[Commlist] Job Opportunity - 2 Postdocs in Cultural Data Analytics at Tallinn University

Tallinn University seeks to hire two Research Fellows in Cultural Data 
Analytics, particularly in (1) Audiovisual Machine Learning, and (2) 
Cultural Dynamics, to work on ambitious, high-impact research at the 
CUDAN ERA Chair (chair holder Prof. Dr. Maximilian Schich). Start of the 
employment contract: 01.07.- 01.09.2021, duration of the contract is up 
to 31.12.2023. Deadline of submitting the application documents is 31st 
May, 2021.

One of the positions is in the Baltic Film, Media, and Arts School 
(https://www.tlu.ee/en/bfm) and the other is in the School of Digital 
Technologies (https://www.tlu.ee/en/dt).

General description of the field: Cultural Data Analytics

Successful candidates will join the CUDAN ERA Chair project in Cultural 
Data Analytics, which is funded by the European Commission in the 
Horizon 2020 research and innovation program with 2.5 million Euro 
(Grant no. 810961). The selected fellows will complement a highly 
multidisciplinary research group, currently consisting of 4 faculty, 4 
senior fellows, and 5 PhD Students. Current expertise includes art 
history, algorithmic curation, cultural history, cultural semiotics, 
computational linguistics, computer science, computational social 
science, creative industry studies, digital education, evolutionary 
economics, generative art, machine learning, media innovation, media 
policy, and network science. Bridging three university schools, the 
research group collaborates with high-profile academic partners that are 
spread across the globe, while cooperating with several public and 
private stakeholders. These include libraries, museums, media 
institutions, and open data providers. The research group activity forms 
the core of the CUDAN Open Lab, performing research while simultaneously 
functioning as a forum for intellectual exchange and meaningful academic 
mixing. Together, our aim is to systematically deepen our understanding 
of cultural interaction and dynamics from deep history to the present. 
We harness a rare high-risk/high-gain opportunity of combining 
cutting-edge computation, quantification, qualitative inquiry, critical 
and creative aesthetics, in close collaboration and co-authorship. Our 
core mission is to produce and publish exemplary proofs of concepts in 
high-impact papers and to act as an incubator for follow-up projects and 
applications, while cross-fertilizing knowledge and methods across 
disciplines and with external stakeholders. Successful candidates will 
be provided with data-science-grade laptops, conference travel funds, 
and opportunities to collaborate with international partners. The lab 
environment provides ergonomic co-working spaces with individual 
adjustable desks and secondary screens, large blackboards, 
state-of-the-art projection, video conferencing and HPC equipment. The 
working language of the CUDAN research group is English. For more 
information regarding our mission, group members, and ongoing events see 
https://cudan.tlu.ee.

Requirements for the candidate (incl professional experience):
The candidate must fulfil the requirements for the position of a 
research fellow stipulated in Annex 5 and respectively in Annex 9 and 10 
to the Employment Relations Rules 
(https://www.tlu.ee/sites/default/files/Personaliosakond/Documents/TLU_Employment_Relations_Rules%20%28annexes%29.pdf):
- A doctoral degree in a computational or quantitative area, such as 
computer science, information science, network science, physics, or 
mathematics, while demonstrating understanding or meaningful interest in 
socio-cultural phenomena. Alternatively, a PhD in a cultural research 
area, such as art history, computational linguistics, digital 
humanities, with a strong track record in computation or quantification.

- Demonstrated ability to produce (potentially) high-impact research and 
work with large-scale (socio-cultural) data, including corpora of visual 
and audiovisualmaterials, or capturing the structure and dynamics of 
multidimensional spaces of (cultural) meaning.
- Either strong skills in audiovisualmachine learning, in at least one 
of the following areas: Computer vision, deep learning, or pattern 
recognition; image segmentation & feature classification regarding 
objects, scenes, faces, poses, textures, etc. (aka iconography); 2vec or 
embed-everything approaches; latent-space cartography; multidimensional 
data analysis & visualization (manifold learning, diffusion maps, etc.); 
or another meaningful state-of-the-art application of machine learning 
that can be useful to make sense of large-scale visual or 
audiovisualdata or strong quantitative and computational skills, in at 
least one of the following areas: Data science, information science, or 
computational social science; socio-physics or reality mining; 
complexity science or network science; multilayer and temporal network 
analysis; higher-order graphs or topological data analysis; mathematical 
modeling(including ecology or socio-cultural dynamics); matrix cluster 
analysis (as found in network neuroscience, DNA microarray-analysis, or 
systems biology); multidimensional flow analysis or fluid dynamics; or 
another meaningful state-of-the-art application of computation and 
quantification that can be useful for making sense of cultural dynamics.

Desired skills:
- Experience in the acquisition and processing of large (cultural) 
datasets, including familiarity with data dumps, APIs, scraping, 
streaming, knowledge graph queries, and data integration.
- Advanced programming skills in at least one widely used language 
(e.g.Python, R, Julia, Processing, Javascript/D3, C++, or equivalent), 
including proficiency with libraries for data manipulation and analysis, 
machine learning, etc.
- Strong visual literacy and data visualization skills. Ability to read 
and produce high-quality scientific figures as found in 
multidisciplinary journals. Designing dynamic visualizations and 
interactive experiences is a plus.
- Preference will be for candidates who possess multidisciplinary 
competence and the necessary open-mindedness to bridge the so-called two 
worlds, where understanding implies qualification of specific 
complications and quantification of emerging complexity. The CUDAN ERA 
Chair project and Tallinn University is committed to gender, age, 
cultural, geographic, and disciplinary diversity.

Job responsibilities:
In accordance with Annexes 1 and 5 to the Employment Relations Rules 
(https://www.tlu.ee/sites/default/files/Personaliosakond/Documents/TLU_Employment_Relations_Rules%20%28annexes%29.pdf):
- Performing research in co-authorship with CUDAN research group members 
and external partners under the supervision of the CUDAN ERA Chair 
holder, with typical activities including research design, data 
acquisition, data preparation, data analysis, visualization, and the 
composition of figures and manuscripts.
- Publishing and assessing research results, ideally aiming for 
high-profile multidisciplinary journals and conferences.
- Participation in CUDAN Open Lab activities, including discussions with 
students, faculty, and external stakeholders, mutually building and 
sharing expertise, developing novel research ideas, and supporting the 
application for additional funding.
- Co-supervising and teaching CUDAN students.
- Openness and readiness to engage in multidisciplinary translation, 
within a diverse and international research group.

Language skills: English C1, Estonian is not required; if staying longer 
in Estonia, the candidate would need to acquire Estonian as a working 
language within 3 years in order to be able to participate in 
administrative tasks.

Start of the employment contract: 01.07.- 01.09.2021, duration of the 
contract is up to 31.12.2023. The exact date of start of the employment 
and other terms of the employment contract will be agreed with the 
winner of the competition.

Load: 1,0. The duties are approximately divided in (1) research (90%), 
(2) teaching (5%) and (3) internal and external service (5%).
Salary: to be agreed, but internationally competitive.
Location: Tallinn, Estonia.

The candidates are expected to submit the required applications 
documents (preferably in PDF-format) by May 31st, 2021 (incl) to 
Personnel Office of Tallinn University (Narvamnt25, room T-218, 10120, 
Tallinn, or digitally signed to (konkurss /at/ tlu.ee)) with the title 
“Academic competition”:
- a signed application-motivation letter addressed to the Rector, in 
which the candidate provides an overview of the aims that they will seek 
to realise in developing the field of research and teaching for the 
following five years of employment, incl. a brief statement of research 
experience and interests;
- the CV, incl. a list of research publications;
- copies of a document certifying the qualification required from the 
position, and its annexes;
- a link to or, if that is impossible, a file with the full text of one 
representative research publication;
- two letters of recommendation sent separately by the writers to 
(konkurss /at/ tlu.ee) by 31st May 2021.

Application documents shall be submitted in English.

Time-schedule of the competition and the selection procedure: 
https://www.tlu.ee/en/jobs#selection-procedure-and-time-schedule.

Additional information: Please refer your administrative questions to 
(konkurss /at/ tlu.ee) and questions on content to CUDAN ERA chair holder 
Maximilian Schich, (mxs /at/ tlu.ee) & CUDAN project coordinator Mariliis 
Niinemägi, (mariliis.niinemagi /at/ tlu.ee). Original post: 
https://cudan.tlu.ee/positions/.
---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------