Research Assistant

The Leiden University Institute for History invites applications for a

Research Assistant (0,2 FTE or 0.4 FTE) starting date 1 November 2024

Key responsibilities

• Data collection;
• Data analysis;
• Creation of Jupyter notebooks;
• Collaboration with members of the team.

Selection Criteria

• MA degree in computational linguistics, computational social sciences or closely related area;
• Excellent programming skills, preferably in Python;
• Experience with natural language processing and social network analysis;
• Interest in the Humanities and Social Sciences;
• Good command of English;
• Ability to work both independently and as part of an (international) team;
• Ability to work in an international and highly competitive environment.

About our Faculty and Institute

Since its founding in 1575, Leiden University has acquired an international reputation for excellent teaching and research. With its 800+ staff, the Faculty of Humanities provides 26 Bachelors and 27 Mastersprogrammes for over 7,200 students based at locations in Leiden’s historic city centre and in The Hague.

Project description

Leiden University Institute for History is looking for a research assistant within the NWO-funded project ‘Digital warfare in the Sahel: popular networks of war and Cultural Violence'. This interdisciplinary project will combine historical-ethnographic approach with natural language processing and social network analysis to study the role of social media networks in the spread of violence in Sahel region.

The research assistant will work closely with two PhDs and focus on the computational analysis of the data, including natural language processing and social network analysis.

Conditions of Employment

The appointment (0.2 fte) is initially for one year with the possibility of extending the contract for 26 months after positive evaluation (or 0.4 fte for one year with the possibility of extending the contract for 7 months after positive evaluation). The salary is in accordance with the collective salary agreement of the Association of Dutch Universities (CAO). Depending on qualifications and experience, the maximum gross monthly salary for this position is € 2.920 for a full-time position. Leiden University offers an attractive benefits package with additional holiday (8%) and end-of-year bonuses (8.3 %), training and career development and sabbatical leave. Our individual choices model gives you some freedom to assemble your own set of terms and conditions.