidator Grant to Adrian Wüthrich (Technische Universität Berlin), is seeking to appoint a postdoctoral researcher in history and philosophy of science with special expertise in computational methods and digital humanities. The project will analyze the recent and ongoing digital communication inside a major collaboration in the field of particle physics. The main objective is to understand how knowledge is generated in large scientific collaborations. The project will primarily use methods from network analysis and machine learning to identify relevant communication structures and attempt to track the flow of ideas through the communication network.

Deadline for applications: December 16, 2022

The position is funded for 3 years, full-time. Earliest starting date: January 1st, 2023.

For application instructions and further details, please refer to the full and official job announcement at https://stellenticket.de/157164/TUB/?lang=en

Further information on the project NEPI is available at https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101044932

2 Likes
#25

Research Software Engineer

Overview

Do you want to advance humanistic research through software? Are you a humanities researcher who loves to write code to solve problems? Are you a software engineer who wants to tackle research questions? If so, consider applying to join the Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) and Research Computing at Princeton as our new Research Software Engineer (RSE).

As RSE, you will be an integral member of a collaborative team that designs and implements high-quality, sustainable software to advance research in the humanities and the data-driven or computational sciences. You will collaborate with faculty, student, and campus partners to help translate research priorities into software needs, including analyzing data, implementing models or simulations, and developing software modules or tools. You will consult with Princeton scholars and recommend appropriate approaches and solutions, and will contribute to research articles, presentations, and course modules. Some of the first projects that you will work on include a project on 20th-century literary history, and a project on aerial photography and the environmental history of 20th-century Africa.

We are looking for someone with demonstrated experience in at least one technical approach or methodology relevant to humanities research, but we are flexible on the specifics. The interests and experience you bring to CDH will benefit existing projects, and will help recruit new partners for future collaborations.

This position reports to the CDH Lead Developer and qualifies for 20% R&D time on personal research or professional development that enhances/complements departmental work. It is a full time, full benefits, permanent, onsite position, with the option of up to two days per week work from home.

Responsibilities

  • Build, port, test, debug, and document research software. Contribute to maintenance and updates for existing research software as needed.
  • Analyze, transform, migrate, and process data and metadata
  • Participate in code review and contribute to team best practices (unit testing, documentation, continuous integration, etc.)
  • Translate research goals into software deliverables; analyze requirements, design software, information architecture
  • Advise faculty and students on best practices, solutions and scope for humanities data-driven research
  • Promote the work of the CDH and Research Computing at Princeton campus and to the broader digital humanities community (e.g. give presentations, write blog posts, etc)

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Digital Humanities, Computer Science, or a related discipline; graduate-level research (MA or PhD) in a Humanities or related discipline preferred
  • 2-5 years’ experience as a Research Software Engineer or in a similar field.
  • Experience with humanities research and ability to communicate with humanities researchers, computer scientists, and data scientists.
  • Exhibits programming skills, particularly in one or more languages typically used for computational humanities research and data analysis (Python preferred).
  • Demonstrated success:
    • Using conventional and readable coding style.
    • Creating comprehensive and well-written documentation.
    • Using version control systems and various aspects of automated testing, including unit testing, integration testing, and continuous integration
  • Demonstrated successes contributing to a collaborative research team.
  • Ability to learn new programming languages and technologies beyond area of core knowledge.
  • Strong oral and written skills; ability to communicate effectively with a diverse user base having varied levels of technical proficiencies.
  • Experience working in an academic research environment.
  • Familiarity with Machine Learning (e.g. Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Networks, image feature extraction)
  • Ability to manage projects and multiple priorities.

Apply via the Princeton University Careers website.

#26

Vacancy: Assistant Professor in Digital History, University of Amsterdam

deadline feb 19, 2023

In the context of the sector plan for the Humanities titled ‘Tradition in transition’ and the faculty’s profile, the ​Amsterdam School of Historical Studies currently has a vacant Assistant Professor position as part of the research theme Humane AI. Within this research theme the focus is on data and platforms for social, cultural and economic innovation. ​Amsterdam School of Historical Studies is one of the five Research Schools within the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research

What are you going to do?

In the context of the Sectorplan Investments in the Humanities (https://www.sectorplan-ssh.nl/), the University of Amsterdam intends to grow its teaching and research in Humane AI. We are looking for a colleague who will teach and conduct research on the various ways in which Digital History can help us analyse texts, images, spaces and/or networks, and can reflect on the application of Artificial Intelligence in historical research and university teaching. You will take a leading role in helping our department transition to more fully integrating digital history theories, methodologies, and practices in both our teaching and our research. You will provide education in a dynamic context with ample opportunities for the development of innovative teaching methods. Your research will be part of the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies, one of the five research schools of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. ASH represents and fosters the study of the human past from Antiquity to the present day. It brings together more than 200 academics from Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities, who participate in ca. 25 research groups. You will be expected to help further develop the newly established Digital History research group and to take part in one of the other thematic groups that matches your research interests.

Tasks and responsibilities:

  • designing and conducting independent research on Digital History resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals and/or books;
  • actively pursuing external funding for research, notably funding from research councils, national as well as European;
  • actively collaborating with the Humanities Labs within the Faculty of Humanities and/or with researchers working within the Humanities Cluster of the KNAW, actively contributing to and developing national and international research networks
  • actively contributing to the research activities of the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies;
  • developing, coordinating and teaching courses in both Dutch and English, in the Bachelor and Master programmes;
  • supervising Bachelor and Master theses and tutoring students; co-supervising PhD theses;
  • actively contributing to the development and improvement of the broader teaching programmes in the department;
  • taking part in committees and working groups,and carrying out departmental administrative tasks as directed.
  • taking part in the activities of the research priority area Human(e) AI;
  • actively contributing to the interdisciplinary collaboration of the sector plan research theme Humane AI.

What do you have to offer?

You are a researcher in the field of digital history with a proven interest in AI in historical research. Your work innovatively applies digital methodologies to important historical problems and reflects on the impact of the digital turn on the ways history is interpreted and narrated through a range of (digital) media. In this context, you are able to reflect on the uses, pitfalls and but above all the benefits of a variety of digital techniques for historical research and teaching. You have an interest in learning new technological skills, and show an ability and enthusiasm to share this knowledge with students and colleagues alike. You have a proven flair for collaborative projects with colleagues in the history domain as well as in the domain of digital humanities and Humane AI. Your research matches the profile of the Amsterdam School of Historical Studies and the Research Priority Area Human(e) AI (RPA Human(e) AI | About), but can focus on any geographical or temporal area. We highly value the networks and connections in the field of Digital Humanities that you may bring and/or develop , both inside the department and the wider faculty (particularly with the so-called Humanities Labs) and with partners outside the faculty and the university (e.g. the KNAW Humanities cluster, https://huc.knaw.nl/).

You are able to develop and teach courses on digital history and/or AI applications in history from either a historical or an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, you will contribute to the further development of the digital historical skills labs . We value your ability to offer inspiring lectures and tutorials in our BA and MA programmes that could attract a wide range of students, as well as a creative approach to engaging a wide range of stakeholders on your research topics both inside and outside the university. You are committed to fostering an inclusive classroom.

We are committed to a culturally and intellectually diverse academic community and are especially interested in candidates who can contribute, through their research, teaching and/or service, to this mission.

Your experience and profile:

  • a PhD in the Humanities;
  • have proven experience in using digital history methodologies in both research and teaching.
  • have proven experience in working on projects that have included the development and/or applications of AI methodologies.
  • have a background in either historical multimodal text/image research and/or networks /spatial analysis.
  • have a research focus that fits one of the current thematic research groups within ASH (beyond the Digital History group as such).
  • have proven affinity for team and collaborative work both within and beyond the realm of digital history.
  • have a proven interest in learning new digital techniques and skills
  • Knowledge of Python and/or R is welcomed
  • you either have or show clear potential for developing a strong publication record commensurate with the stage of your academic career;
  • an international academic network in the research area concerned, or a willingness to develop one;
  • ability and ambition to obtain external research and/or project grants;
  • experience with research-led teaching in a higher education context and a strong commitment to personal development in teaching
  • willingness to take an active part in the administrative and collegial life in the department;
  • strong command of both Dutch and English. If you are not a native Dutch speaker, an active and passive command of Dutch must be acquired within two years of the employment contract (the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language programme II must be passed);
  • experience with digital teaching facilities and affinity with IT in university teaching;
  • a Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification, or a willingness to acquire one within the first two years of your appointment.

What can we offer you?

We offer permanent employment upon a satisfactory evaluation following a temporary employment contract of a maximum of 18 months with a probationary period of two months. If you already have an employment contract with the UvA, we offer permanent employment upon a satisfactory evaluation following a temporary employment contract of a maximum of 12 months. The employment is for 38 hours per week. Preferred starting date is 01 August 2023.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week, ranges between € 3,974 (scale 11) to €6,181 (scale 12), dependent on relevant experience. This sum does not include the 8% holiday allowance and the 8,3% year-end allowance. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

We additionally offer:

  • the opportunity to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams;
  • excellent opportunities for study and personal development;
  • an inspiring academic and international working environment in the heart of Amsterdam.

About us

The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands’ largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 42,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity.

The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strong international profile in a large number of disciplines in de field of language and culture. Located in the heart of Amsterdam, the faculty maintains close ties with many cultural institutes in the capital city. Research and teaching staff focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and are active in several teaching programmes.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

Any questions?

Do you have any questions or do you require additional information? Please contact (during office hours):

Job Application

If you feel the profile fits you, and you are interested in the job, we look forward to receiving your application. You can apply online via the link below. The deadline for applying for this vacancy is 19 February 2023.

Applications should include the following information (submitted in one .pdf):

  • a letter of motivation;
  • a detailed CV;
  • a list of publications;
  • the names and email addresses of two references who can provide letters of recommendation.

Only complete applications received within the response period via the link below will be considered.

The interviews will be held in the week of 20 March 2023. A trial lecture may be part of the application procedure.

apply here

#27

I’m looking for an additional instructor for the 2023 Text Analysis Pedagogy (TAP) Institute. The position basically entails developing a set of 3 90-minute text analysis lessons in the form of Jupyter Notebooks that will become Open Educational Resources. Read about the TAP Institute. The instructor will teach the class virtually in July/August. We are able to offer an honorarium for this work. If you are interested or know someone who would be a good fit, send me an email at nathan.kelber@ithaka.org.

#28

Phd (4y) or postdoc (2y, 80% FTE) in machine translation for ancient languages, University of Geneva

Hi! Please find below an opening for either a four-year phd or a two-year postdoc in machine translation for ancient languages. As mastery of French is one of the selection criteria, the text is in French.

Faculté de Traduction et d’interprétation (septembre 2023)

Le département de traitement informatique multilingue (université de Genève, Département de traitement informatique multilingue - FTI - UNIGE) recherche un-e doctorant-e (en Traitement Informatique Multilingue, 4 ans) ou post-doctorant-e (à 80%, 2 ans), intéressé-e par la traduction automatique appliquée aux langues anciennes, dans le cadre du projet SNF « Une édition sémantique et multilingue en ligne des registres du Conseil de Genève (1545-1550)».

Ce projet collaboratif avec le CUI (Centre Universitaire Informatique) vise la création d’une plateforme informatique pérenne, ouverte et open source, proposant aux visiteurs-ses, outre la transcription du texte, sa modernisation et sa traduction dans d’autres langues, ainsi qu’une série d’outils numériques et pédagogiques de visualisation et d’exploration avancée.

Thème de recherche du/de la candidate : normalisation et traduction automatique du vieux français

Début souhaité : 1er septembre 2023

Salaires :
Doctorant (4 années) : entre 48188 et 51261 CHF / an
Postdoctorant (2 années, 80%) : à partir de 66667 CHF / an (80%)

Critères de sélection :
Master ou doctorat en informatique ou traitement des langues
Connaissances des architectures de traduction automatique
Bonnes connaissances en programmation
Intéressé-e par les humanités numériques
Maîtrise du français
Motivé-e par le travail en équipe

Comment postuler ?
Envoyer son CV et lettre de motivation à Pierrette Bouillon, pierrette.bouillon@unige.ch

#29

Senior Research Software Engineer, Princeton University

Do you have a background in humanities research and love to write code? Do you want to enable and advance cutting-edge computational research? If so, Princeton University’s Research Computing department is recruiting a Senior Research Software Engineer to join the fast-growing Research Software Engineering (RSE) Group.

We are looking for a new team member to expand the software capabilities of the Princeton Geniza Project (PGP), a groundbreaking project focused on documents from the premodern Middle East. Working closely with the PI, you will employ methods such as handwritten text recognition (HTR), natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision to solve research problems and accelerate the transcription, analysis and identification of tens of thousands of handwritten texts in Hebrew and Arabic script. You may also enhance and extend the capabilities of the PGP web application and related datasets. Your critical software engineering contributions will enable researchers from Princeton and around the world to make new discoveries about the history and culture of a diverse array of Middle Eastern populations, including groups previously invisible in the historical record. Familiarity with Arabic, Hebrew or their scripts is not required, but would be a plus.

As a Senior RSE, you will also mentor and provide technical leadership to the Research Software Engineering team, as well as teach advanced computational techniques to raise the computational capability of the team. You will have the opportunity to co-author scholarly publications.

If you have a strong background in software engineering and academic research, you have the right skill set to make an immediate impact on this and other high-profile research projects. You will grow and expand your programming skills and expertise to tackle a dynamic new set of research problems. This position will require you to work closely with colleagues in the Office of Information Technology (OIT) as well as with faculty, student/postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff in academic departments to enable and accelerate new research efforts. You will work closely with the departments of Near Eastern Studies and History and interact with the Center for Digital Humanities.

This role functions within a dynamic, supportive team environment that permits people from diverse backgrounds to thrive, including those wanting to make a career change and those with non-traditional career tracks, educational paths, or life experiences. If this environment sounds like a strong match or even an exciting challenge, we encourage you to apply and use your cover letter to explain why you would be a good fit for the role.

In the RSE group, we collectively provide computational research expertise to multiple divisions within the University. As a central team of software experts, we are focused on improving the quality, performance, and sustainability of Princeton’s computational research software. Our group is committed to building collaborative environments in which the best software engineering practices are valued, and to sharing and applying cross-disciplinary computational techniques in new and emerging areas.

Responsibilities

  • Has a strong command of the Python programming language and of machine learning as applied to texts that are handwritten and/or in right-to-left scripts, with proficient understanding of the underlying science, math, statistics, data analysis, and algorithms of computational research questions at a level sufficient to converse on projects with Princeton’s world-class researchers to consistently contribute to the ongoing work. This may consist of keeping abreast of advances in the domain, independent research (reading publications, etc.) and/or studying existing code bases.
  • Working independently, initiate open collaboration with researchers. Regularly meet with, listen to, and ask questions of researchers to ensure that engineered solutions fit the research need. Understand and address software engineering questions that arise in research planning.
  • Apply appropriate domain specific algorithms, techniques, and code to advance software engineering in the research field.
  • Working independently guided by high level objectives, to quickly translate research priorities into flexible software solutions that consistently contribute to ongoing research project(s)
  • Independently use researcher-provided requirements and desired end state to build software solutions. To achieve this, RSEs are expected to figure out the problem through independent research, develop an appropriate solution, and provide full documentation for usage by the research team.
  • Identify solutions for each project, establish a set of applicable best practices for individual or team use that is uniquely appropriate for that project (e.g., version control, continuous integration and continuous delivery, software design, programming model, etc.), and enable long term maintainability and sustainability by documenting the projects in a descriptive and appropriately detailed manner. Independently provide technical expertise and guidance for improving the performance and quality of new and existing code bases through hands-on work with ongoing research.
  • Responding to evolving research needs, apply broad research software engineering experience to develop novel, creative, and robust software solutions to solve challenging research problems quickly and efficiently. Port, debug, tune and potentially parallelize existing research code to meet criteria set by the research needs.
  • Develop novel, creative, and robust software tools that allow researchers to interact in flexible ways with extremely large data sets quickly and efficiently.
  • Independently develops scope and project management plans, sets and meets milestone delivery timeline, and proactively communicates with the research team. Communicate complex software engineering concepts with project teams consisting of domain experts with a varying degree of software engineering knowledge.
  • Raise the computational capability of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers through training and workshops, consultation, knowledge transfer, expertise, and best practices
  • Show technical leadership through mentoring, instructing, and educating less experienced Research Software Engineers in advanced computational techniques learned from developing novel research software engineering project solutions.
  • In collaboration with RSE group leadership and other senior RSEs, contribute to the organization of professional development and team growth activities.
  • Maintaining technical skill set and expertise to include software development tools and techniques, software engineering best practices, programming languages, high-performance computing hardware, and computational research solutions. Focused on advancing depth of knowledge in key areas dictated by the research.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications

  • 7+ years’ experience as a Research Software Engineer or equivalent experience (e.g., graduate school, industry experience, open-source software development, etc.).
  • Strong programming skills, particularly in Python.
  • Experience developing web applications, especially with Django.
  • Experience constructing, maintaining, and using large databases.
  • Experience with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), computer vision and image analysis.
  • Some understanding of historical databases and a willingness to acquire domain-specific knowledge.
  • Demonstrated success:
    • Consistently using conventional and readable coding style.
    • Performing test-driven development.
    • Creating comprehensive and well-written documentation.
    • Participating in regular code reviews as both a reviewer and reviewee.
    • Developing and maintaining reproducible build systems.
    • Using version control systems.
  • Demonstrated successes contributing to a collaborative research team.
  • Ability to work independently.
  • Ability to learn new programming languages and technologies beyond area of core knowledge.
  • Ability to communicate effectively with a diverse user base having varied levels of technical proficiencies.
  • Experience working in an academic research environment.
  • Education: A Bachelor’s degree in the humanities, computer science, or other relevant field is required. A Master’s/Ph.D. in a relevant field with a strong computational focus or equivalent experience in a research setting preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Domain-specific research experience.
  • Knowledge of written Arabic and/or written Hebrew is a plus.
  • Experience in High-Performance Data Analytics (HPDA), including any of the following fields: cluster analysis, pattern recognition, and AI/ML techniques such as convolutional neural networks.
  • Experience tuning and optimizing research software and algorithms.
  • Experience developing research software outside of core domain knowledge.
#30

Junior Chair (Full Professor Tenure Track) in Computational Analysis of Written Cultures in Western Space (Middle Ages – first XXth c.) at the École des chartes, Université PSL

We are recruiting a Junior Professor (Full Professor 4 years Tenure Track), in Computational Human & Social Sciences, to work with the DH team at the École des chartes and PSL. The profile is Computational Analysis of Written Cultures in Western Space, with now an extended chronological range, from the Middle Ages onwards (and an interest in profiles with a large diachronic range). Fluency in French is not a requirement. The position will be mainly located in our Paris campus, in the 2nd district (Rue de Richelieu, near the Louvre and the Comédie française). The deadline is 8 september at 16h00.

Do not hesitate to write to me for further informal details if you are interested (jean-baptiste.camps@chartes.psl.eu, nor to contact the persons indicated in the job description.

Full job description follows and is also available here: https://recrutement.psl.eu/en/junior-chaire-computational-analysis-written-cultures-western-space-middle-ages-first-xxth-c-ecole.

Working environment and context

Located in the heart of Paris, PSL inspires dialog among and between all areas of knowledge, innovation, and creativity in Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering and the Arts. Selective and committed to equal opportunity, it draws directly from current research to train researchers, entrepreneurs, artists and managers who are aware of their social responsibility, both individual and collective.

With 2,900 researchers, 17,000 students, 140 laboratories and 10 incubators, fab labs and co-working spaces, PSL is a human-scale university. It ranks among the world’s top 50 universities according to the THE (Times Higher Education) and QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings.

Hosting structure

General context

The École nationale des chartes - PSL is calling for applications for a Chaire Junior in “Computational Analysis of Written Cultures in Western Space (Middle Ages – first XXth c.”. This is a tenure track position with a reduced teaching load leading to a full professor position in four years. The position will start on 1st October 2023 (or at a mutually agreed later date).

Candidates must have held a doctorate or PhD degree and have a well-established research record, including publications in areas relevant to the job profile and in top international journals.

The annual gross salary will be EUR 41,328 for the four years of the tenure period (salary negotiation possible).

The selected candidate will have a reduced teaching load (between 64h and 96h of directed working equivalent or between 42h and 64h of lectures, or any other equivalent combination). No additional courses or assignments may be carried out during this period, which must be mainly devoted to research.

Teaching mission

Master Digital Humanities and master Digital Technologies applied to History at Ecole nationale des chartes - PSL

Teaching project

The chairholder will teach in the framework of the digital masters operated by the École nationale des chartes-PSL: master Digital Humanities and master Digital Technologies applied to History, in the field of the implementation of artificial intelligence methods (neural networks,…) and quantitative methods in the humanities. This teaching will have a practical and applied dimension (learning the technical implementation), while also including more theoretical demonstrations concerning the interest of each method and a reflection on the methodological paradigm changes induced by computational methods in SHS (changes in quantity or granularity of data, supervision, transparency or not, role of human expertise…). He/she will take part in a research seminar open to master and doctoral students in his/her field of specialisation.

He/she will also be responsible for supporting the École nationale des chartes-PSL in proposing a continuing education programme in the field of computational methods applied to the sciences of writing. He/she will be called upon to design a proposal in this field for the year n+1 of his/her contract.

He/she may also be involved in PSL’s Digital Humanities Meets Artificial Intelligence continuing education courses and in teaching on the theme of “AI and SHS”, as part of PSL’s preparatory cycles for higher education (CPES).

Research mission

Centre Jean Mabillon - équipe d’accueil 3624

Research project

The Chairholder’s research is at the intersection of computational methods (artificial intelligence, data mining, modelling, etc.) and the sciences of scholarship and written heritage. He/she is capable of developing a personal research programme that is ambitious and original, with an approach based on strong hypotheses, with risk-taking and significant impacts in terms of knowledge and method. This programme will be situated in the field of the study of the written cultures of Western space from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the XXth century, in their materiality and textuality. Its approach includes the study of vast corpora of texts in the long term, the constitution of corpora of ancient documents thanks to artificial intelligence, automatic language processing and computational philology. Familiar with these methods, and comforted by the necessary support, he/she is able to exploit, within the framework of individual or collective research projects, the full potential of vast digital data repositories (digital libraries such as Gallica; digital archives; museum collections).

To do this, he/she uses methods from automatic language processing, textual data analysis (stylometry, literometry, computational palaeography, etc.), data science and complex systems. He/she uses text mining techniques on vast collections of handwritten, epigraphic or printed documents, and is able to extract and analyse information automatically for large-scale processing and analysis. This approach enables him/her to test his/her research hypotheses on issues such as the processes of transmission of cultural objects, the evolution of the literary canon, semantic transformations over time, social processes, the attribution of works or the interactions between material culture and textuality.

With a profile as a researcher in the humanities, the chairholder will have direct experience of computational methods, programming and quantitative processing, as well as the ability to deploy them on a large scale, to coordinate projects and to train a team. The ÉNC-PSL already has a great deal of experience in this field, thanks in particular to its Masters programmes and the involvement of its researchers in digital projects, often involving heritage institutions (Biblissima+, BnF’s Datalab projects, projects supported by the DIM MAP/PAMIR, etc.). It also benefits from centuries of expertise in the field of textual sciences (philology, palaeography, diplomacy, codicology, etc.), and already employs lecturers and engineers who are able to collaborate with the chairholder in teaching and research programmes.

The chairholder will be attached to the Centre Jean Mabillon (Laboratory EA 3624) and will be expected to contribute to its scientific dynamics. This research laboratory, attached to the École nationale des chartes-PSL, embodies the collective, interdisciplinary and international dimension of the École’s research activities in the field of historical sciences. It contributes to the methodological renewal of historical and philological sciences through an inclusive approach to sources and heritage objects, their materiality, status and uses. To this end, it uses innovative tools, backed by digital technology resources. It is unique in that its researchers include many library and heritage curators.

The chairholder is expected to share the ideas arising from his or her field of research at various levels: within PSL programmes, in particular DATA and Translitterae, and in close collaboration with the Observatoire des Humanités numériques; in collaboration with the major partners of the École nationale des chartes-PSL in the field of heritage (BnF, INHA, Archives nationales, FSP, etc.), with a view to opening up the perspective to the treatment of written heritage from pre-modern periods. Attention will be paid to the candidate’s ability to carry out projects for the general public, in connection with the Fondation de l’École des Chartes which is currently being set up.

The candidate is expected to enable the École nationale des chartes-PSL and PSL to develop international partnerships with the most important institutions in this field, on the basis of a network that he/she has already built up, in particular through the submission of responses to calls for European projects (ERC starting grant or Marie Curie, in particular). The objective will be, in particular, to win an ERC during the four years of the tenure period.

Publications, particularly in English and well referenced in terms of bibliometrics, are also part of the expectations of the profile, the long-term objective being that the researcher recruited should be among the most highly cited scientists in his or her field at international level (HCR).

Skills

Special requirements

Financial support

The Junior Professorship will benefit from a support budget of €200,000 for the 4-year period. This sum will notably allow the funding of research assistantships, post-doctoral positions, participation in conferences, and access to databases.

Non-discrimination, openness and transparency

PSL University is committed to supporting and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion within its communities. We encourage applications from diverse profiles and we ensure to we will select via an open and transparent recruitment process.

University is an equal opportunity employer.

Hiring process

The evaluation will be carried out by a committee composed of internal and external experts. The composition of the committee will be made public before its work.

The candidates shortlisted by the committee, based on the examination of the applications, will be invited to a face-to-face audition in Paris (at the École nationale des chartes-PSL). The audition will take place between 23 and 27 October2023 (anticipated dates). The audition, which will last between 50 minutes and 1 hour (the precise duration will be indicated on the invitation as well as the details of the audition), will consist of a presentation by the candidate, through an introductory talk, of the way in which his/her research and teaching work can be put to use in the research and teaching project planned for this Junior Professorship, followed by a professional role-playing session, and finally a discussion with the committee.

Evaluation criteria

  • Academic excellence of the candidate

  • Quality and originality of previous research and teaching projects

  • Integration of the project within the laboratory and teaching

  • Motivation, leadership, supervisory skills, ability to establish collaborative networks

  • Suitability of the resources for the proposed project and ability to mobilise additional resources

Corresponding CNU section(s) : 08, 09, 21, 22

Keywords : Digital humanities, text sciences, artificial intelligence, machine learning, language, writing, text

Duration of the chair contract : 4 years for the tenure-track phase, then tenure in the body of university professor after evaluation by a dedicated committee.

Location : Paris

Starting date : January 1st, 2024, at the latest.

Application process

How to apply?

Candidates must complete a file on the Galaxie application. To do so, they must first register here.

Only applications entered and submitted on the Galaxie platform will be accepted. All documents must be submitted on this platform. No document sent by e-mail will be taken into consideration.

Application file :

This file is composed of a form to be completed online and documents to be uploaded:

Administrative documents:

  • An identity document with a photograph (Passport)
  • PhD diploma ***
  • The report on your PhD defense, or a certificate from the institution stating that no report has been drawn up ***

Additional mandatory documents, to be uploaded in the: « Titres et travaux » section:

  1. The application form to be downloaded here
  2. Two letters of recommendation *
  3. A selection of some of the candidate’s research articles or other achievements, not exceeding 6 documents *

All documents must be uploaded in PDF format and must not exceed 10Mb.

*(with a translation in english or french, if the original language is different)

Application deadline: September 8th, 2023, 4pm (Paris time)

For any questions regarding the position, please contact Adeline Favier, Director of Human resources at PSL University : adeline.favier@psl.eu

For any specific question regarding the recruitment procedure and the receipt of your application, please contact: cpj@psl.eu

#31

We’re hiring a Postdoc to work across NLP, Digital Humanities, and Semantic Web. https://rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000AC8P…

Bring your creativity and skills to study the evolution of online fictional narratives https://golemlab.eu

Job description

Applications are invited for a 1.5 year position as postdoctoral researcher within the research project “Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models” (GOLEM), financed by an ERC Starting Grant and coordinated by the Principal Investigator (PI), dr. Federico Pianzola. This is an interdisciplinary project at the intersection of NLP, Digital Humanities, and Semantic Web (linked data).

Millions of stories are shared on online platforms such as Wattpad, AO3, and FFNet, combined with readers’ reactions and comments on these stories. The GOLEM project will analyze stories and their responses gathered from sites in five different languages – English, Spanish, Italian, Korean and Indonesian. This analysis can provide a wealth of information about the characters in a story, the genre, what a story is about, how a story is constructed, what themes are covered, as well as what readers from different countries and cultures find important in a story.

The core infrastructure of the project is a graph database of ca. 10 million stories, including information extracted from the full text of the stories via NLP techniques. Some information is already available in structured format, some other can be imported from resources like Wikidata or fan wikis. In addition, both the full text and the existing triples can be leveraged for the extension of the knowledge graph via automated reasoning, inferential learning, and other techniques.

The project will hire a postdoctoral researcher, who will work in the GOLEM lab.

Your Tasks
In collaboration with the other team members, you will work on the creation of a knowledge graph database generated extracting structured information from unstructured narrative text.

You will contribute to:

  • enrich a knowledge graph database with information obtained via NLP, namely with graph reasoning techniques (graph machine learning)
  • use graph-based representations for ontology learning
  • use NLP methods for modelling narrative text.

The focus on each of these tasks can vary based on the expertise of the applicant.

Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen enjoys an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Flexible study programmes and academic career opportunities in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 37,000 students and researchers alike to develop their own individual talents. As one of the best research universities in Europe, the University of Groningen has joined forces with other top universities and networks worldwide to become a truly global centre of knowledge.

Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts is built on a long-standing tradition of four centuries. Our mission is to be a top-ranking faculty with both an excellent education and world-quality research, with a strong international orientation, firmly rooted in the North of the Netherlands. We build and share knowledge benefits to society. We work at a modern, broad and international institution, educating over 5000 Dutch and international students to become forward-looking, articulate and independent academics. We form a hardworking and diverse team of 700 staff members.

Qualifications

  • a PhD degree in any area related to the tasks (e.g. Computer Science, Digital Humanities, or Information Science)
  • experience in extracting structured information from unstructured documents
  • commitment to Open Source and Open Science practices
  • an independent, proactive work ethic
  • good academic writing skills in English
  • knowledge of Dutch is NOT required.
1 Like
#32

Hi all,

I’m hiring for a Ph.D. position on a project called ‘Sound and Foreign Affairs from a Digital History Approach, 1700-1990’.

The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH) invites applications for a PhD position as part of the Faculty of Humanities starting grant “Sound and Foreign Affairs from a Digital History Approach, 1700-1990”, led by principal investigators Dr. H. Alloul and Dr. M.J.H.F. Wevers. This interdisciplinary project is situated at the crossroads of two fields. International History is broadly conceived and includes the study of diplomacy, interstate relations, conflict studies, and transnational encounters. Sonic History examines the significance of sound, noise, silence, or music within formal and informal spaces. The project seeks to harness the possibilities of digital methods to examine the reproduction, representation, reception, or the materiality of sound in foreign affairs. For further background, see the suggested reading list below.

The PhD position, commencing on 1 February 2024, is fully funded and lasts 4 (1,0 fte) to 5 years (0,8 fte), depending on the candidate’s preference. The position includes coursework and limited teaching duties.

More information can be found here: PhD Researcher 'Sound and Foreign Affairs from a Digital History Approach, 1700-1990'

#33

Post-doctoral fellow in Complexity science, Stochastic modelling and interdisciplinary Mathematical sciences (ERC Project LostMA)

Hi everyone, I’m hiring a post-doc to work inside the ERC StG project The Lost Manuscripts of Medieval Europe: Modelling the Transmission of Texts (LostMA).

Start date: between 1st January and 1st september 2024, for 2 years (renewable for 2 additional years)
Full time position
Salary: c. 2 500€ (net monthly).
Location: Paris, Campus Condorcet (with regular visits to the École des chartes main building, 65 rue de Richelieu, Paris); partial remote work possible.
Work languages: English and/or French

Scientific supervisors: Jean-Baptiste Camps (philology, École nationale des Chartes - PSL) & Julien Randon-Furling (mathematical sciences, ENS Paris-Saclay)

PROJECT LostMA

LostMA is a project planned to be funded by the European Research Council, as a Starting Grant, for the period 2024-2029.

LOSTMA aims at understanding how human cultures are constituted and evolve, through the question of the transmission of written cultural artefacts. The project strives to establish in what measure the transmission (and subsequent preservation or loss) of written artefacts, texts and ideas deviates from pure chance, and, if it deviates, by how much and why. This will be investigated by analysing the way in which texts in manuscript form were copied, transformed or destroyed, in a similar manner to the evolution of living organisms or that of language variants, through processes of innovation/mutation, fixation or extinction. As such, the goal of this project is not only to understand the processes behind the transmission of texts, but also to grasp the extent to which humans are the actors of the transmission of their own culture and how much the survival of texts or the constitution of cultural canons are due to chance.

LostMA will attempt a paradigm-shift in philological methods, by combining artificial intelligence, complexity science and philological expertise. On the mathematical sciences side, the work will range from theoretical to numerical and statistical:stochastic models (birth-and-death processes, branching processes, random trees, …), computer simulations (agent-based models, in particular), machine learning and data analysis will be used to emulate and comprehend the processes and mechanisms of textual transmission. A case study will be undertaken, regarding chivalric literature in European context. Supported by deep learning methods, large-scale data collection will be made on a corpus of 4000 documents in Romance, Germanic and Celtic languages, with a full-text zoom on approx. 1000 Old French manuscripts. Data will provide observable values to be compared to simulation results, in order to measure deviations from chance, make inferences on non observable values such as loss/survival rates of works and manuscripts, and understand the dynamics at work behind the transmission of texts.

Missions

The post-doctoral fellow will be leading work package A.1, in close collaboration and under the supervision of the principal investigator, Jean-Baptiste Camps, and that of Julien Randon-Furling.

The main task of this work package is the design of a null-model for manuscript transmission in the Middle Ages.

Investigations into the shape of text transmission can be done using several modelling approaches. Modelling will start on the basis of a birth-and-death process. Such a general process may be adapted to describe the birth and death of manuscripts, with parameters such as the copy (birth) and destruction (death) rates of manuscripts. In order to study the effect of these parameters and of their variation, simulations of the process will have to be run, simulating the individual behaviour of agents (here, manuscripts) in time according to the parameter values, allowing us to investigate the full range of parameter variation. Methods for this can be borrowed from the field of complex systems and statistical physics (e.g., phase diagrams, phase transitions, criticality…). Results from this work phase will include the conception of a null-model for manuscript transmission, allowing further investigations into the various deviations from a random transmission, and will also feature research into analytical solutions and the adaptation of other relevant theoretical aspects, such as recent developments in tree models and branching processes from evolutionary biology and probability theory.

This modelling will be the main task of the post-doctoral fellow, who will dedicate their (first) two years on the project to the round-trips between model design, simulations, parameter space exploration, comparison to actual data and model improvements. They will work in close collaboration with the PI, with Julien Randon-Furling, and with a research network of experts of complex systems in the humanities and evolutionary sciences. These exchanges will also take place during the project workshops.

Objectives and Methodological Design: Gain insight into the mathematical properties of stemmata and provide a null-model of textual transmission.

  1. study the mathematical properties of the graphs used in stemmatology;
  2. design a model replicating the dynamics of textual transmission, with appropriate parameters;
  3. explore the full range of the variation of these parameters;
  4. discuss the significance of the model and the results in the light of philological knowledge;
  5. improve the model if necessary
  6. go from simulations to an analytical formulation of the model if possible.

The provisional schedule is:

  • Months 1-11 initial model design;
  • Months 12-17 model improvements and publication;
  • Months 18-24 analyse and discuss model results in light of philological data.

The main deliverables are:

  • null model, simulations and analysis of the results
  • computer code for the model under an open license
  • participation in the project workshops
  • at least one publication, co-led by the post-doc, regarding the model, in a leading international mathematical science journal
  • contribution to at least one team publication in a leading international multi-disciplinary, complex systems or digital humanities journal
  • submission/attendance, with team, to international conferences (e.g., Digital Humanities or Computational Humanities Research Conferences).

Skills

  • stochastic modelling, evolutionary models ;
  • computer simulations and programming (Python and/or C) ;
  • taste for interdisciplinary applications, in the human and social sciences ;
  • strong interest in evolutionary processes and/or cultural transmission
  • taste for multidisciplinary collaboration and team work.

Profile

  • PhD in mathematical sciences, theoretical physics, or computational biology
  • background in interdisciplinary applications, stochastic modelling, complex systems or statistical physics.

Application

Applications (CV and letter of application) should be sent to the Director of the École nationale des chartes, by e-mail to :

recrutement@chartes.psl.eu as well as jean-baptiste.camps@chartes.psl.eu

on a rolling basis, starting from 10 october 2023. Candidates selected on the basis of their application, will then be invited to attend an audition.

For more information:
Jean-Baptiste Camps: jean-baptiste.camps@chartes.psl.eu

Julien Randon-Furling: julien.randon-furling@ens-paris-saclay.fr

Administrative information : rh@chartes.psl.eu

#34

  1. Four-year PhD positions within the ERC project “Uncovering the creative process: from Inception to Reception of translated content using machine translation” (INCREC).
    PhD positions in Creativity, Translation and Technology (3.0 FTE) (V23.0606) | Job opportunities | University of Groningen

  2. The up-coming ERC project JEUX - Literary Games, Poetics and the Early Modern Novel is advertising a position for a researcher (post-doctoral). We will play early-modern games with creative writing students and are looking for someone with expertise in interviews, observation and other related methods to accompany that experiment.

  1. Post-doc in Artificial Intelligence and Education

https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000AEPP

  1. Postdoc data science and the articulations of meaning in work

https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000AC2P

1 Like
#35

We have a several job openings at the Faculty of Humanities and the Humanities Labs of the University of Amsterdam:

  • Front-End Developer for Data Visualisation
  • Senior data engineer in corpus building
  • Data Engineer for Full Stack Development in the Humanities Labs

See: https://vacatures.uva.nl/

Please share if you know someone (colleagues, (ex-)students, friends etc.) who might be interested, or please apply if you’re interested in one of these positions!

1 Like
#36

Postdoc Position (m/f/d) in the Digital Humanities (Aachen, Germany)

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at RWTH Aachen University is looking to fill a postdoc position in the field of Digital Humanities. The position is initially limited to three years (100% employment, pay scale TV-L13), and the projected starting date is March 2024. The successful candidate should have completed their doctoral degree (or will have completed it by the time of employment).

The position is based at the Institute of English, American and Romance Studies. However, tasks include research activities in the postdoc’s own and collaborative projects, as well as the teaching of two courses each semester (3 instructional hours per week) in the humanities and social sciences (English Studies, Linguistics and Communication Studies, Political Science).

The focus of the required competencies, which are to be applied in research and teaching, is the compilation, evaluation, and interpretation of large text sets with the help of computational methods. The successful candidate will employ a variety of methods to process and analyse literary as well as non-literary corpora to pursue a wide range of research questions. Mastery of quantitative methods such as text mining or stylometry is a prerequisite. A central task of this position, however, is to bring these methods into a fruitful exchange with qualitative methods, such as qualitative discourse- or content analysis (experience with qualitative methods is therefore considered an asset). In addition to these methodological competencies, the successful candidate must have a proven interest in questions of literary studies.

Furthermore, the successful candidate will teach students how to employ different tools from the Digital Humanities to pursue questions specific to the field, as well as how to critically evaluate these tools’ capacities and limitations. They should collaborate with practitioners of other quantitative and qualitative methods in developing the interdisciplinary teaching of methods and methodology at the faculty.

Please send applications with curriculum vitae, list of publications and lectures held in a PDF file to Prof. Dr. Ralf Schneider (ralf.schneider@ifaar.rwth-aachen.de) by 15 December, 2023.