PhD Candidate: Meta-Theory in Cognitive Science / Junior Lecturer in Computational Cognitive Science

As a junior lecturer you will assist with teaching in courses that are related to your research project, in particular AI as a Science and Theoretical Modelling for Cognitive Science. Apart from course management tasks, you will have the opportunity to further develop your teaching skills in thesis supervision, guest lecturing, and course development, culminating in obtaining the university teaching qualification (BKO). The course coordinators will also be the supervisors of your research project as described below.
The PhD project involves a meta-theoretical investigation with a case study in categorisation. In cognitive science research practice, little effort is spent on theory building (Guest & Martin, 2021; van Rooij & Baggio, 2021). Over the past 30 years cognitive science has become more and more empiricist, in part due to the growing dominance of experimental psychology in the field. In this PhD project, we aim to reinvigorate and improve theoretical research in the cognitive sciences. When this process is systematised, we also speak of metatheoretical calculi (Guest, 2023; Guest & Martin, 2023). In this PhD project, you will adopt various theoretical methodologies (including literature review, conceptual engineering, and formal analysis) to study and characterise how cognitive scientists theorise. 

You will work as a junior lecturer in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme with the opportunity to both obtain your university teaching qualification (BKO) and work towards your PhD degree. The AI programme offers a BSc in AI, a pre-Master's programme, and an MSc in AI. Our fully English-taught programmes are steadily growing in student numbers and are among the top AI programmes in the Netherlands. The programme is developing a Computational Cognitive Science education line, both in our BSc AI and MSc AI programmes.

Requirements:

• You should have a Masters degree (or equivalent) in Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, or a similar discipline.
• You have strong conceptual skills and an interdisciplinary mindset.
• You have a passion for both teaching and theoretical research and the desire to develop your skills in these areas.
• You have demonstrable experience as a teaching assistant.
• You are willing to take ownership of the teaching duties assigned to you.
• You are committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), including the decolonisation of teaching and research.

Salary Benefits:

• It concerns an employment for 1.0 FTE (0.4 fte teaching, 0.6 fte research).
• The gross monthly salary amounts to a minimum of €3,226 and a maximum of €5,090 based on a 38-hour working week, depending on previous education and number of years of relevant work experience (salary scale 10).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• It concerns a temporary employment for 6 years.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Houtlaan 4