PhD Position in Natural Language Processing: Modelling Implicit Bias and Stereotype Publication date 16 March 2021 The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) has a PhD position in natural language processing: modelling implicit bias and stereotype. The PhD position is part of Robert van Rooij’s research project From Learning to Meaning: A new approach to generic sentences and implicit biases, which is funded by NWO, and also involves a postdoctoral position. This PhD position will be jointly supervised by Robert van Rooij and Ekaterina Shutova. The project overall: generic sentences ('Birds fly’, ‘Sharks are dangerous’) are omnipresent in language and express characterising properties of groups and individual objects. As they communicate (stereo)typical (‘Lawyers are greedy’) and normative (‘Winners never quit’) information, these sentences give voice to and transmit socially prejudiced generalisations and thus can have a high societal impact. Despite their importance, no uniform and empirically adequate account of their meaning yet exists. The goal of the whole project is to develop such an account, by linking their meaning to how we learn to associate characteristic properties of groups or individuals. This is an interdisciplinary project, which is a collaboration between researchers in semantics, natural language processing (NLP) and experimental psychology. PhD project: the PhD student will work in the area of natural language processing, with the specific focus on computational semantics. The goal of this position is to develop and test models of implicit bias and stereotyping by automatically analysing language use in large textual corpora and social media. The PhD student will develop new computational methods that can uncover generalisations and stereotypes implied in texts and investigate how they are learned by state-of-the-art NLP models. We will experiment with state-of-the-art models for learning meaning representations, based on deep learning, and develop new models incorporating insights from linguistics and psychology. The methods will be evaluated and fine-tuned by comparing the predicted generalisations with the word-associations found in the Implicit Association Tests (IAT) from social psychology. A more detailed description of the research project can be obtained from the project leader, Robert van Rooij. What are you going to do?You will be expected to contribute to the project, described above, and to:
All PhD candidates at the ILLC are furthermore expected to make a small contribution to the institute’s educational mission, e.g., by working as teaching assistants for courses in their area of expertise and by assisting with the supervision of student research projects. What do we require?You have:
Please note that knowledge of the Dutch language is not required for these positions, nor is it required for being able to live in Amsterdam. However, PhD candidates at the ILLC have the opportunity to attend Dutch language classes if they wish. Our offerWe offer a temporary contract for 38 hours hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and Master students. The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,395 to €3,061 (scale P) gross per month, based on a full-time contract. This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities applies. Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits such as our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look at our website. QuestionsDo you have questions about this vacancy? Or do you want to know more about our organisation? Please contact one of the supervisors:
About the Faculty of Science and the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain. The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) is an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in which researchers from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities collaborate. Its central research area is the study of fundamental principles of encoding, transmission and comprehension of information. Research at ILLC is interdisciplinary, and aims at bringing together insights from various disciplines concerned with information and information processing, such as logic, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, natural language processing, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, music cognition, and philosophy. Job applicationThe UvA is an equal-opportunity employer. We prioritise diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for everyone. We value a spirit of enquiry and perseverance, provide the space to keep asking questions, and promote a culture of curiosity and creativity. Do you recognize yourself in the job profile? Then we look forward to receiving your application by 20 April 2021. You can apply online by using the link below. Applications (in one single .pdf file, using your surname as the file name) should include:
Please mention the months (not just years) in your CV when referring to your education and work experience. Only applications that conform to these instructions are ensured full consideration by the search committee. In particular, please do not submit more than one file. Apply now
No agencies please #LI-DNP
|
Apply