Founded in 1640, the University of Helsinki is one of the top 100 multidisciplinary research universities in the world. The Faculty of Arts is Finland’s oldest institution for teaching and research in the humanities and the largest in terms of the structure and range of disciplines. It is also a significant international community fostering research, education and cultural interaction.

HELDIG (http://heldig.fi/), recently founded as a major strategic profiling initiative at the university and the Faculty of Arts, is the university’s centre for digital humanities. One of the objectives of HELDIG is to develop cutting edge interdisciplinary research groups, where computer scientists collaborate with researchers in the humanities and social sciences to develop tools and algorithms capable of tackling the complexity of humanities data and research questions.

The Faculty of Arts invites applications for the position of a

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN COMPUTER SCIENCE / DIGITAL HUMANITIES

for a three-year fixed-term period (the starting date of which can be negotiated) in the area of applied interaction design, data science, language technology, digital humanities or computational social science. Particularly, we desire people whose interests would align with developing tools and workflows to study complex phenomena in massive collections of text and structured data. Application areas include how the relationship between politics and media has developed in the 21st century, how claims to fame are argued in EU food origin protection requests, what the geographical and dialectical distribution of themes in folk poetry is, how the public sphere developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and more.

An appointee to the position must hold a doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields, as well as have the ability to conduct independent scientific research and possess the teaching skills required for the position. The candidate should have a proven capability to publish in scientific journals, have excellent analytical and methodological skills, and be able to work both independently and as a part of a multidisciplinary scientific community. We particularly appreciate applicants with a proven track record in multidisciplinary collaboration and an aptitude for applied research and development.

The successful candidate will become part of a multidisciplinary research group that interacts with multiple national and international projects inside the remit of digital humanities/computational social sciences, investigating the complexities in data and process the projects encounter, and then devising tools, algorithms and workflows capable of tackling that complexity (please see more at http://heldig.fi/hsci).

The main duties will include full-time research and participation in external funding applications. The post will require both independent and collaborative scholarly publishing, as well as teaching (5-10% of the annual working time) and other tasks. All candidates are expected to have excellent skills in written and oral English.

The salary for the position is based on level 5 of the job requirement scheme for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee shall be paid a salary component based on personal work performance. The annual gross salary range varies between 40,000 and 50,000 euros, depending on the appointee’s qualifications and experience. There is a six-month trial period for the position.

Please submit your application as a single pdf file which includes the following documents in English:
1) A curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages)
2) A list of publications
3) A statement (max 3 pages) outlining how the applicant’s expertise could contribute to the specified research area
4) Sample publications or other samples of scholarly writing.

Further information on the position can be obtained from professor Eetu Mäkelä, eetu.makela@helsinki.fi.
For information on the university as an employer, please see: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/university/working-at-the-university.
Please submit your application, together with the required attachments, through the University of Helsinki Recruitment System via the link Apply for job. Applicants who are employees of the University of Helsinki are requested to leave their application via the SAP HR portal.

In case you need assistance with the University’s electronic recruitment system or SAP HR portal, please contact recruitment@helsinki.fi.