5 positions for Research Fellow in Cultural Data Analytics

5 positions for Research Fellow in Cultural Data Analytics

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. 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.

Tallinn University has announced an open competition for five positions of Research Fellow in Cultural Data Analytics in H2020 funded ERA Chair project CUDAN to commence as follows: 

2 positions in Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School; 2 positions in the School of Humanities 1 position in the School of Digital Technologies 

Start of the employment contract is negotiable: between 15.06.2020- 01.09.2020. The duration of the contract is up to 3,5 years. 

Funded through the European Commission, the designated CUDAN ERA Chair holder, Professor Maximilian Schich, together with the CUDAN project team, the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School, the School of Humanities, and the School of Digital Technologies at Tallinn University, is looking for research fellows in the area of Cultural Data Analytics to deepen our understanding of the nature of cultural interaction, cultural dynamics, and cultural evolution, doing research while nurturing multidisciplinary cross-fertilization. Through this recruiting, the CUDAN project will bring together a group of at least 5 research fellows and 5 PhD students to harness the rare high-risk/high-gain opportunity of combining multidisciplinary science, computation, information design, with art and cultural history, cultural media studies, and cultural semiotics, in close collaboration and co-authorship. The newly established research group will form the core of the CUDAN Open Lab, which in addition to research aims to function as a forum for intellectual exchange, and as an incubator for follow-up projects. Ideally, the research fellows contribute aspects of network science, complexity science, science of science, computational social science, machine learning/AI, information science, data science, data visualization, user experience design, and/or digital humanities to the locally existing expertise in art and cultural history, cultural media studies, cultural semiotics, and digital technology. Beyond the local environment, the CUDAN initiative will also provide the research fellows and PhD students with the opportunity to work closely with high-profile external partners in multidisciplinary science, cultural heritage institutions, and stakeholders in the cultural industries in Estonia, in Europe, and around the globe. More information on the CUDAN project, see here.

We are particularly interested to work on the following research challenges:

• Using machine learning to analyze images and/or audio-visual material over historical time scales, to reveal patterns and biases in large data collections through a kind of “artificial neural science”.

• Using linguistic topic modelling and/or bi-partite network science to analyze the structure and evolution of large corpora of texts and/or classifications, feeding into a “palaeontology of memes”.

• Using temporal multilayer network analysis and/or topological data analysis to make sense of large cultural knowledge graphs, through capturing fundamental emerging patterns of “network multiplicity”.

• Combining the analysis of multimedia, unstructured, and structured data in a so-called embed-everything-approach that could result in a kind of “multidimensional fluid-dynamics of meaning”.

In addition, we aim to nurture the Cultural Analytics community through addressing the following challenges:

• Mapping and characterizing the achievements, opportunities, and limits of Cultural Data Analytics, ideally resulting in actionable maps of the relevant “multidisciplinary ski area”.

• Enabling and optimizing the CUDAN Open Lab experience through a conscious effort of user experience design, observing and designing workflows, events, and other forms of intentional “academic mixing”.

Candidates that are motivated and have the capacity to spearhead one of these aspects are strongly encouraged to apply!

Requirements for the candidate (incl. professional experience) Candidates for the research fellow position shall meet the requirements of career level II of research fellow (