FACULTY POSITION AT KU LEUVEN (ref. ZAP-2020-274)
Part-time Academic Position in Digital Humanities (80%)

The KU Leuven Arts Faculty offers an 80% tenure-track position in Digital Humanities with a focus on computational methodologies, data analysis and data visualisation in the field of cultural-historical studies. Research in the Arts Faculty covers a wide range of disciplines that are clustered in six Research Units: History; Archaeology, Art history and Musicology; Literary Studies; Linguistics; Translation Studies; East-Asian and Arabic Studies. Researchers in the Faculty have developed and implemented digital methodologies and technologies in their domains for a considerable time and are engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations both within KU Leuven, which boasts a strong comprehensive profile, as with various institutions and projects outside the university. To consolidate and strengthen these efforts and reinforce the Faculty’s digital humanities profile we are seeking an outstanding candidate with an active research agenda and technical background in the application of computational methodologies, coding, data analysis, data visualisation, and network analysis in one of the cultural-historical domains of the Faculty. Depending on your scholarly background and main discipline you will become a member of the Research Group in which your own research has most impact and your interests and expertise can best be utilised and nurtured. Yet we also foster the ambition to strengthen digital research on a cross-disciplinary collaborative basis, which implies streamlining the adoption of common and transferable digital methodologies and technologies, both in research and degree education. Your research will focus on computational methodology as a research area in its own right but reach out to colleagues from different disciplines within the Faculty. You will also further collaboration with other departments and research groups university-wide (with, for example, the HCI Research Group or Leuven AI). You will be expected to teach at the BA, MA and PhD level (see below), and give public visibility to the added value of computational approaches in the cultural-historical fields. The appointment is expected to start on 01.10.2021.

Duties

Research

We are looking for a researcher whose main interest is the development of transferable digital technologies and computational methods in the large field of cultural-historical studies. Candidates need to be well-versed in programming languages, data structures and visualisation techniques applied to the humanities. In particular, acquaintance with some of the following or similar methods is an added value: 

• data visualisation

• linked data

• network analysis

• distant reading, stylometry, digital text analysis

• topic modelling 

• human computer interaction

You will monitor and facilitate the transformational impact of data driven research and digital approaches in existing practices in the humanities for acquisition, transformation, analysis, presentation and dissemination of research data. You will develop an excellent research programme in your field but also act as a point of contact with partners in other research groups in the Arts Faculty, exchange and sustain the interoperability of research data in the Arts and Humanities. You support and further expand national and international research collaborations of your research group, achieve scientific output that adheres to the highest international standard. You are able to acquire competitive funding from local, national and international funding sources and establish a solid presence in Digital Humanities networks such as Dariah and Europeana. 

Education

Education

The teaching  responsibilities contain the following elements. On BA level you will coordinate the faculty-wide BA courses ‘Data Science for the Humanities’ (‘L-Dataverwerking’) and ‘Information Strategies’ (‘L-Informatievaardigheden’). 

In collaboration with the Faculty of Science, the Arts Faculty offers an international MA in Digital Humanities. As a member of the Programme Advisory Committee with colleagues from both Faculties you will be one of the driving forces to  expand this MA programme and attract students with the right profile and building a network of apprenticeship opportunities. You will conduct the course ‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’ and teach another subject in line with your own research specialism. 

You will provide specialized training (linked to your expertise) to PhD students in their doctoral programme. 

You will develop your teaching approach in keeping with KU Leuven’s vision on activating and researched-based education, and make use of the possibilities for educational professionalization offered by the faculty and the university.

Service

You are prepared to provide scientific and societal services and take on administrative and management duties. You play an active part in profiling the Arts Faculty  towards new students and the wider professional field by participating in open days and networking events. As a senior researcher you will coach junior researchers and supervise (inter)national PhD students. 

Profile

You have a PhD in one of the disciplines of the Faculty of Arts with a proven track record in Digital Humanities methods and applications or a PhD in Computer science with a proven track record in Humanities research. Your research shows a strong focus on computational methodologies, data analysis and data visualisation in cultural-historical studies. 

You have a strong research profile. The quality of your research is proven by publications in leading international journals and conferences in your scholarship. International experience is an important advantage.

You have qualities related to academic education and are able to take on a range of educational tasks. You possess organisational skills and have a cooperative attitude. You are willing to collaborate with researchers from different cultural-historical disciplines in the Faculty. 

Proficiency in English is required. The official language used at KU Leuven is Dutch. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in meetings. Before teaching courses in Dutch or English, you will be given the opportunity to learn Dutch, respectively English, to the required standard.

Offer

We offer an 80% employment in an intellectually challenging environment. KU Leuven is a research-intensive, comprehensive internationally oriented university that carries out both fundamental and applied scientific research. It has been hailed “Top European innovation university of the year” in the Reuters ranking and offers research disciplines and education in Biomedical, Science and Engineering as well as Humanities and Social Sciences. It is highly focused on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and strives for international excellence. The university actively works together with research partners in Belgium and abroad and provides its students with an academic education that is based on high-quality scientific research. The university has very advanced ICT and Media services and a strong centre for statistics and data science. 

You will work in Leuven, a historic, dynamic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam. As a junior researcher you will be appointed as tenure-track assistant professor (tenure track docent) for a period of 5 years, starting October 1, 2021. After this period and a positive evaluation, you obtain a tenured position as associate professor (hoofddocent).

KU Leuven is well set to welcome foreign professors and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration & administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, and partner career coaching.

To facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase a starting grant of 100.000 euro is offered to new professors without substantial other funding, appointed for at least 50%.

Interested?

A full description of the vacancy can be found at:

https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/56116357?hl=en&lang=en

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Anke Gilleir, tel.: +32 16 32 48 78, mail: anke.gilleir@kuleuven.be. For problems with online applying, please contact solliciteren@kuleuven.be.

KU Leuven places great importance on research integrity and ethical conduct and will therefore ask you to sign an integrity statement upon appointment.

You can apply for this job no later than February 22, 2021 via the online application tool

(http://www.kuleuven.be/eapplyingforjobs/56116357).

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at diversiteit.HR@kuleuven.be.