ASCA currently has a vacant Postdoc researcher position as part of the broader field Humane AI. Within this field the focus is on data and platforms for social, cultural and economic innovation. ASCA is one of the five Research Schools within the
Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research.
What are you going to do?This postdoc project, proposed by the Global Digital Cultures (GDC) research priority area
https://globaldigitalcultures.uva.nl/, aims to expand the horizon of platform studies research. The objectives are to build a global scholarly network that develops research on platforms in particular regions, most prominently Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and that uses this research as an opportunity for theory building. Rather than developing universalizing theories based on case studies in the US and Europe, the idea is to diversify the geographies of theory. To understand how platforms affect social and cultural relations, and how they employ machine learning in doing so, we need to multiply our frames of reference beyond contexts that privilege Silicon Valley and its cultural ideals of individualism and libertarianism.
As the postdoc in the project, you are expected to pursue these objectives of network-building and theory-building through concrete research activities that involve critically revisiting central concepts in the study of platforms and evolving cultural practices (e.g. precarity, diversity, public/private, authenticity, modernization, Global South/Global North). These activities might include:
- organizing an international workshop, identifying partner institutions, and soliciting research on platformization around the globe;
- editing a special issue with a similarly global scope;
- publishing a review article of literature on platformization beyond the global North;
- developing and publishing new research around key concepts based on case studies outside of Europe and North America;
- developing a larger research proposal (e.g. for ERC or NWO).
Developing these activities, the postdoc will closely work together with Prof. Thomas Poell, Prof. Jeroen de Kloet, Prof. dr. Stefania Milan, and Prof. Tobias Blanke within the Global Digital Cultures research group and research priority area. The postdoc will become a member of ASCA.
Your tasks and responsibilities:
- conducting research, presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences and publishing two single-authored, peer reviewed articles;
- participating in meetings of the project research group and developing a shared database;
- co-organising knowledge dissemination activities.