Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a long-term difference in society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has over 45,000 students, more than 7,000 employees and a turnover of around SEK 7 billion.
The Department of Information Technology has a leading position in research and education in a wide spectrum of areas, from information retrieval and methods for applying computers in a variety of contexts such as social network analysis, data science, and machine learning; to construction of computer systems, via programming of computers, storage and handling of data. The Department currently has about 300 employees, including 120 teachers and 110 PhD students. More than 4,000 students take one or more courses at the department each year. More info: https://www.it.uu.se.
We seek a postdoctoral fellow in computational social science for the analysis of online disinformation to lead the work on a recently funded EU project.
The successful candidate will be hosted by the Computing Science Division and will join the Uppsala University Information Laboratory (InfoLab), a growing interdisciplinary research group doing basic and applied research on the extraction of knowledge from data at the intersection of data mining, social network analysis and computational social science.
More information about working and living in Sweden is available at this link.
Please, don’t self-select out because your experience does not perfectly match the topic of the opening or because of the Nordic perspective of the project. We read all applications looking for potential, plus prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages or culture is not required.
Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at Uppsala University
Duties
The NORDIS project aims at the creation of a Nordic observatory for digital media and information with the goal of detecting and analysing disinformation campaigns as well as producing content to support mainstream and local media and public authorities in exposing harmful disinformation campaigns. The interdisciplinary team includes three academic institutions besides Uppsala University with expertise in social media analysis and media literacy – Aarhus University (Denmark), University of Bergen (Norway) and Helsinki University (Finland) – as well as the main fact-checkers from the participating countries.
Your role in the project will be to lead the research efforts of Uppsala University in developing new computational methodologies to improve the understanding of how problematic information and the way in which it is propagated differs from other types of information in the context of Nordic social media usage.
This postdoctoral position is a 2-year career-development appointment focused on research, and includes a limited amount of teaching (20%). The ideal starting date is December 2021 or soon after.
Requirements
To qualify for an employment as a postdoctor you must have a PhD degree or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in Computer Science or a computational discipline related to Data Science. The PhD degree must have been obtained no more than three years prior to the application deadline. The three year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.
A requirement for employment is documented experience in social media and online data research, either method development or computational analysis.
Prior knowledge of Scandinavian languages or culture is not required, but proficiency in English (spoken and written) is a requirement.
Additional qualifications
Experience in studying online information disorders is meriting.
About the employment
The employment is a temporary position according to central collective agreement. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date as soon as possible or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala
The application must contain:
- A cover letter briefly describing your motivation for applying for this position and project, and indicating the earliest possible employment date (max 1 page).
- A curriculum vitae (CV).
- A copy of relevant diplomas and transcripts (translated into Swedish or English).
- A list of publications.
- Up to five selected publications in electronic format.
- A research statement describing how your past and current research experience can contribute to this project (max 2 pages).
- Contact information for two references.
For further information about the position, please contact: Matteo Magnani (matteo.magnani@it.uu.se) or Davide Vega (davide.vega@it.uu.se).
Please submit your application by 1 November 2021, UFV-PA 2021/3557.
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Please do not send offers of recruitment or advertising services.
Submit your application through Uppsala University’s recruitment system.
Placement: Department of Information Technology
Type of employment: Full time , Temporary position longer than 6 months
Pay: Fixed salary
Number of positions: 1
Working hours: 100%
Town: Uppsala
County: Uppsala län
Country: Sweden
Union representative: Seko Universitetsklubben seko@uadm.uu.se
ST/TCO tco@fackorg.uu.se
Saco-rådet saco@uadm.uu.se
Number of reference: UFV-PA 2021/3557
Last application date: 2021-11-01