Associate Senior Lecturer in Humanities specialising in Digital cultures or language/cognition/culture - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

We are looking for an up-and-coming researcher who wants to conduct pioneering research to take up a position as associate senior lecturer in Digital cultures or language/cognition/culture

The position will be placed at the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences or at the Centre for Languages and Literature.

Lund University, the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences and Centre for Languages and Literature

The research environment in Digital cultures at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences is under strong development and takes place in dialogue with neighbouring subjects. Digital cultures include studies of the varying patterns of action, imaginary worlds, forms of communication, information practices and social relations that are developed, enabled or challenged by society's digitalisation and datafication. The focus is on the societal consequences of digitalisation and its effect on cultural, social, aesthetic and historical transition processes.

The research environments at the Centre for Languages and Literature (SOL) offer unique possibilities for studies in the borderland between languages, cognition and cultures through active research within areas such as language acquisition, multimodal communication, neuro- and psycholinguistics, language documentation, linguistic diversity, subject didactics, comparative/language specific literary studies and film studies.

What we offer the successful candidate

Those who want to become research leaders of tomorrow in basic research, through pioneering projects and research ideas, have the opportunity to start as an associate senior lecturer at Lund University. You develop your qualifications over a period of 4 years and may then be promoted to permanent employment as a senior lecturer and potentially a professor.

You will receive five weeks of training in teaching and learning in higher education and have the opportunity to learn Swedish through the University’s Swedish language courses for new international staff. We support you in your move to Sweden. If you have a family, they will find new contacts and support through Lund’s International Citizen Hub.

In Sweden and Europe there are many opportunities to obtain funding for pioneering research. Lund university will coach you in the art of grantsmanship. Our ambition is for you to be nominated in February 2025 as one of Lund university’s candidates for a Swedish programme of excellence for international researchers, the Wallenberg Academy Fellows (WAF). This programme is funded by one of the largest private funders of scientific research in Europe, the Wallenberg Foundations. If you are granted, Lund university will match the amount that the Wallenberg Foundations awards you.

Read more about the Wallenberg Academy Fellows programme here: https://kaw.wallenberg.org/en/calls/2025-nomination-wallenberg-academy-fellows-program

(In Swedish): https://kaw.wallenberg.org/utlysningar/2025-nominering-till-wallenberg-academy-fellows

Duties– what we expect from you

As an associate senior lecturer, you will have the chance to apply a long-term focus on the challenging research questions you are passionate about. As the holder of this position, you will mainly focus on your own research in collaboration with the strong research environments, research infrastructures and international platforms of the HT-faculties.

To gain the qualifications to become a senior lecturer, you also need to develop your teaching expertise during your period as an associate senior lecturer and demonstrate that you have good collaboration skills regarding wider society. And, of course, you will also participate in the department’s everyday work and development.

Within Digital cultures, there is internationally leading research on search engines in everyday life and as a social phenomenon, as well as research on disinformation and conspiracy theories. Several research projects address the data flows that digital cultures generate - both in a contemporary and historical sense. Other projects approach digital lifeworlds, practices and artefacts. There are close contacts with the Swedish ALM-sector and numerous collaborations with, for example, the National Library of Sweden and the Nordic Museum. Both infrastructure and extensive experience with large-scale digital methods are available at the department. The Swedish Research Council's digital heritage program around digitization of cultural heritage is coordinated by the professor of Digital cultures.

Among several leading research environments at the Centre for Languages and Literature are LAMiNATE (Language Acquisition, Multilingualism, and Teaching), DIAD (Digital Integration Across Disciplines: Advancing Cultural Heritage Documentation) and the research programme TEAM (Transdisciplinary Approaches to Learning, Acquisition, Multilingualism) as well an expanding research environment for didactics in languages and literature. Furthermore, the Centre for Languages and Literature is deeply involved in Lund University’s profile area Natural and Artificial Cognition , and as well as within several leading international networks within areas of relevance for the position. The network Neurolinguistics in Sweden is initiated and coordinated from within the department.

The HT-faculties provide unique support for research on communication, culture, cognition and learning in the form of the university-wide research infrastructure Lund University Humanities Lab . In addition, HUMINFRA , which is a national infrastructure for research in the Humanities and Social sciences funded by the Swedish Research Council, is led by the Humanities Lab. HUMINFRA consists of 12 universities and organizations across the country with expertise in e-scientific/digital materials, research tools and experimental methods for the Humanities.

Qualifications for employment as an associate senior lecturer

You hold a doctoral degree or have corresponding research expertise in digital cultures or any of the subjects represented at the Centre for Languages and Literature, (more information here ). We will primarily prioritise those applicants who have been awarded a doctoral degree after 15 February 2019. If there are documented special grounds, such as parental leave, military service or illness, after graduating that have prevented you from working as a researcher, the doctoral degree in the subject can in such cases have been awarded earlier.

Requirements – what you must have in order to carry out duties

We hope that one of your first duties will be to conduct an innovative basic research project that is funded by the Wallenberg Foundations in Sweden. Therefore, we are seeking those who have:

• A good ability to initiate, develop and implement high-quality research
• Relevant experience outside Sweden from research in digital cultures or any of the subjects represented at the Centre for Languages and Literature (se above)
• A project description for an innovative project within basic research in language, cognition, culture or digital cultures Teaching ability
• Documented good leadership skills, e.g. through elected office assignments, leadership courses and assessed leadership skills
• Good communication skills
• Very good oral and written English language skills
• Good motivation and the ability to learn new languages

Additional qualifications – other credentials that we consider desirable

We very much want you to thrive at Lund University and be able to make the best of your time at Lund University and for that reason we consider it preferable if you can also demonstrate that you:

• Contribute in a positive way to the work environment
• Have or have had a postdoctoral appointment
• Have obtained research funding from funding bodies outside Sweden
• Have a multi-year international appointment within the field of research, without salary or scholarship from Sweden during that period
• Have experience of multi- and cross disciplinary research environments
• Possess other credentials that make it easier to rapidly acclimatise to the job

Promotion – what is required to be promoted to senior lecturer

When you are an associate senior lecturer, you can apply for promotion to permanent employment as a senior lecturer. You will undergo a special assessment to determine if you fulfil the faculty’s requirements for employment as a senior lecturer. It is important for you to know that you can only apply once for promotion and that you must apply for promotion at least six months before your employment as an associate senior lecturer ends.

When you apply for promotion, you will be assessed based on whether you have:

• developed within your field during your time as an associate senior lecturer
• good national and international standing as a researcher
• Ability to initiate new approaches to research and to plan and start new research projects.
• good teaching ability, which means a good ability to conduct, develop and lead teaching and other educational activities at different levels and using a variety of teaching methods
• ability to participate in supervision of doctoral students to achieve a doctoral degree
• ability to engage with wider society and communicate your activities
• ability in other contexts to lead and develop activities

Form of employment

Fixed-term position, 4 years, in accordance with Chapter 4, Section 12a of the Higher Education Ordinance, with the opportunity for promotion to permanent employment as a senior lecturer. The University applies individual salary-setting. The start date for the position is the 16th February 2025 at the earliest.

Instructions for the application

Applications are to be made electronically via Lund University's applications portal by the 15th of March 2024.

The Academic Appointments Board normally selects a shortlist of applicants. This selection can be done in one or several steps and if needed with the help of external experts. The applicants who are selected for external assessment may be invited to submit physical copies of the papers that they wish to submit for expert assessment within 14 days.

The application must conform to the instructions that can be downloaded at
www.ht.lu.se/en/the-faculties/academic-vacancies/instructions-for-applicants. The applicant is responsible for making sure that the application is complete, in accordance with the vacancy announcement and instructions, and for submitting it to the University by the application deadline through the recruitment portal.

Instructions for project description/project plan

1) The project plan should satisfy both non-expert committee members and expert international reviewers. Page one in the project plan should be aimed at the non-expert. Address the following:

• The overarching question, ‘I am going to do X’
• Why is it interesting and novel? ‘This is new and groundbreaking because of Y’
• Why you (and not another researcher) and how are you going to approach it? Make sure the combination of your idea, your knowledge and the infrastructure available to you is clear. ‘The combination of me and this research idea represents a unique opportunity, because…’
• What do you hope to find, ‘If successful it will result in the following…’
• What does it mean in the bigger picture? ‘It will move the research front forward because…’

The (max) 5 pages to follow do not need to be structured in a specific way, but we recommend that the following points are covered in the way you prefer:

2) Construct the proposal around the overarching question and the aims. Do not list aims after sections of background, instead state the aim and then go into the relevant reasons why it needs to be done. Do not start the first page with a long section of state of the art, start with what you are going to do. Use your cv to highlight why you have the specific skills required for the project, as well as for breaking new ground.

3) Independence. Make sure to demonstrate your independence. For example, if you have published extensively together with your former PhD supervisor, you must clearly convey that you are in fact a fully independent researcher. List achievements that prove your independence.

4) Highlight the “material” aspects of the project – the needed infrastructure, labs, meetings, timelines, recruitments, disseminations needed the next five years – show you’ve got well thought through plans. Who is needed? Who does what, why, and when? Recruitment plans and timelines need to be realistic.

5) Potential as a research leader. Use your CV and Report on research experience to illustrate your potential as a research leader, and don’t hesitate to highlight why what you do is important to you.