University of Sydney
Top university
Just Landed
New Today
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Humanities and Philosophy of Science: AI-Powered Text Analysis University of Sydney in Australia
Degree Level
Postdoc
Field of study
Computer Science
Funding
Full-time, two-year fixed-term employment with potential extension to a third year. The base salary is AUD 117,936–125,896 at Academic Level A, plus 17% superannuation.
Deadline
Dec 6, 2026
Country
Australia
University
University of Sydney
Apply for this position
Keywords
Suggested positions
About this position
The University of Sydney is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Digital Humanities and Philosophy of Science to develop computational methods for analysing how concepts are used in academic writing, news media, social media, and other large text collections.
Based in the School of History and Philosophy of Science, the researcher will contribute to the ARC Discovery Projects Genes, germs and gender: the rise and impact of bioessentialism and Symbiotic Synergies: How the Body Became a Chimera (1950–2000). The projects investigate the development, circulation, and impact of conceptual and rhetorical patterns relating to science, biology, bodies, and gender.
The successful researcher will join an interdisciplinary group of philosophers, historians, psychologists, and scientists. Their work will provide empirical evidence for philosophical investigations by constructing and analysing corpora drawn from media, social media, and academic sources.
Research activities will include curating, cleaning, and structuring large text corpora; developing and validating machine-learning and large-language-model classification pipelines; designing prompting strategies; and interpreting computational outputs through philosophical and psychological theories. The role also involves contributing to peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and open-science resources such as publicly available code, data, and documentation.
This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of digital humanities, natural language processing, machine learning, bibliometrics, philosophy of science, and interdisciplinary conceptual research within a collaborative research environment.
Funding details
Full-time, two-year fixed-term employment with potential extension to a third year. The base salary is AUD 117,936–125,896 at Academic Level A, plus 17% superannuation.
What's required
Applicants must hold a PhD in a relevant field in the digital humanities. They should have experience curating, cleaning, and structuring large text corpora; using natural language processing and/or machine learning to build and evaluate text classification models; and applying prompt-engineering techniques. Applicants should demonstrate an interest in interdisciplinary collaboration, the ability to translate conceptual research questions into computational tasks, strong written communication skills, a track record of peer-reviewed publication, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively. Employment is conditional on satisfactory pre-employment, background, and relevant clearance checks.
How to apply
Submit an application through the Apply button on the University of Sydney Career Site, including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation. University employees and contingent workers should apply through Workday. Contact Simon Drew at [email protected] for confidential enquiries or application support.
Make your next move.
Prepare your application
Review drafts and confirm requirements with the university.
Make your next move.
Prepare your application
Review drafts and confirm requirements with the university.