PhD position on the Ethics of Neuroinclusive Research and Interaction Technology

Want to contribute to a neuroinclusive world through a PhD project that combines philosophy, disability studies, and empirical field work? Join our transdisciplinairy consortium!

This PhD position focuses on the ethics of neuroinclusive research and interaction technology within the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Section at TU Delft.

Job description

Autistic people often experience communication challenges and breakdowns in their daily social lives. These challenges can have a severe impact on educational and societal outcomes later in life. Until recently, these challenges were widely attributed to presumed deficits in autistic people’s communicative and empathic abilities. Increasingly, this ‘autism-as-deficit-frame’ is rejected and replaced by a neurodiversity perspective. Embracing this neurodiversity perspective requires thinking robustly about the nature of neuroinclusive (research)practices and technologies and their effects on creating (or problematizing) neuroinclusive (or neuro-affirmative) environments.

To this end, the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Section at TU Delft is hiring a PhD candidate who will research the following interconnected questions: ‘How can technologies support social interactions between autistic children and their social contacts in respectful non-stigmatizing neuro-inclusive ways? And what does it mean to research, create, and embed such technologies in a way that is itself neuro-inclusive?’

To answer these questions, the candidate is expected to combine descriptive and normative theories and concepts (e.g. from neurodiversity studies, ethics, critical disability studies, phenomenology) with bottom-up empirical research. Specifically, the PhD student will be embedded at different field sites, including at least one elementary school, the homes of participating neurodiverse families, and one neuro-inclusive technology company.

Moreover, the PhD project is part of a large overarching project on neuro-inclusive interaction technology, called COINTEND (funded by the Dutch Research Council). COINTEND brings together researchers from five different universities and universities of applied sciences, elementary schools, technology companies, and experts-by-experience in a shared effort to support neuro-inclusive interaction. This consortium also functions as an additional field site from which the PhD student is expected to draw meaningful actionable insights.

In these real-world settings, the PhD student is expected to identify needs, values, opportunities, hurdles and practices that are used to form normative recommendations and guidelines on how neuro-inclusive interactions can be invited, celebrated, and supported at the micro, meso, and macro levels.

Job requirements

We are looking for a candidate with a proven affinity with the topic of neurodiversity and one or more of the projects’ points of emphasis (ethics, participatory research and design, enactive/embodied cognition & phenomenology, philosophy of technology, ableism, communication). Some familiarity with empirical research methods (e.g. phenomenological interviews or ethnographic research) is a strong plus but not a strict requirement.

We encourage candidates with experiental expertise (lived experience with neurodiversity) to apply. Proven training and/or education in the professional appliance of experiental expertise is considered a plus. Because this position also involves doing field work in a Dutch elementary school, the candidate should possess strong Dutch language skills.

Additional requirements are:

• Strong English communication and writing skills.
• An MA in philosophy, STS (science technology and society studies), disability studies, medical humanities or anthropology, media studies, or comparable fields of study.
• Openness to working in teams (as a neuro-inclusive consortium we realize that successfully working together in teams comes in many forms).
• An interest in (and the right demeanor for) doing participatory research with (neurodivergent) children.
• Openness to spend a period abroad (there is an opportunity to do more field work at one or more special needs schools in the UK).
• A willingness to teach some ethics and philosophy of engineering to BSc and MSc students.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society.

Faculty Technology, Policy & Management

The Faculty of TPM provides an important contribution to solving complex technical-social issues, such as energy transition, mobility, digitalisation, water management and (cyber) security. TPM does this with its excellent education and research at the intersection of technology, society and policy. We combine insights from both engineering and social sciences as well as the humanities. TPM develops robust models and designs, is internationally oriented and has an extensive network of knowledge institutions, companies, social organisations and governments.