The Department of Media Studies is looking for an Assistant Professor in Critical Data Studies.

What are you going to do?

You will join the Department of Media Studies and provide education in a dynamic context with ample opportunities for the development of innovative teaching methods. You will be a part of the research-led teaching team in New media & digital culture as well as media & information.

Your research will be part of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), one of the five research schools of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. ASCA is home to more than 100 researchers and more than 140 PhD candidates, and conducts world-leading research in Cultural Analysis. ASCA researchers share a commitment to studying culture in all its forms and expressions within an interdisciplinary framework, and to maintaining a close connection with contemporary cultural and political debates. All ASCA research fits into at least one, but usually more than one of five thematic constellations: 1) Mediality; 2) Arts & Aesthetics; 3) Globalization & Migration; 4) Identities; and 5) Cultural & Social Critique.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• design and conducting independent research on current media theory and research concerning social media, app and internet data cultures, vernaculars and aesthetics, specifically in relation to algorithmic power, social privileging and discrimination, surveillance, censorship, digital labour and data colonialism, resulting in academic publications in peer-reviewed international journals and/or books;
• actively pursuing external funding for research, notably funding from research councils, both national as well as European;
• actively contributing to and developing national and international research networks and other forms of cooperation;
• actively contributing to the research activities of ASCA;
• developing, coordinating and teaching courses in both Dutch and English, in the BA and MA programmes;
• supervising BA and MA 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.

You are a dynamic and ambitious researcher with a strong profile, demonstrable by international publications and an international academic network. Your publications show broad knowledge of the critical study of digital culture as well as familiarity with current media theories concerning algorithmic culture, social media & platformization, platform vernaculars, online discrimination and data colonialism. You have a strong affinity with the study of data objects as well as with digital research methodologies for data collection and cultural analysis. You are capable of conceptual and methodological innovation in media studies.

You are able to develop and provide modules in digital cultural data analysis, data aesthetics, algorithmic culture, digital methods and information analytics, and critical data studies, including ethical dimensions. Important is proven flexibility in teaching on topics beyond your own research focus, a willingness to work in interdisciplinary teams of teachers and the ability to offer inspiring lectures and tutorials in the BA, MA and minor programmes that aspire to a wide range of students.

Your experience and profile:

• a PhD in the Humanities or Social Sciences with a research focus in new media and digital culture, focusing on platform studies and/or surveillance and associated dynamics;
• international academic network in the research area concerned;
• research output commensurate with the level of the position;
• active and ambitious researcher with a strong publication record;
• affinity and experience with interdisciplinary research;
• demonstrable ability and ambition to obtain external research grants;
• wide and relevant teaching experience at BA and MA level;
• excellent command (near-native fluency) of both Dutch and English: Non-native Dutch speakers must achieve an active and passive command of Dutch within two years (passing the state examination for Dutch as a Second Language programme II, is a prerequisite for a permanent employment contract);
• experience with digital and audio-visual teaching facilities and affinity with ICT in university teaching;
• experience with valorisation and practice-based education and/or research;
• good team worker and versatile at all levels, capable of multidisciplinary co-operation;
• excellent organisational experience and skills;
• acquired the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification, or is willing to acquire this within the first two years.

Research that entails collaboration with non-academic institutions and agencies in the Netherlands, Europe, and beyond is highly welcome.

We offer a temporary employment contract for a period of two years with the intention of converting it into a permanent contract after a positive assessment. Our ideal starting date of the employment contract is 1 August 2021.

The gross monthly salary, dependent on relevant experience, will range from €3,746 to €5,826, based on 38 hours a week. This is excluding a generous holiday scheme (8%) and year-end bonus (8.3%). A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% rule’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement for the Dutch Universities is applicable.

We additionally offer:

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

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

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. The faculty 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.