Do you like/are you looking for a challenging job in a dynamic setting? The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation is looking to fill one PhD postion in the research project The biased reality of online media – Using stereotypes to make media manipulation visible of Katrin Schulz and Leendert van Maanen.

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) is a renowned research institute at the University of Amsterdam, in which researchers from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Science collaborate. The research carried out at Humanities forms one of the six research schools within this faculty .

ILLC’s central research area is the study of fundamental principles of encoding, transmission and comprehension of information. Research at ILLC is interdisciplinary, and aims at bringing together insights from various disciplines concerned with information and information processing, such as logic, philosophy, linguistics, musicology, mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

What are you going to do?

The PhD position is part of Katrin Schulz & Leendert van Maanen’s research project The biased reality of online media – Using stereotypes to make media manipulation visible, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). In this interdisciplinary project we combine knowledge from linguistics, psychology, and natural language processing to study the impact of (online) media on stereotypical beliefs people hold. In order to do so, we measure which stereotypes are expressed by computational language models and how such biases relate to stereotypical beliefs that individuals may hold. The goal is to develop a computational model to understand how media sources affect stereotypical beliefs.

The project involves two PhD students and a programmer. While the other PhD student will work on extracting bias from text corpora, you will focus on comparing these biases with experimental data from human participants. This might involve improving on existing experiment measures of stereotypical beliefs in humans. You will also be involved in the psychometric validation of the bias measures for text corpora. Finally, you will develop a causal cognitive model for the influence of media coverage on stereotypical beliefs. Your project will be jointly supervised by Dr Leendert van Maanen and Dr Katrin Schulz.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• completion and submission of a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• working in close cooperation with the other team members on executing the described research project;
• regularly presenting research results at international workshops and conferences, and to publish them in conference proceedings and journal;
• participating in and to contribute to the organisation of research activities and events at the ILLC, such as workshops and colloquia;
• participate in the ILLC and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programmes;
• teach courses at Bachelor’s and Master’s level in the 2nd and 3rd year (0,2 FTE per year).

What do we require of you?

We are looking for candidates who have the technical skills and the scientific interest to conduct cutting-edge research in cognitive science, psychometrics, and cognitive modeling. You are open minded and eager to interact with researchers coming from different backgrounds. You can relate your research to other areas and societal needs and work well together in a team.

Your experience and profile:

• a completed Master's degree in, for example, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral Data Science, Linguistics, or related;
• You may apply if you have not yet completed your Master's degree only if you provide a signed letter from your supervisor stating that you will graduate before 1 March 2022;
• a strong background in psychological experimentation and cognitive modeling/mathematical psychology; Familiarity with R or Python is of added value;
• excellent research skills demonstrated by an outstanding Master's thesis and a demonstrable capacity to develop a track record of publishing in high-ranking journals and/or with leading presses;
• a strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research across multiple universities;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• Excellent command of English;
• willingness to travel abroad for research stays, conferences and project expert workshops;
• strong social and organizational skills.

Please note that if you already hold a doctorate/PhD or are working towards obtaining a similar degree elsewhere, you will not be admitted to a doctoral programme at the UvA.

Our offer

We offer a temporary full-time contract for the period of 48 months. The first contract will be for 16 months, with an extension for the following 32 months, contingent on a positive performance evaluation within the first 12 months. The preferred starting date is 1 April 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The gross monthly salary will be €2,443 during the first year to reach €3,122 during the fourth year, based on 38 hours per week, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities. This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.

What else do we offer

• PhD candidates receive a tuition fee waiver;
• PhD candidates have free access to courses offered by the Graduate School of Humanities and the Dutch National Research Schools;
• excllent possibilities for further professional development and education;
• an enthusiastic, inspiring and professional academic team.

University of Amsterdam

With over 6,000 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.

Curious about our organisation and attractive fringe benefits such as a generous holiday arrangement and development opportunities? Here you can read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.