Postdoctoral Position in Language

The position is full-time and fixed-term for 2 years starting from 1 January 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Introduction
The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary research team in the context of the DFF Sapere Aude project Racialized Motherhood. Our team works to advance our understanding of the diachronic development of gendered and racialized language in historical documents produced between 1600 to 1900.

We are looking for candidates with a doctoral level background in computer science, machine learning, natural language processing, computational social science, computational linguistics, or similar fields, who are interested in working collaboratively to apply computational methods to the domain of Atlantic colonial history.

The postdoctoral researcher’s primary role will be to develop and implement NLP methodologies that can aid the team in effectively retrieving, processing, analyzing, and interpreting relevant historical documents. Most of these documents are available as scans of printed originals and were written in several languages. The ideal candidate will be someone enthusiastic about overcoming the challenges imposed by this type of textual data.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and apply NLP methodologies to historical texts in several languages.
• Collaborate with historians, computational linguists, or digital humanities researchers to ensure the successful integration of NLP techniques into historical research.
• Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals and present at international conferences.

Qualification requirements and assessment criteria

• A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Computational Social Science, or a related field with a focus on NLP.
• Demonstrated expertise in key NLP methodologies, including but not limited to:
  • Text preprocessing (tokenization, stemming, lemmatization)
  • OCR post correction
  • Named Entity Recognition (NER)
  • Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging
  • Syntactic and semantic parsing
  • Machine learning approaches (supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning)
  • Deep learning techniques (RNNs, CNNs, Transformers)
  • Information retrieval and extraction
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Topic modeling
  • Interpretable NLP

• Familiarity with historical textual data and willingness to tackle the challenges specific to this domain, such as:Proficiency in Python and other relevant programming languages such as R or Java, and experience with NLP libraries and frameworks like NLTK, spaCy, TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar.
  • Handling archaic language and obsolete terms
  • Dealing with OCR errors in digitized historical documents
  • Contextualizing historical events and linguistic usage over time
  • Ethically handling racialized and gendered language
• A strong publication record in NLP and computational linguistics conferences and journals.
• Familiarity with historical research methodologies and sources.
• Experience with collaborative, interdisciplinary research environments.
• An understanding of, and commitment to, incorporating perspectives from critical race theory, gender studies, and global history into research on NLP for historical textual data.
• Familiarity with languages other than English used in the Atlantic colonial context, such as, Papiamento, Haitian Creole, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, and others.

More information on careers at UCPH and the requirement for the different academic positions is available on: Career at The University of Copenhagen – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)

For more about postdoc positions and qualification requirements, see the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities: Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities (ufm.dk)

Applicants will primarily be assessed in relation to their research qualifications, including their publications, ability to conduct independent research and participate in research collaborations. In addition, the applicant’s proposal for a research approach (item 6 below) and research potential will be assessed in relation to the overall project described above.

Application
Applications must be submitted online in PDF or Word format. Click on the “Apply now” button at the bottom of this advertisement to apply.

Applications should be written in English and must include the following attachments:  

1. Letter of motivation highlighting qualifications listed above
2. CV
3. Documentation of your qualifications (PhD diploma) 
4. Complete publication list. The list must contain publication dates, be structured systematically, and divided into the following categories:

• Peer-reviewed publications:
  • Monographs and anthologies
  • Articles in journals
  • Book chapters/anthology contributions, etc.
• Non-peer-reviewed publications:
  • Publications disseminating research findings, etc.

1. Two samples of your publications demonstrating knowledge relevant to the project, uploaded as attachments. Please mark the sample publications with an asterisk on the publication list.
2. A proposal for your research approach to addressing the intersection between NLP and questions of racialization and gendering (500 to 700 words). It will be considered an asset if you include reflections about how your own lived experience of racialization or gendering informs your ethical positioning regarding this work.

Applicants are invited to familiarize themselves with the faculty's strategic landmarks here: Strategic landmarks – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)

Salary and terms of employment
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). In addition, a total pension contribution of 17,1 % will be allocated. It is possible to negotiate salary supplements on an annual basis.

The recruitment process
Once the deadline for applications has expired, the Head of the Appointment Committee will consider advice from the members of the Appointment Committee and select applicants for assessment. All applicants will be notified whether they have been shortlisted. The Head of Department will set up an expert Assessment Committee to consider the applications. The selected applicants will be informed who is serving on the committee. They will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment of their application before the appointment is announced.

Further information on the recruitment process at University of Copenhagen can be found here: Recruitment process – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. For more on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University’s participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, see HR Excellence in Research – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)

International applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about these services as well as information on entering and working in Denmark here: For international researchers at the University of Copenhagen – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)

Contact information
Information about the recruitment process is available from HR, email: hrsc@hrsc.ku.dk, please refer to ID number: 211-1906/24-2I #1.

Additional information about the position can be obtained from Dr. Natália da Silva Perez, email: nsp@hum.ku.dk, phone +31 10 408 1841

The deadline for applications is 23:59 [CEST] on 15 October 2024.

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered.

Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.