比利时布鲁塞尔自由大学2023年招聘博士后

比利时布鲁塞尔自由大学2023年招聘博士后

布鲁塞尔自由大学（Free University of Brussels）坐落于比利时王国与欧盟共同的首都布鲁塞尔东南部，是一座拥有悠久历史的著名大学。布鲁塞尔自由大学建校于1834年，后因比利时语言纷争，于1970年拆分为法语布鲁塞尔自由大学（Universite libre de Bruxelles，简称ULB）、荷语布鲁塞尔自由大学（Vrije Universiteit Brussel，简称VUB），分别用法语和荷兰语作为主要授课语言。两校共用“布鲁塞尔自由大学”这一名称，联系较为广泛，但是实际上两校为各自独立的教学实体。两所学校校均为欧洲著名的综合性、研究型大学，具有一流的教学和科研水平。百年办学历史中，布鲁塞尔自由大学共有4位校友获得诺贝尔奖，包括13年获得诺贝尔物理学奖的比利时理论物理学家弗朗索瓦・恩格勒。

Postdoctoral grant 'Digital humanities' - ERC-project 'VERITRACE'

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Belgium

June 30, 2023

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Postdoctoral grant 'Digital humanities' - ERC-project 'VERITRACE'

Category: Academic Staff & Researchers

1 - Working at the VUB

Freedom, equality and solidarity have been central to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel for over more than 50 years. These values are also very much alive on our campuses, among students and staff alike. Here you will find a colourful mix of personalities who all have one thing in common: they are innovators pur sang who are 100% their authentic selves. With some 4.000 employees spread over 4 campuses, we are the largest Dutch-speaking employer in Brussels, the vibrating international capital of the European Union.

The VUB is a humanist university. Teaching and research at the VUB are grounded in the principles of free inquiry with an eye to humanistic values. We consider each person to be free, equal, and connected. Free to form an opinion based on free research , without regard to arguments based purely on authority. Equal in the sense that no one is more or less than another , regardless of social or ethnic origin. And connected because we all live together , face the same challenges, and want to be treated with respect.

The VUB is autonomous and managed democratically. As such, we guarantee fundamental freedoms within our university, as well as the right of the university community to be involved in making and checking university policy.

2 - Position description

The Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte , Department History, Archeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics , is looking for a postdoctoral researcher with a grant.

More concretely your work package, for the validation of your doctoral research , contains:

You will take part in the ERC-funded project 'Traces de la Verité: the reappropriation of ancient wisdom in early modern natural philosophy' aka VERITRACE (HORIZON ERC-2022-StG, 101076836), led by Prof. Dr. Cornelis J. Schilt.

VERITRACE seeks to understand how the concept of ancient wisdom - prisca sapientia - and its associated writings which emerged from the Italian Renaissance influenced the foundations of modern science. Nicolaus Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and many other natural philosophers of the early modern period ascribed to this tradition and voraciously studied editions of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Chaldean Oracles, and other related texts; yet we have hardly any idea how exactly their own knowledge-making endeavours were influenced by these writings, or by the idea that knowledge itself was not new, but old. VERITRACE will address this question by deploying state-of-the- art techniques for digital analysis on several large-scale digitized corpora to trace exactly how these texts and the general idea of a prisca sapientia returned in early modern natural philosophical writings, with what sentiment they were discussed, and the influence of particular key-moments in the scholarly discussion of these texts on their overal perception. More detailed information, including the full project proposal (which candidates are strongly encouraged to consult) can be found on the project website.

As a postdoctoral researcher with VERITRACE, you will be part of a dynamic and growing team of historians and philosophers of knowledge and Digital Humanities specialists in the heart of Brussels. Unlike many other historical projects, VERITRACE is truly a team-effort. From data-discussions to the selection of promising case-studies to be further explored, and from the writing of papers, chapters, and site content, to the creation of informative data-visualizations, all of these involve full team collaboration. Through frequent meetings in which we discuss results, strategy and planning, infused by periodic consultation with domain specialists, you will contribute to the succesful implementation of the data-driven research that forms the heart of VERITRACE.

Together with the PI, as the resident digital humanities specalist you will be responsible for the setup and expansion of the project's digital infrastructure and the development of its research toolbox, including but not limited to the various APIs, databases, visualisations, project sites, and so on. You will be actively developing code (preferably in Python) to deploy Latent Semantic Analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and/or other methods for topic modelling onto the project's large-scale data sets consisting of over 500,000 OCR'd books published between 1540 and 1728, from various databases, and approximating one hundred billion words in total, in seven European languages. Moreover, you will help develop a model for sentiment analysis for each of these languages, together with the team's historical language specialists. You will (co-)publish about the development of these methods and their application to Renaissance and early modern textual materials in natural language processing and data science journals, but also in digital humanities and more traditionally history/philosophy oriented outlets.

For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.

3 - Profile

What do we expect from you?

You hold a doctorate (PhD or DPhil) in informatics, natural language processing, digital humanities, or equivalent, ideally with proven experience in working with Renaissance and/or early modern textual materials and the challenges these bring when it comes to data analysis.

・ You are 'fluent' in Python (including Jupyter), JavaScript, JSON, and/or similar;

・ You have ample experience with data visualization and webpresentation;

・ You are an expert in topic modelling (LSA/LDA);

・ You have previously worked with (text-based) big data;

・ You have experience with (OCR'd) Renaissance and early modern textual materials and the challenges they bring;

・ You are fluent in English, both oral and written.

・ You have not had a residence or employment in Belgium for a period exceeding 12 months in the 36-month period preceding the start date of the postdoctoral scholarship.

4 - Offer

Are you going to be our new colleague?

You'll be offered a full-time postdoctoral scholarship , for 12months (extendable up to max. 36 months, on condition of the positive evaluation of the research activities), with planned starting date 01/10/2023.

You'll receive a grant linked to one of the scales set by the government.

At the VUB, you're guaranteed an open, involved and diverse workplace where you are offered opportunities to (further) build on your career.

As well as this, you'll enjoy various benefits:

・ Full reimbursement for your home-work commute with public transport according to VUB-policy, or compensation if you come by bike;

・ Cost-free hospitalisation insurance ;

・ The space to form your job content and continuously learn via VUB LRN;

・ Excellent facilities for sport and exercise ;

・ Ecocheques ;

・ Delicious meals at attractive prices in our campus restaurants ;

・ An open, family-friendly work environment where attention is paid to work- life balance, and exceptional holiday arrangements with 35 days of leave (based on a fulltime contract).5 - Interested?

Is this the job you've been dreaming of?

Send us ONLINE and at the latest on 23/06/2023 :

・ your recent CV (2 pages max);

・ your letter of motivation, explaining why you would be the ideal candidate for this position (2 pages max);

・ a two-page description of the sub-project you would like to develop as part of your postdoctoral research;

・ a writing sample of 8,000 - 10,000 words (NB ideally, the sample is a data-driven research output available online and open access; if so, it suffices to include the URL with the letter of motivation);

・ the highest degree you've attained (not applicable for VUB alumni).

Do you have questions about the job content? Contact Prof. Dr. Cornelis J. Schilt at cschilt@vub.be.

Applicants will be informed of their results no later than 30 June 2023. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed between Monday 10 and Wednesday 12 July 2023, all remotely.

Would you like to know what it's like to work at the VUB? Go to www. vub.ac.be/vacatures and find all there is to know about our campuses, benefits, strategic goals and your future colleagues.