Junior Excellence Chairs in Computational Humanities (five years) at PSL university (Paris) - CultureLab team

PSL University (Paris) is inviting applications for a five years Junior Excellence Chairs in computational humanities inside the CultureLab project.

The applicant’s research will focus on the development and application of computational methods to analyse cultural and historical data, with a focus on materials predating the industrial revolution and on human sciences questions. The successful candidate will have a background in digital humanities, computer science, cultural evolution, or a related field. Their research project will deal with the long-term evolution of cultures and societies, and will concern several (or all) of the program axes (see below). They will also be involved in developing new algorithms and techniques for processing and analysing large-scale datasets of cultural data, such as texts or images from historical periods. They will be expected to collaborate with other PSL researchers on the project to integrate these computational methods with other approaches, such as document-based modelling of historical and social processes, and to use these methods to test hypotheses and make predictions about the long-term evolution of cultures and societies.

This position is part of a PSL-funded project, “CultureLab”, which aims to fund computational research in the humanities and social sciences across all relevant PSL labs. The postdoctoral will have priority access to CultureLab resources (research engineers, comptuational resources, PhD or master student grants, etc.).

The main project axis are:

Axis 1: Harvesting and annotating large scale cultural datasets, from texts to images

Axis 2: A theory-driven approach to computational humanities and social sciences

Axis 3: Inferring historical & social processes from data across timescales

Axis 4: Social impact through computational analysis of culture and heritage data

The position’s duration is fiveyears. The salary is competitive and comes with a package of 40,000 euros for research funding. The candidates must be early career researchers, either about to obtain their PhD or having obtained it between 2020 and now. Starting date will be in Autumn 2025 or thereabout.

PSL University, consistently ranked among the top 50 universities worldwide, is an interdisciplinary research university built on a collegial model. PSL partner institutions include the École Normale Supérieure and the École des Chartes.

Contact:

Jean-Baptiste Camps Jean-Baptiste.Camps@chartes.psl.eu
Olivier Morin olivier.morin@ens.psl.eu

Please send:

• A resume with a list of publications (maximum two A4 pages);
• A research statement and description of the project (maximum two A4 pages);
• Contact information for two senior scientists who agree to recommend you.

The deadline for applications is November 15, 2024.

PSL University
60, rue Mazarine, Paris
https://www.psl.eu/