The Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication (ACLC), one of the six research schools of the Faculty of Humanities, currently has a vacant PhD position in cooperation with the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. We invite applications from excellent candidates who wish to conduct research on irony in a political context and its logical and linguistic properties.

Political irony in public discourse (e.g., in political satire) is often misunderstood, and appreciated only by recipients in agreement with the speaker. Irony may be marked in various ways, for instance through prosody and hyperbole, but the role and form of such markers is unclear. Our project comprises three stages, in which we study

1. the use of irony markers through computational analysis;
2. their functions through cognitive modeling, and
3. their communicative effects through experiments.

Together, these findings enrich theories on language, communication and cognition, and help in assessing the ways in which irony leads to misinformation and polarization. The project is highly interdisciplinary, combining elements from the linguistics literature on irony and prosody with communication-scientific insights into political satire and cognitive-scientific insights into processing.

Your tasks will include:

• conducting several studies using (1) quantitative, computer-automated text analysis, (2) cognitive modeling, and (3) experimental methods;
• completion and defense of a PhD thesis within four years;
• working in an interdisciplinary research team;
• regular presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• publication of peer-reviewed articles;
• participation in the training program of the research school;
• performing junior teaching duties in the bachelor program on Cognition, Language and Communication (CLC).

• MSc/MA (or equivalent) in a relevant field, e.g. linguistics, communication science, psychology, or cognitive science, with excellent grades. A research master is preferred. Substantial knowledge of at least one of the fields that compose our project, as well as the ability to understand approaches/literature from other disciplines, is required;

• excellent (interdisciplinary) research skills;

• programming skills in R or Python;

• excellent academic writing and presentation skills;

• excellent communication, social and organizational skills;

• open to working in an interdisciplinary team;

• high proficiency in English.

You will be appointed at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. The appointment is for 4 years for 38 hours per week (1 fte) under the terms of employment currently valid for the Faculty. In the first instance, a contract will be given for 12 months, with an extension for the following 36 months on the basis of a positive evaluation. The intended starting date of the contract is as soon as possible after acceptance of the job offer. The gross monthly salary will be €2,266 during the first year to €2,897 during the fourth year, based on 38 hours per week, in accordance with the Collective Employment Agreement of Dutch universities.

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.

http://www.uva.nl/en/home

Faculty of Humanities

Research at the Faculty of Humanities is carried out by six research schools under the aegis of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. The Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication (ACLC), one of the six research schools, currently has a vacant PhD position in cooperation with the Institute for Logic, Language and Communication.

http://www.uva.nl/en/faculties/faculteit-der-geesteswetenschappen/faculty-of-humanities.html?origin=1cnbpyIQQACPTlEmA0qX3g