We have a PhD position to fill in the newly formed group CALM (Coalgebra, Algebra, and Logical Methods) at the Department of Computer Science, University of Salzburg. The position is for 4 years, with all benefits (and a small teaching obligation in year 2 and year 3). The topic of research will be fixed based on the joint interests of the candidate and the supervisor, within the mentioned areas. 

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, until the position is filled -- ideally before August 2026. Please send your (for now informal) application with a CV and your research interests directly to

The two presentations examine how generative AI systems are haunted by the visual pasts they absorb, from war imagery amplified across social platforms to personal photos scraped into training datasets at incomprehensible scales. Marloes Geboers traces how platforms and algorithmic amplification shape what gets counted and recycled into synthetic imaginaries, while Gabriel Pereira tinkers with the automated pipelines that produce AI slop, surfacing the layers of mediation buried in them. Together, we ask what critical and creative possibilities emerge when we confront, rather than look away from, the spectral afterlives of the contemporary, algorithmic visual culture.

For the full abstracts of the talks and the zoom link, please visit the PEPTalks website.

In this session, we will explore how cultural taste and everyday choices are modeled, shaped and shifted through data, platforms and AI. Presenters will examine how digital traces and recommender systems reconfigure classical understandings of taste and how algorithmic mediation intervenes in what people come to like and choose. Drawing on work in cultural sociology, consumer research and recommender-system design, the session brings together perspectives on algorithmically mediated taste and recommendations, from music to food, highlighting how algorithms not only reflect but also transform preferences. The session invites reflection on how abstract notions of “taste” are operationalized, nudged and negotiated in AI-driven environments.

The event if followed by drinks!