The Digital Humanities Lab at the University of Basel is looking for a research assistant (with a doctorate) as of 1st September 2025 or earlier/later by arrangement.

The Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary institution at the University of Basel. Its task is to coordinate and promote research, teaching and infrastructure for questions of technological and digital worlds in the humanities and social sciences. It is also a central institution in Switzerland for the theory and practice of digital humanities and offers a master's degree and a doctorate in digital humanities. It has collaborative ties with several departments of the university, including (but not limited to) Departments of Arts, Media, and Philosophy, Languages and Literatures, History, Ancient Civilizations, Social Sciences, as well as the faculty of Psychology. There is a broad focus of research and teaching in the lab, including computational photography, media studies, science and technology studies, videogame studies, critical making and design, AI and society, computational social science, and psychology.

Your position
In addition to the academic qualification at the University of Basel (i.e. Habilitation or equivalent achievements) through your own research, the assistant's tasks include, in particular, participation in teaching (2 hours per week per semester), academic self-administration and collaboration in the supervision of students and the academic projects and events at the Digital Humanities Lab. You will have the opportunity to shape the directions of a burgeoning research group, and you will be expected to play a leading organizational role in designing research and outreach programs and events.

Your profile
This particular position will be associated with the professorship in digital humanities with a focus on Artificial Intelligence held by Prof. Dr. Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal. The prerequisite is a doctorate (by the time of appointment) in digital humanities, computer science, literary studies, media studies, science and technology studies, information studies, or other related disciplinary configurations. We are open in terms of your research focus, as long as it includes some form of hands-on digital practice as a central component, but an engagement with critical AI studies, design approaches, game studies, code studies, and/or ethnographic frameworks would be welcomed. Also desirable would be experience (or interest) in local and global community building, academic and para-academic event organization, and/or visual design. Strong language and communication skills in English are a requirement. Additionally, a strong command of the German language is desirable.

We offer you
The position is limited to two years for postdocs with the possibility of an extension for a further four years (after successful evaluation), bringing the total to a possible six years. The University of Basel stands for excellence through diversity and is committed to equal opportunities and family friendliness. The institution thus welcomes candidates with diverse backgrounds and international profiles, and intends to provide administrative support for immigration procedures, if needed and feasible. We endeavour to provide members of our team with significant autonomy and mentorship in terms of their own research and future directions. Limited research and travel funds should also be available.

or the DHLab administration team at . For the first round of evaluations, the only mandatory application requirements are the following:

• A cover letter detailing the candidate's profile and why the candidate would be a good fit (max. 2 pages),
• an academic CV, and
• only one example of your research (this could be a written paper/article/chapter in pdf form or a link, in a text file, to a digital project that is active and available for us online to peruse). Please note that in case of a longer submission only the first 25 pages of the text file shall be considered.

We look forward to receiving your complete application by 15th Feb 2025