Lead AI Postdoctoral Research Fellow Position within Digital Narrative

Arbeidsgiver: Universitetet i Bergen

Stillingstittel: Lead AI Postdoctoral Research Fellow Position within Digital Narrative

Frist: 11.05.2025

UiB - Knowledge that shapes society

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Do you want to take part in shaping the future?

At the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, there is a vacancy for a postdoctoral research fellow position within Digital Narrative (computational narrative systems). The position is for a fixed term of 3 years and is associated with The Center for Digital Narrative (CDN). The Center focuses on algorithmic narrativity, interactive environments, materialities, and shifting cultural contexts in which digital narratives are received and processed. The activities of the Center include research group meetings, interactions with international research leaders in digital narrative, researcher training, PhD summer schools, frequent symposia and exhibitions.

The successful candidate will move to Norway and the regular workplace will be the Center.

About the project/work tasks:

The applicant must propose an individual project in computational narrative systems that will be the focus of the postdoctoral work. The Center for Digital Narrative's Computational Narrative Systems node studies and researches the computational modeling of narrative, which includes developing new computational models of narrative and re-implementing historical models so that they can be easily studied and used.

The successful applicant will collaborate with researchers within the Center's Computational Narrative Systems node and from MIT to achieve jointly authored research results. As part of the position, the applicant is also expected to re-implement historical narrative systems in Python and help determine the course of a larger collaborative CNS project dealing with such systems.

About the LEAD AI fellowship programme:

LEAD AI is the University of Bergen's career and mobility fellowship program for training 19 postdoctoral fellows in artificial intelligence. The program has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101126560.

The LEAD AI programme offers:

• High-quality inter- and transdisciplinary research and training opportunities in the area of artificial intelligence.
• Academic freedom.
• Benefits from knowledge and skills transfer between disciplines, organisations and sectors.
• Structured, skill-based training.
• High-quality working conditions.
• Personal career support.
• Equal opportunities.

For more information see the LEAD AI webpage or send an email to leadai@uib.no.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• The position as postdoctoral research fellow requires a Norwegian doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign doctoral degree in digital culture, digital humanities, computational media, or a related field, including computer science if the dissertation project had a significant humanistic component.
• The applicant must be capable of programming in Python in a research context.
• The applicant must be proficient in both written and oral English.
• The applicant cannot previously have been employed as a postdoctoral fellow at UiB.
• The applicant should have a genuine interest in AI, and the research proposal must be related to computational narrative systems.

Experience in any of the following areas is considered an advantage:

• Experience with narrative theory, computational creativity with narrative as the domain, and/or cognitive science approaches to narrative.
• Familiarity with the history of story generation and related areas of computing.
• Experience in software development and programming as inquiry particularly situated in a humanities research context.
• Having released and maintained software for the use of researchers, educators, and/or students.

Personal and relational qualities will be emphasized. Appropriate career stage, research experience, ambitions and potential will also be considered during candidate evaluation.

Special requirements for the position:

The University of Bergen is subjected to the regulation for export control system. The regulation will be applied in the processing of the applications.

About the position of postdoctoral research fellow:

The postdoctoral position is a fixed term position with the primary objective of qualifying the appointee for work in top academic positions. The position may be extended by up to one year (maximum 4 years in total) if the appointee is granted externally financed research stays abroad.

What we offer:

• An engaged and professionally stimulating working environment.
• Welfare benefits and social benefits including pension-saving in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, occupational injury insurance, full salary during sick leave for 52 weeks, and paid parental leave.
• High standards for working hours, holidays, place of work, health, and safety.
• Access to specific training activities exclusively provided within the framework of the LEAD AI programme.

How to apply:

Your application must include:

• Research proposal (5 pages).
• A motivation letter.
• A CV, including publication list.
• Mobility declaration with supporting documentation.
• References.

The application and appendices with certified translations into English must be uploaded at JobbNorge.

Evaluation:

We anticipate the whole evaluation procedure to take approximately 4 months from the application deadline.

General information:

The public sector shall reflect the diversity of Norwegian society to the greatest extent possible. Age and gender balance among employees is therefore a goal. People with immigrant backgrounds and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the position.