Research Assistantship (80%, 1y) in Philosophy and Digital Humanities

The Axiom Group investigates the dynamics of scientific concepts such as truth, explanation, (logical) form and organism in historical texts from 18^th-20^th century Europe. These concepts are central to axiomatic and semantics and relevant to logic, mathematics and biology.

The group is led by Arianna Betti and organised around the ERC Starting Grant Tarski~s Revolution: A New History ~ Semantics and Axiomatics from Bolzano to Tarski against the Background of the Classical Model of Science.

We are complementing our current research methodology with existing digital tools and host various projects in digital humanities, among which the ERC Proof of Concept GLAMMap, the CLARIN-NL project PhilosTEI and the text-mining project Phil@scale, in collaboration with computer scientists, computational linguists and librarians, and projects such as Europeana and WorldCat.

As of 1 September 2013, the Axiom Group will be based at the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam/Institute of Logic, Language, and Computation (ILLC). We also belong to and collaborate closely with The Network Institute at the VU University Amsterdam, an interdisciplinary institute connecting mathematics & informatics with social sciences and humanities.  We have an extended international network of contacts and joint research & teaching initiatives.

Job description

We are looking for a Research Assistant (RA) to support our projects. The ideal candidate is a born organiser: a flexible, accurate, highly team-oriented person, capable of working independently, of quickly adjusting to changes of plan, with outstanding social and communicative skills. The RA supports the internal and the external workings of the Axiom group by monitoring and taking care of the more practical and collaborative aspects of its  internal workings, as well as of its external, digital presence in the internet. The main tasks of the RA fall into three categories:

1. ICT and social media technical support;
2. Personal Assistantship & PR;
3. Research Assistantship proper.

The tasks include, but are not limited to, updating the website creatively, finding relevant literature for papers in philosophy and digital humanities, proofreading documents, investigating opportunities to improve research collaboration, (co-)attract attention to calls for funding or for papers, (co)organizing events (such as conferences and research meetings), taking minutes, drafting reports, booking tickets, answering e-mails, updating and setting up (simple) budgets, and do basic PR using social media creatively and resourcefully. ICT tasks are geared towards the use and adaptation of research team tools such as Papyrs and Zotero, and their integration with social media. This involves mashups, simple scripting, and investigating user forums for solutions. We also need assistance with non-trivial installation of software, including new software developed within the group itself.

By working closely with a diverse, interdisciplinary and dynamic research group as a Research Assistant you will receive valuable direct and indirect research training, and develop skills which are relevant for a future career in academia. Depending on qualifications and entity of contributions, you might be invited to co-author original papers. Moreover, this job enables you to enlarge your network, since you are expected to take active part in the (inter)national events and meetings that you (co-)organise, as well as (co)representing the group to various events, for instance by presenting posters.

Requirements

• A MA or MSc in philosophy, logic, digital humanities or other relevant field;
• knowledge of MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint (and/or Apple equivalents) and reference software (such as Mendeley and Zotero);
• scripting abilities and experience with HTML or similar (or the willingness to learn this independently);
• experience with social media, including creative (micro)blogging;
• outstanding social & communicative skills;
• being able and willing to work in a team and an interdisciplinary setting;
• excellent, preferably near-native, English.

Our team is international, diverse, gender-balanced and flexible regarding working times, habits and team organization.

We aim to start the position no later than 15 September 2013.

Further information

For additional information please contact:

• Prof. Dr. Arianna Betti at the Axiom Group
• Digital humanities 

Appointment

The appointment will be initially for 2 months. After satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, it can be extended for a total duration of 12 months. Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €2,427 to €3,831 gross per month (scale 9 or 10) depending on qualifications and experience. The Collective Employment Agreement (CAO) of the Dutch Universities is applicable.

Given the diversity of the tasks to be carried out, this position might be split among two or more people. 

Location: Amsterdam.

Job application

Applicants are requested to write a letter in which they describe their abilities and motivation. The letter should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and two references. Please indicate clearly in your cv the languages you know and at what level. All these should be grouped in one PDF attachment.

Applications should be submitted electronically by clicking ~Apply Now~ and stating the job vacancy number in the subject field. Completed applications should be submitted by 23.59 hours (CEST) on 19 August 2013.

No agencies please