Ph.D. Candidate Trifecta Food History

What you will be doing
The mass scale digitization of sources provides the tantalising possibility of studying complex concepts and entities over long periods of time, across thousands or even millions of sources, and from a myriad of perspectives. However, automated methods for analysing these “big data” are inadequate for complex concepts because they have not confronted the fundamental challenges of identity (i.e. what are they exactly and how are they perceived), change (i.e. how have they evolved over time) and the long tail (i.e. what low-frequent contexts do they connect to). The ERC-funded TRIFECTA project will combine language technology and semantic web research to create a database that can be used to explore the cultural and societal contexts of contentious entities and concepts in the domain of food history.

You will work with a postdoctoral researcher on Tracing Contentious Entities and Concepts in Food History. In this sub-project, you and the postdoctoral researcher will develop technology to identify ingredients and food-related concepts from historical resources, as well as analysing how food habits and discourse around food have changed over time. On the digital methodological strand, this sub-project will study the impact of digital processing tools on the hermeneutical practice of historical research. For more information about the project, see: https://trifecta.dhlab.nl

What we are offering
You will be working in the Digital Humanities Lab, a research group at KNAW Humanities Cluster in Amsterdam. DHLab investigates and develops innovative, data-driven, and computationally strong methods for humanities research. We develop computational methods for connecting collections and resources, computational heuristics and tool criticism, and we aim to bridge qualitative and quantitative methods. The team publishes in diverse outlets such as Computational Humanities Research, Digital Humanities Quarterly, Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, Digital Humanities Benelux, and the Extended Semantic Web Conference.

During the project, you will be working towards your Ph.D. and receive further training in working in interdisciplinary digital humanities projects, preparing you for a career in research or innovation.

Your workplace
Our offices are located in a historical building in downtown Amsterdam. Researchers work together in projects and a shared office space and can choose to spend part of their time at home. DHLab aims to be an open and inquisitive, safe work environment where your input counts, not your job title. We value open conversations about pros and cons of a particular idea and approach based on content, not status.

For more information
Please contact: Dr. Marieke van Erp, principal investigator & DHLab department head

Application procedure
Please submit a CV, cover letter that includes a motivation on why you want to work on this project and a 1-page research statement. If you have one or more publications, include the publication that best represents your research. You will be able to upload this as a separate document after finishing the application in the system and you can log in with the account information that is sent to you by email.

Interviews will take place online on 14 May, 23 May or 7 June 2024.

For this job, you must be willing to move to the Netherlands and obtain a working proficiency of the Dutch language. The starting date of the position is between 1 September and 1 November 2024.

What you will be contributing

• You will bring an open-minded and collaborative attitude towards doing groundbreaking digital humanities research;
• You have a firm grasp on computational methods and are willing to achieve proficiency in historical research methods or you are a historian willing to achieve proficiency in computational methods;
• You will need to have finished your master’s degree in history, digital humanities, language technology, semantic web or a related field by the starting date of the project;
• Your English is excellent and you have or are willing to obtain a working proficiency in Dutch;
• Throughout the duration of the employment contract, you are a resident of the Netherlands.

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

Employment conditions

PhD student
On commencement of employment, the PhD candidate is placed in salary scale P0 €2,770 for the duration of 12 months. In years 2, 3 and 4, the salary of a PhD candidate increases to €3,539 (these are fixed amounts that can only be adjusted as a result of a CAO increase) . This excludes 8% vacation pay, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet and home working allowance and pension accrual with the ABP.

The KNAW offers its employees an excellent package of fringe benefits. A package that meets the various needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours per week it is possible to increase the number of days of vacation from 29 to 41 days per year (for full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the conditions of employment, please refer to the webpage: working at the KNAW.

Applying for a VOG can be part of the hiring procedure.

Diversity & Inclusion
The KNAW considers a working environment in which everyone feels welcome and valued of great importance. A work environment in which attention is paid to individual quality and where development opportunities are paramount. Together we strive for an inclusive culture where we embrace differences. We invite candidates who want to contribute to this with their background and experience. In case of equal suitability, preference will be given to the candidate who strengthens the diversity within the KNAW in this way.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

Humanities Cluster

About the HuC
The KNAW Humanities Cluster stands for innovative and interdisciplinary research in the humanities and heritage.

The KNAW Humanities Cluster is a collaboration of three institutes of the KNAW: the Huygens Institute for Dutch History and Culture, the International Institute of Social History and the Meertens Institute. In these institutes we conduct pioneering and excellent humanities research (history, ethnology, literature, linguistics) with the application of innovative methods, in which computer science plays an important role. The business office of the KNAW Humanities Cluster has housed operations in a central business office and supports these three institutes, as well as the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in their operations. The HuC has a joint Digital Infrastructure Department, a Digital Humanities Lab and NLLab.