Vacant job

Do you want to work at the intersection of computational science and social science, supported by competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Do you want an employer that invests in sustainable employment and offers secure, advantageous working conditions? We invite you to apply for a postdoctoral position at Uppsala University.

The Department of Information Technology holds a leading position in both research and education at all levels. We are currently Uppsala University's third-largest department, with approximately 350 employees, including 120 faculty members and 120 doctoral students. Around 5,000 undergraduate students take one or more courses at the department each year. You can read more about us on the Department of Information Technology's website.

The work will be carried out at the Information Laboratory (InfoLab), an interdisciplinary research group where we conduct both basic and applied research on extracting knowledge from social data.

The position is part of the EU HORIZON project FEMVision – Fighting Everyday Misogyny in Visual Online Cultures, which addresses online misogyny through its visual dimension, focusing on digital environments often used by young Europeans (18–30 years old). The project tackles the urgent challenge of countering misogyny as a "gateway" to radicalization, polarization, and hate propaganda, while strengthening democratic resilience and promoting inclusive digital environments for women, girls, and people of gender diversity. Through this work, FEMVision combines technological innovation with critical reflection, making AI a resource that empowers educators, youth workers, policymakers, and civil society in preventing widespread digital hate. The consortium brings together leading universities and organizations from Italy, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, ensuring a strong interdisciplinary and intercultural approach.

Job Responsibilities

The postdoctoral researcher will lead the following activities:

• Development of a classifier for visual misogyny online.
• Application of the classifier to social media data (empirical mapping).
• Development of a chatbot that adds a conversational layer to the classifier, enabling joint discussion of visual material.

In addition, the postdoctoral researcher will contribute to the following activities:

• Data donation.
• Building a curated dataset.
• Data access, data collection, and data availability.
• Testing the classifier.
• Analysis of online reactions.
• Integration of the classifier and chatbot with other project activities.

The responsibilities include 20% teaching or other departmental duties.

Qualifications

A PhD in computer science, computational social science, or a related field, or a foreign degree assessed as equivalent to a PhD in computer science, computational social science, or a related field. The degree must be completed no later than the time the employment decision is made. Preference is given to candidates who have obtained their degree within the last three years. The three-year timeframe is calculated from the last day of application. In exceptional cases, a degree obtained earlier may be considered. Exceptional cases include leave due to illness, parental leave, trust positions in trade unions, etc.

Other requirements are: experience working with social data, good ability to train machine learning and AI models for data analysis, excellent language skills, and very good programming skills.

Desirable/Additional Qualifications

Experience in collecting and analyzing social media data, experience in interdisciplinary research, experience in computational image analysis, and experience using large language models (LLMs) for data analysis.

About the Position

The employment is fixed-term for 3 years according to the central collective agreement. The position is full-time. Start date: October 1, 2026, or as agreed. Location: Uppsala.

Information about the position is provided by: Prof. Matteo Magnani, +46 18 471 40 21, Email: [email protected]

In this recruitment, we have replaced the cover letter with questions that you answer as part of your application. The answers will be used as part of the selection process. Please also attach a CV and a publication list.

Please submit your application by July 15, 2026, Ref: UFV-PA 2026/1969.

Uppsala University is a broad research university with strong international standing. Our ultimate goal is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to make a difference in society. Our most important asset is all 7,500 employees and 53,000 students who, with curiosity and engagement, make Uppsala University one of the most exciting workplaces in the country.

Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at Uppsala University

https://uu.se/om-uu/jobba-hos-oss/ (https://uu.se/om-uu/jobba-hos-oss/)

The position may be subject to security clearance. If security clearance is required, it is a condition of employment that the applicant is approved.

We decline offers of recruitment and advertising assistance.

Applications are received via Uppsala University's recruitment system.

Trade Union Representatives: Saco-S - [email protected], Seko - [email protected], ST (OFR/S) - [email protected]