Doctoral or postdoctoral researchers in Digital Humanities and Social Studies (65% or 100%, TV-L A13 a.Zt. / E13, starting ASAP)

The Humboldt Chair in Digital Humanities at the Department of Digital Humanities and Social Studies at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg is looking for up to 8 postdoctoral and doctoral researchers to join exciting projects on language, data, and society in the digital world.

In today’s digital world, a deep understanding of language and its role in society is vital for humanity. Human beings use language to act, to do things and interact with one another. People use language to make sense of the world. Language is used to tell the stories and create the narratives that shape our society, our culture and our reality. The digital world has added further dimensions to the way in which language provides data, helps to interpret data and tells stories about data. Crucially, a lot of data in the digital world is language data. At the same time, the human perspective on data will always require language to make sense of it. Even if AI takes over the telling of stories of humanities, it will need to be humans who make sense of them, and they need language to do so. Join our DHSS team and contribute to a programme of innovative research with projects that develop computational, corpus, and statistical methods and software, as well as topic-focused projects in digital environmental humanities, digital literary and cultural history, digitally supported storytelling and creative writing. In your cover letter, please specify which of these focus areas you are applying for. Depending on your qualifications and experience there are different options of appointment.

PhD positions are for up to 3 years (65% or 100%) Postdoctoral positions are initially for 2 years (100%), with the opportunity for extension after successful completion of that period

Specific responsibilities will include (depending on the project strand):

• Collecting, analysing and interpreting data
• Critically evaluating research literature and projects
• Developing, implementing, and applying novel methods and tools
• Writing up results and co-authoring publications
• Producing documentation
• Leading on the organisation of workshops and other dissemination activities
• Developing training materials for workshops, and materials for web presence
• Working as part of a team, with the responsibility to manage specific work packages of the team research programme
• Managing project tasks, including supervising student assistants, and providing progress reports

Notwendige Qualifikationen:

For the methods and software strand:

• M.A./M.Sc. or Ph.D. (or equivalent qualifications) in Computer Science, Computational Humanities, Computational Linguistics, Mathematics, Machine Learning, Data Science, or other relevant subjects.
• Evidence of strong programming skills, ideally Python and/or R
• Experience with machine learning, and/or statistical analysis
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Excellent communication skills in English, including the ability to write for publication, present research proposals and results, and represent the project team at meetings and research events
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Ability to work independently, manage own time efficiently and effectively
• Ability to work as part of a team, and to co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Working level German or willingness to acquire working knowledge of the language

For the topic-focused strands

• M.A./M.Sc. or Ph.D. (or equivalent qualifications) in a relevant area of digital humanities, corpus linguistics, linguistics, psychology, literary studies, geography, social history, or other relevant subjects
• Knowledge of relevant theories, models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Excellent communication skills in English, including the ability to write for publication, present research proposals and results, and represent the project team at meetings and research events
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Ability to work independently, manage own time efficiently and effectively
• Ability to work as part of a team, and to co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Working level German or willingness to acquire working knowledge of German

Wünschenswerte Qualifikationen:

• Strong publication record appropriate for career level and experience
• Strong programming skills with evidence of applications
• Experience with generative AI
• Experience designing experiments (including ethics requirements)
• Experience collecting and creating new data sets
• Experience developing web applications (individually or as a part of team)
• Native-like language skills in both English and German
• Evidence of the ability to supervise research assistants

Informal enquiries can be made to michaela.mahlberg@fau.de.

Please send your application to dhss-kontakt@fau.de (in PDF format, as a single document) by e-mail.The application has to include a cover letter (stating the area of focus that you are applying for), an academic CV, and evidence of all relevant qualifications.

The first round of interviews will take place in the week beginning 3rd June.

In its pursuit of academic excellence, FAU is committed to equality of opportunity and to a proactive and inclusive approach, which supports and encourages all under-represented groups, promotes an inclusive culture and values diversity. FAU is a family-friendly employer.