The Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy, is looking for an Assistant professor in Responsible and Ethical AI.

The candidate will be expected to teach in different BA and MA programs in the faculty of Humanities including in Philosophy, Media Studies, Msc in Logic and can offer guest lectures in UvA’s courses on Human(e) AI within different educational programmes. The candidate is expected to be active as the supervisor of bachelor or master theses. In addition the candidate is expected to play an important role in the design of new educational initiatives on the topic of AI for students in the Humanities.

Possible courses in Philosophy include both introductory and more advanced courses in Logic, in particular the course on Logic and the Linguistic Turn, as well as specialized courses in Philosophy and AI, Formal Epistemology and Philosophy of Science.

In Media Studies, possible courses include Analyzing Digital Culture, Media Research, Digital Methods and Information Analytics, Current Themes in Media Studies and Philosophy of the Humanities.

Tasks:

• Develop an independent line of research in her/his area of expertise, resulting in contributions published at leading international venues;
• actively participate in the RPA Human(e) AI, by contributing to its management and administration tasks, by collaborating on research within the RPA and by (co)-supervising PhD candidates;
• actively pursuing external funding for research, notably funding from research councils, national as well as European;
• actively contributing to and developing national and international research networks and other forms of cooperation;
• contribute to research valorization and outreach activities;
• teach (in Dutch and in English) and develop teaching activities in the fields mentioned above;
• take on coordination and/or management tasks in the relevant teaching programmes ;
• supervising BA and MA theses and tutoring students;
• taking part in departmental meetings and activities.

The assistant professor:

• has a PhD in a relevant field with a strong connection to the Humanities (e.g. in Philosophy, Logic, or related field), completed or with a defense date scheduled before the start of the contract; an international research network in the research area concerned;
• has experience with studying AI technology from a Science and Technology Studies or Theoretical Philosophy perspective;
• has experience with the development and/or formal analysis of technological systems in the field of AI;
• has an excellent research record, evidenced by publications in top international venues; the candidate’s area of Research Expertise includes at least one of the following: Logic for AI (including logics for multi-agent systems, deontic logic and normative systems), Formal Ethics, Formal Epistemology, Formal Ontology fit for AI, Philosophy of Information/AI;
• has demonstrable ability and ambition to obtain external research grants;
• has given contributions and/or invited lectures at international conferences/workshops;
• has strong experience in different forms and levels of university teaching, at BA and MA level; the candidate’s area of Teaching Competence includes at least Logic and either Philosophy of Science (including Philosophy of AI) or Epistemology;
• has ideally some experience with (co-)supervision of BA/BSc, MA/MSc and/or PhD students;
• is a good team worker and versatile at all levels, capable of multidisciplinary co-operation;
• has experience of digital and audiovisual teaching facilities; affinity with ICT in university teaching;
• has the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO), or the willingness to acquire this within the first two years;
• has an excellent command of English and Dutch. Non-Dutch speakers are expected to learn Dutch and be fluent in Dutch within two years, by passing the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language (NT2), programme II.

Our offer

The contract is temporary for a period of four years. The contract will commence preferably between 1 September 2020 and 1 January 2021.

The UFO profile for this position is, dependent on relevant experience, Universitair docent 2 (scale 11) or Universitair docent 1 (scale 12).

The gross monthly salary will range from €3,637 (start scale 11) to €5,656 (end scale 12), based on a full-time appointment (38 hours a week).

The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities applies.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Humanities - Department of Philosophy

The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strong international profile in a large number of disciplines in the 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.

The Faculty of Humanities offers assistant professors the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers at research institutes that - partly as a result of their interdisciplinary approach - are world-renowned. Moreover, you will be teaching in a dynamic context in which new teaching methods are being developed.

The position is placed within the Department of Philosophy in the capacity group Logic and Language and the candidate’s research will be part of the Institute for Language, Logic and Computation (ILLC) within the Faculty of Humanities. The ILLC enhances curiosity-driven research and serves as a rallying point for information scientists across traditional research fields. An important part of the core business of the ILLC focusses on computational models of human information processing. When gaining a deeper understanding of the nature of information and the processes of reasoning and interaction, we use logic as one of our main driving forces. This research is situated in the interdisciplinary territory between humanities (philosophy, linguistics, media studies), cognitive science, artificial intelligence and computer science.