Are you a passionate and committed teacher and researcher and well versed in cutting-edge computational social science approaches, as well as sociological research? Would you like to be involved in frontier computational social science teaching and research, working with highly qualified researchers in an interdisciplinary academic environment?

The Department of Sociology is looking for an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science. You will play a leading role in the new inter-faculty undergraduate programme in Computational Social Science, and will be based at the Sociology department, and embedded in  the programme group Institutions, Inequalities and Life Courses. The department of sociology is a broad, pluralistic sociology department, consisting of three program groups (Cultural Sociology; Political Sociology; Institutions, Inequalities and Life courses). We are especially interested in candidates who have a research agenda that fits our department and intersects with (one of) the substantive themes of the computational social science programme: inequality, health, mobility, sustainability, climate change, and surveillance– while making use of innovative computational methods to address such questions. You will publish in well-respected international scholarly journals and/or with international academic publishers, co-supervising junior researchers and submit grant applications.

The new undergraduate programme Computational Social Science is a joint initiative of the science, the social science and the humanities faculties of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Students develop skills to design, create, apply and appropriate digital technology and data science to benefit society. All teaching activities are organized around projects within intensive, semester-length courses of 30 ECTS and require active engagement from each student.

What are you going to do

As Assistant Professor you combine teaching (60%) and research (40%). The teaching takes places in the computational social science programme. This includes lectures, workshops, and group tutoring. You will take the lead in developing innovative teaching materials and activities within our transdisciplinary, project-based curriculum. You will do so in close consultation with the examiners of the semester courses, the other teachers, experts across the three faculties, and in alignment with learning trajectory objectives that have already been set. 

Your research takes place at the department of sociology, embedded in the programme group Institutions, Inequalities and Life Courses (IIL) and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research. The Institutions, Inequalities, and Life courses programme examines institutions in a broad way as the formal and informal rules and arrangements in society that govern individual behavior and social relationships. The IIL programme uses a mixture of methods and data including quantitative analyses of survey data, analyses of register data, experimental data, social network analysis, and policy analysis. An important goal of the programme is to invest in the collection, development, enrichment, and dissemination of cross-national and longitudinal survey data.

In your position of an Assistant Professor you are expected to actively contribute to the broad and diverse teaching and research profile of sociology in Amsterdam by developing, carrying out and supervising empirical sociological research at a high academic level; developing a line of research fitting in the programme group, department and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR); acquiring and helping to acquire external funding for research; engaging in activities in the public sphere and in other environments outside academia; carrying out administrative tasks.

As an ideal candidate for this position, you find yourself at home in both the computational social science community and the sociology community. You strongly believe in interdisciplinary collaboration and feel at home in discussions with a wide range of disciplines in the Social and Behavioural Sciences, Humanities, and Computer Science. You are a creative team player who does not shy away from entering new scholarly terrain. You show creativity, accuracy, and perseverance. You value universities as sites for independent thought and academic progress, working together with stakeholders inside and outside academia. You take initiative, have excellent communication skills, and you are well equipped to work in a team as well as independently. You like to collaborate both with academics and non-experts and you can present complex theoretical and statistical models to both groups in a bespoke manner. Through excellent research you aim for social impact.

What do we require

You have:

• a PhD degree in Sociology or a relevant related discipline;
• a proven record of high-quality teaching; experience or affinity with an international, diverse classroom; you are passionate about teaching and committed to teaching courses in the BSc Computational Social Science;
• a strong track record in empirical research related to the profile of the programme group Institutions, Inequalities and Life Courses, exemplified in journal articles, book publications or other forms of scholarly output;
• the potential to acquire research funding from external sources;
• excellent English language skills;
• (academic) up to date computational social science and programming skills.

 You are:

• in possession of the Dutch Basic Teaching Qualification or Senior Teaching Qualification (or foreign equivalents), or willing to acquire such a qualification in the short term.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

Our offer

We offer permanent employment upon a satisfactory evaluation following a temporary employment contract of a maximum of 18 months with a probationary period of two months. If you already have (had) an employment contract with the UvA, we offer permanent employment upon a satisfactory evaluation following a temporary employment contract of a maximum of 12 months. The employment contract will be for 38 hours per week. Preferred starting date is 1 September 2022.

For this position the University Job Classification profile “Universitair Docent 2” applies.

Depending on relevant experience the gross monthly salary, based on fulltime employment of 38 hours per week, ranges between €3,821 and €5,230, in keeping with salary scale 11, as per the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities.

We additionally offer an extensive package of secondary benefits, including 8% holiday allowance and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.

We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international events. The UvA offers excellent possibilities for further professional development and education.

What else do we offer

• A position in a challenging interdisciplinary work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organisation;
• an enthusiastic and warm team that is open to new colleagues;
• an inspiring academic and international working environment in the heart of Amsterdam.

University of Amsterdam

The University of Amsterdam is the largest university in the Netherlands, with the broadest spectrum of degree programmes. It is an intellectual hub with 39,000 students, 6,000 employees and 3,000 doctoral students who are all committed to a culture of inquiring minds.

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

A challenging work environment with a variety of duties and ample scope for individual initiative and development within an inspiring organization. The social and behavioral sciences play a leading role in addressing the major societal challenges faced by the world, the Netherlands and Amsterdam, now and in the future.

To work at the University of Amsterdam is to work in a discerning, independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

In our teaching and research we adopt the view that good social science teaching and research requires a staff which reflects the diversity of society. We want to encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply as we are striving for a more diverse staff composition.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.