Research Associate (English linguistics) for the project “Predicting COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake from Public Discourse”

https://www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangebote/ausschreibung.html?jobID=7d287efa...

Start date 01.10.2023

Application deadline 20.08.2023

The Department of English at the University of Hamburg is seeking a Research Associate to join a team of researchers working on an interdisciplinary project, funded through the Cross-Disciplinary Labs initiative, titled "Predicting COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake from Public Discourse: A Machine Learning Approach". In this project, we will explore the relationship between public discourse and COVID-19 vaccination uptake and how to use real world data from Germany and England to track public opinion on COVID-19 vaccination, with the ultimate aim of identifying strategies to increase the uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations. The analysis will apply big data and machine learning techniques to Twitter data and will link these to information on local vaccination rates. From a policy perspective, the output of this project will inform public health responses in real time in future pandemics. At the heart of the project is an interdisciplinary approach, combining health economics and linguistics with new methods from data science.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Professor Robert Fuchs (English Linguistics) and will join a vibrant working group focused on research in the fields of data-intensive discourse analysis, varieties of English and Learner Corpus Research (see https://sites.google.com/view/rflinguistics/home). We offer flexible working arrangements, a supportive research environment and the opportunity for professional growth through skills development in cutting edge research methods in linguistics and data science.

Specific duties of the Research Associate include the collection and analysis of Twitter data, the preparation and co-authorship of research publications and conference presentations, participation in international conferences as well as contributing to the strengthening of data science at the University of Hamburg through the Cross-Disciplinary Labs network. The position does not involve any teaching duties. The Research Associate is also encouraged to work towards a PhD, the topic of which should be broadly aligned with the Principal Investigator’s research interests, and may be, but does not need to be, connected to the project.

Applicants need to be in possession of a Master’s degree (or equivalent) by the starting date of the position.

Applications should include a cover letter explaining the candidate’s qualifications and interest in the position, a CV, copies of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree certificates (where applicable), a representative piece of writing (e.g. MA thesis, term paper) demonstrating the candidate’s skills in academic writing, data analysis and/or English linguistics , as well as a PhD proposal (optional, no more than five pages).

Requirements

A university degree in a relevant field. excellent proficiency in English excellent skills in academic writing experience with the statistical analysis of linguistic data (esp. with R and/or Python), the analysis of metaphorical language, corpus linguistics and/or discourse analysis are of advantage