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Learn more about Love Data Week at ICPSR. #LoveData24 

Falvey loves data, all kinds of data, and we want to celebrate Love Data Week by talking about the different ways data is used on campus. At Villanova University we have many disciplines across campus, and each of them use data in their own way. Now how each discipline uses data might not always be as obvious, such as in the social sciences and humanities, compared to the STEM fields, and that is why we want to illustrate some of the ways data has been used across the disciplines that aren’t quite as obvious. In the world of librarianship, data plays a role in many of our decisions. In thinking about how we decide whether a program was successful or whether we are going to renew a resource for another year we rely on data to inform our decisions. Each year we evaluate the resource subscriptions we are going to keep, and we do this by examining the usage data collected. 

Sarah Wingo, Librarian for English Literature, Theatre, and Romance Languages and Literature, offered the following demonstration of how data can be used to explore literature. 

“Often when we think of data we think of massive data sets too big for a human to ever hope to analyze, but using data to better understand literary texts is not new to scholars of English literature nor does it always have to be at such an enormous scale. One of the more famous examples of using data to better understand a literary text has to do with Shakespeare’s First Folio. In 1920 Thomas Satchell noticed a distinct difference in spellings of 35 words in the first half of McBeth to the second half. Other scholars such as Edwin Eliott Willoughby in 1932, and Alice Walker in 1954 would further contribute to this idea by expanding the investigation to the rest of the First Folio and positing that there were multiple compositors who worked on type setting the First Folio. These early researchers were attempting to use meticulous textual analysis to do what we often use computers to do today, which is gather textual data to provide us with new information about a text, in this case how many different compositors may have worked on the typesetting for the first folio. Helping scholars to not only better understand how printing houses worked in the 1620s, but also helping scholars to better understand the text we are left with.”

For more on this ongoing debate over the First Folio: https://www.gabrielegan.com/publications/Egan2012d.htm

Further Reading:

Eve, Martin Paul. The Digital Humanities and Literary Studies. First edition. Oxford University Press, 2022. https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/2835904?sid=146389460

Underwood, Ted. Distant Horizons: Digital Evidence and Literary Change. The University of Chicago Press, 2019. https://library.villanova.edu/Find/Record/1954455?sid=146390124

Sarah’s example of how researchers have been able to analyze the spelling of texts to explore authorship of classic pieces, is just one way that researchers create and use data. In the field of Communication and Literature, research data can be created by counting the frequency of certain terms, or even by examining the tone used in a work. Research on tone can look at the proportion of positive or negative words used in a piece. An interesting topic of study that has crossed disciplines, is the examination of the media’s portrayal of mental health. This is a topic that has been explored by Sociologists, Psychologists, and the Communication field. Each of these disciplines have explored how news articles have dealt with mental health, though the questions they have looked to answer might vary due to their focus. The research question often shapes the type of data being created and used, with one focus of this topic having been to answer whether there has been a change in perception of mental health in the news over time. Compiling a collection of hundreds and even thousands of news articles, a text analysis is able to show the overall tone of articles depicting mental health and whether there has been a shift in tone between the years. Interested in your own text analysis? Check out Gale’s Digital Scholar Lab in our Databases A to Z list, where you can explore the Gale collection and conduct text analyses.   

Further Reading: 

Chen, M., and S. Lawrie. “Newspaper Depictions of Mental and Physical Health.” BJPsych Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 6, , p. 308, https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.116.054775. https://library.villanova.edu/Find/EdsRecord/edselc,edselc.2-52.0-85036633598 

R, Whitley, and Wang J. “Good News? A Longitudinal Analysis of Newspaper Portrayals of Mental Illness in Canada 2005 to 2015.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne De Psychiatrie, vol. 62, no. 4, 2017, pp. 278-285, https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743716675856. https://library.villanova.edu/Find/EdsRecord/cmedm,27777273 

Please join us in celebrating another year of data appreciation, where you can learn about some of the wonderful resources available to Villanova affiliates through Falvey Library and how students on campus are working with data. Check out our Love Data Week 2024 events page and register for one, or all, of our events! 

For more information about different data resources Falvey offers check out the Falvey library blog. There will be different data related posts throughout the week! Follow and spread the word about Love Data Week 2024: @lovedataweek on X and Instagram #lovedata24 

Make sure to join us again next year for Love Data Week 2025, which will run from Feb. 10-14.


Headshot of Nicole Daly, Social Science Librarian.Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library. 


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New Resource: Compendium of Scales and Measures in Communication (COSMIC)

By Nicole Daly 

Falvey library now has access to the Compendium of Scales and Measures in Communication (COSMIC) which is a part of our CIOS resource package. COSMIC is the communication and journalism fields’ database for scales and measures. It is a unique new repository for the field that will be of value for anyone designing research projects, conducting literature reviews, or teaching research methods, or about the progress of theory and research in the field. 

This resource contains entries for scales, measures, and observational systems, with a focus on the scales and measures published literature from the fields of communication and journalism. COSMIC offers multiple search options allowing users to browse the collection using free-text search, instrument title, subject areas, or using cataloging terms from any of the three coding dictionaries applied to each record.

This database currently holds over 800 scales and measures and is updated frequently to add more resources. For more information on this resource go to https://www.cios.org/www/cosmicabout.htm 

Falvey Library recently added CIOS’ Compendium of Scales and Measures in Communication (COSMIC) to Databases A to Z. 

This resource is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.


Headshot of Nicole Daly, Social Science Librarian.Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library. 


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The Social Media Archive (SOMAR) now available!

By Nicole Daly 

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has done it again! With the guiding force of University of Michigan professor Libby Hemphill and in collaboration with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, they have expanded their many data collections to include SOMAR, a social media archive for researchers to find and investigate data dealing with social media. 

As of May 1, 2023, the repository only holds 5 datasets, but it is growing and will be updated frequently to add more resources. For more information on using or adding to this resource go to the Social Media Archive (SOMAR) @ ICPSR.

Similar to its hosting site, ICPSR, SOMAR allows researchers to browse for datasets by collection or keyword. Users are able to narrow their search results by social media platform, allowing them to browse for data on or about specific sites, such as Facebook. Once a user has found a study and dataset of interest they will be able open the item record to read about the study details to determine if they would like to login and download the dataset.

A reminder, Villanova is a member institution of ICPSR, allowing faculty, staff, and students access to a vast collection of datasets in the social science realm. To begin using ICPSR, a free account must be created while on campus to gain access to the full collection. Once you have created your account you will be able to use this resource, and its linked collections like SOMAR, off campus. 

For any questions, contact Social Science Librarian Nicole Daly.

This resource is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.

 


Headshot of Nicole Daly, Social Science Librarian. Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library. 


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Love Data Week 2023 – Data: Agent of Change

Help us celebrate Love Data Week, the international celebration of all things data related! Love data is a week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating how data influences our world! 

This year’s theme is “Data: Agent of Change,” focusing on inspiring significant change through data, whether large or small, ranging from policy change, structural change, and social change! If you have not participated previously, now is the time! To help new and seasoned data users find data training and resources to move the needle on issues they care about, I have created a list of resources one could use to explore those issues. 

With February also being Black History Month, I wanted to bring attention to some of the research and data sources available covering issues with race, not only in the U.S. but worldwide.   

Check out these resources to learn more. 

U.S. Census Information on Race: https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race.html  

Race, Ethnicity and Marriage in the United States: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/07/interracial-marriages.html  

Pew Research Center Race and Ethnicity information: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/race-ethnicity/ 

ICPSR is a data repository available to Villanova students, faculty, and staff. They host a variety of datasets that have been curated for ease of use, including many sets dealing with social issues. Two helpful features they offer are the Thematic Data Collections, which includes the Resource Center for Minority Data, and their Current Events in the Bib page, which shows publications dealing with current society issues and how data is being used in to broaden the scholarship. Explore ICPSR to find datasets available for secondary analysis to advance policy and social change. 

The International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology, IASSIST, recently released a webinar titled “A Conversation About Data on Race & Ethnicity Around the World By Bobray Bordelon, Barbara Levergood, Kevin Manuel, Nigel de Noronha, Anja Perry, and Anne Zald. The panel was moderated by Alexandra Cooper and Deborah Wiltshire.

Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, recommends the book, Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein. “The book touches on why data scientists need feminism and how data can perpetuate intersectional inequalities. The book also provides examples of different projects like Data for Black Lives: https://d4bl.org/.” 

It is important to also highlight some of the inherent issues that are prevalent in data science. Beaudry Allen, University Archivist, recommends Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Noble to learn more about the systematic racism found in data science. 

For more information about different data resources Falvey offers check out the Falvey library blog. There were different data related posts throughout the week! Make sure to join us again next year for Love Data Week 2024, which will run from Feb. 12-16.

Follow and spread the word about Love Data Week 2023: @lovedataweek on Twitter and Instagram #lovedata23 

This event is hosted by ICPSR, a data repository that is available on Falvey Library’s homepage, Databases A-Z list. 


Headshot of Nicole Daly, Social Science Librarian.Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Library.

 


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Coming soon! Love Data Week February 13-17, 2023

By Nicole Daly 

Love Data Week 2023 is only four weeks away! 

February 13-17, 2023, marks the annual international celebration of Love Data Week! This year’s theme is “Data: Agent of Change,” focusing on inspiring significant change through data, whether large or small, ranging from policy change, structural change, and social change! If you have not participated previously, now is the time! Learn more at https://myumi.ch/ICPSRlovedata23. #LoveData23

Let’s help new and seasoned data users find data training and resources to move the needle on issues they care about. It is easy! 

Here are 10 simple ways to get involved.

  1. Follow @lovedataweek on Twitter and Instagram.
  2. Attend one (or more!) of the Love Data Week activities virtually from wherever you are. Check out the calendar of events. New events are still being added so check back soon!
  3. Host your own event. Want it added to the calendar? Submit your events and we’ll add it! Event ideas include:

                     Data management and sharing workshop

                     Finding data demo with your favorite data archive(s)

                     Participate in ICPSR’s yearly Adopt a Dataset Program 

                     Highlight impacts of recent local data-driven research

                     Share an activity or project for teaching with data

                     Host a data-thon where teams combine, analyze or visualize datasets on a key topic

                     Pick a crowdsourced project at a site like Zooniverse and host a data contribution party 

  4. Recognize colleagues for their participation in Love Data Week activities and events with a Love Data Week-specific Certificate of Participation.
  5. Post your own Love Data Week activities on social media with the hashtag #lovedataweek23.
  6. Use a cool Love Data Week background graphic as your Zoom background or screensaver.
  7. Download, print, and share Love Data Week stickers with friends, students, and colleagues. |
  8. Have a data trivia contest with your team, office, staff, classroom, students, or family – and tell us what happened. (If you’re following us on social media, you’ll be able to see our daily trivia questions during Love Data Week.)
  9. Spread the word about Love Data Week 2023 to maximize participation and creative events.
  10. Sign up to receive Love Data Week update emails to get the latest news on activities and posts!  

This event is hosted by ICPSR, a data repository that is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.


Headshot of Nicole Daly, Social Science Librarian. Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.


 


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New Resources: Taylor and Francis Collections

The Villanova community now also has access to many journals that were previously unavailable. Falvey Library recently acquired three large collections from Taylor and Francis.taylor and francis website

Previously, the library subscribed to fewer than 200 Taylor and Francis journals. But now, Villanovans have access to the complete Social Science and Humanities Library (~1,400 titles), the Science and Technology Library (~500 titles), and the Medical Library (~190 titles).  These collections contain articles published since 1997.


Alfred Fry is Science & Engineering Librarian at Falvey Library.


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Dig Deeper: How Did Labor Day Begin and Evolve?

Just as Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, Labor Day marks its end. Now widely celebrated with picnics and trips to the shore or to the shopping mall, much of the holiday’s original meaning has been forgotten as well as, like Memorial Day, the date on which it was originally celebrated.

The first official Labor Day celebration occurred on a Tuesday; Labor Day is now commemorated on the first Monday of September. On that Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, the Central Labor Union (CLU), a New York City area local labor union organized in January 1882, held the first Labor Day parade. The parade began inauspiciously: there were numerous spectators, but only a few marchers and no band. These few were soon joined by 200 members of the Jewelers Union and their band. Next to join were a group of bricklayers and their band. Spectators joined the parade as did another 500 union men. By the end, there were at least 10,000 people, both men and women, marching. Some workmen marched in their traditional work clothes; others wore their best dress garments. Many carried signs such as “Strike with the Ballot,” “Eight Hours for a Legal Day’s Work” (the typical work day was much longer), “Less Work and More Pay,” and “Labor Built This Republic, Labor Shall Rule It.”

The parade ended at Reservoir Park at noon. From there most of the participants went to Wendels’ Elm Park, New York’s largest park at that time, at 92nd Street and 9th Avenue. There, together with their families, union members who had not marched in the parade and others, they enjoyed a picnic, abundant beer and cigars, and speeches by union leaders. This first Labor Day celebrated American workers and their contributions to the prosperity of the United States with a parade and picnic, setting a pattern for those that followed.

The next year, the Central Labor Union held a second Labor Day celebration; this was even larger than the first one. The following year, 1884, the CLU declared the first Monday of September as the official annual Labor Day. That year over 20,000 workers marched. By 1886 Labor Day was celebrated throughout the United States. The following year five states – Oregon, New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Jersey – made Labor Day a state holiday. In 1894, during Grover Cleveland’s presidency, Senator James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced a bill to make the first Monday of September, Labor Day, a legal holiday; the bill passed on June 28. The CLU originally selected a date in September to create a holiday in the long period between July 4 and Thanksgiving.

In 1968, the Senate and House of Representatives passed Public Law 90-363, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which listed legal public holidays: New Year’s Day, January 1; Washington’s Birthday (now Presidents’ Day), the third Monday in February; Memorial Day, the last Monday in May; Independence Day, July 4; Labor Day, the first Monday in September; Columbus Day, the second Monday in October; Veterans Day, the fourth Monday in October; Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November and Christmas Day, December 25. The law took effect on January 1, 1971.

The Congressional Record of May 6, 1968 explains that the law was established to benefit families: to provide three-day holidays so that families could get together, to allow more leisure time to participate in hobbies, educational and cultural activities; and to “improve commercial and industrial production by minimizing midweek holiday interruptions of production schedules and reducing employee absenteeism before and after midweek holidays.” Both labor and management supported the bill, but its passage meant that those who worked in retail businesses would not receive the holiday.

Labor Day today is mostly celebrated with travel, picnics, the beginning of football season and retailers’ Labor Day sales. However, some churches hold Labor Day services with Blessings of Tools. The tools may be anything used as part of a trade or business, even pencils and keyboards.  So while we have strayed far from the original purpose of Labor Day, vestiges of its history still remain in some of the day’s observances. How will you celebrate the holiday?


Dig Deeper:

All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life (1994). Jack Santino.

Red, White, and Blue Letter Days (2002). Matthew Dennis.

America’s Labor Day: The Dilemma of a Workers’ Celebration.” Michael Kazin and Stephen J. Ross. Journal of American History 78, 4, (March 1992), 1294.

History of Labor Day.” United States Department of Labor.

Labor Day.” Scott Hearn. The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.


Article by Alice Bampton, Communication and Marketing Department, Falvey Memorial Library. 


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EXTENDED DEADLINE: TRENDS III Conference – Understanding Social Cognition (October 20-22, Lublin)

Trends in interdisciplinary studies: 3rd AVANT Conference 2017

Lublin, Poland

Understanding Social Cognition (20-22 October 2017)

Within the social sciences, it is widely accepted that groups of people exhibit social properties and dynamics that emerge from, but cannot be reductively identified with the actions and properties of individual members. Nevertheless, psychology and cognitive science have only reluctantly embraced the idea that something similar might happen in the domain of mind and cognition.

Contemporary research on the distinctively social aspects of human cognition, which has become abundant over the past two decades, tends to fall somewhere along the following continuum. On the “conservative” side, the minds of individuals are currently being reconceived as socially situated, culturally scaffolded, and deeply transformed by our life-long immersion and participation in group contexts. According to more “liberal” multi-level approaches, the informational integration of functionally interdependent and socially distributed individual cognitive processes can enable the rise to emergent group-level cognitive phenomena. We invite participants to explore the full spectrum of social cognition, ranging from the elementary social-cognitive skills that allow people to think and act together, through embodied behavioral coupling and joint intentionality, mechanisms of mind reading and mutual understanding, all the way to group cognition.

Web: http://avant.edu.pl/trends3/

Key speakers and Guests of Special Symposia

  • Daniel Dennett (Tufts University, USA, book promotion)
  • Morana Alač (University of California San Diego, USA)
  • Him Cheung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
  • Stephen Cowley (University of Southern Denmark)
  • Arkadiusz Gut (Catholic University of Lublin, Poland)
  • Robert Rupert (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
  • Judith Simon (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  • Robert Wilson (University of Alberta, Canada)

Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):Socially situated and scaffolded individual cognition

  • Social cognition from an evolutionary, cultural-historical, and ontogenetic perspective
  • Psychological underpinnings of social interaction (joint, multi-agent, collective)
  • Collective intentionality and social ontology
  • Technologically vs. socially extended cognition
  • Distributed cognition and group minds
  • Current debates on mindreading, empathy, social affordances, and the cognitive bases for intersubjectivity

Relevant disciplines: cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, sociology, linguistics, anthropology, political science, legal theory, economics, animal cognition

Deadlines

Abstracts submission July 31 EXTENDED DEADLINE: August 31
Notification of acceptance* September 20
Registration October 15

For further inquiries, please contact: georg.theiner@villanova.edu


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Vacancy: Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of Twente

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Twente in the Netherlands

is looking for an

Assistant Professor in Philosophy

with a (future) specialization in ethics or political philosophy of technology and its role in society

The department is currently expanding with an assistant professor position in philosophy.  We are looking for someone who is capable of teaching a broad range of subjects, and who has a research specialization in ethics and/or political philosophy with a (future) focus on technology – for instance, sustainability and environmental technology, health and medical technology, robotics and information technology, or broader ethical studies of technology and society.

The Challenge

You teach in the master program in Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (PSTS; https://www.utwente.nl/en/psts/), with an emphasis on teaching in ethics and/or political philosophy, and you teach philosophy courses for bachelor and master programs in engineering and social science. These will include courses in professional and applied ethics as well as other philosophical subjects, for example, depending on your competencies, philosophy of science, philosophy of technology, or philosophy of mind.  You are involved in the supervision of master’s theses in the PSTS program.

You perform research in the area of ethics and/or political philosophy, with a focus on technology and its role in society. We are open to all specialties within this scope (e.g., environmental ethics in relation to sustainability and technology, ethics of medical technology, ethics and politics of robotics and AI, etc.) Your research will be embedded in the department’s research program as well as in the 4TU.Center of Excellence for Ethics and Technology (www.ethicsandtechnology.eu), a joint center of the departments of philosophy of the University of Twente, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and Wageningen University which currently counts over sixty members, including twenty-four PhD students.

Your profile

You hold a Ph.D. in philosophy, preferably with a specialization in ethics or political philosophy. You have either had a focus on technology in your past research or you have a demonstrable interest in focusing on technology and it implications for society for your future research. You already have an excellent list of publications in peer-refereed journals, and have relevant international experience.  We welcome candidates with a focus on any technology.

You also have experience in teaching at the university level, preferably including students in science & engineering, social science, or other nonphilosophical fields, and preferably including professional and/or applied ethics/political philosophy. You have demonstrable didactic skills in teaching, good teaching evaluations, and a passion for teaching. You are able and willing to teach in areas of philosophy outside your philosophical specialization, both in philosophy at large and in the philosophy and ethics of technology. You are willing and able to collaborate with researchers and teachers from nonphilosophical disciplines.

You have an excellent command of the English language. All master programs and many bachelor programs at the University of Twente are taught in English, and in the near future, all bachelor programs will be taught in English. English is the official language at departmental meetings. You are prepared to move to the Netherlands, to the region where the University of Twente is located.

Our offer

You are appointed as assistant professor (full-time), for a period of at least two years (with a possible extension of another year). The position is 40% research. The department and faculty support excellence and growth in research and teaching.

Salary is competitive. Initial assistant professor salary is € 3.427,- – € 4.272,- per month, depending on experience. Employees are also entitled to a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. Annual salary is € 47.827,- – € 59.620,-.

Starting date is September 1st, 2017 (later or earlier date negotiable; we opt for the best candidate). We offer excellent auxiliary terms of employment, such as professional and personal development programs; a secondary remuneration package; a dynamic environment with enthusiastic colleagues; an organization focusing on internationalization and a high degree of responsibility and independence.

Job application

Your application should include the following documents:

  • a cover letter which explains your interest in the position and your qualifications for it;
  • a curriculum vitae which includes the name and e-mail address/telephone number for at least two references. Please give a brief summary of your teaching evaluations in your CV or  in a separate note (courses taught and evaluation received) – inclusion of full teaching evaluations is optional at this stage;
  • a writing sample (preferably a published article related to the position);
  • either a summary and table of contents of your dissertation or the entire dissertation.

Applications (including curriculum vitae, list of publications) should be uploaded via www.utwente.nl/vacatures/en > vacancies > current vacancies. The application deadline is May 3rd, 2017. Interviews will be held in early May. Since only three documents can be uploaded per application, please combine documents if needed.

Further information 

Location: This position is based at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente

Contact: Prof. Dr. Philip Brey (chair “Ethics of Technology”) T: +31 (0)53 489 4426 (p.a.e.brey@utwente.nl) or Prof. Dr. Ciano Aydin (Head of the Department) T: +31 (0)53 4893391 (c.aydin@utwente.nl).

We are simultaneously advertising a position for Assistant Professor in ethics or political philosophy with (future) emphasis on information technology and the information society, for 2 years with prospects of a permanent position (closing date: April 26th).  We intend to fill that position earlier than this one, and applying for both positions will not bring you a disadvantage.

About the University of Twente

We stand for science and technology, high tech, human touch, education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente (UT) is a research university with a strong international orientation and a focus on science & engineering and social and behavioral sciences. We include more than 3,300 faculty and staff and 9,000 students. Our motto “high tech, human touch” expresses the aim of combining research in engineering with social and behavioral sciences. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programs. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research. The UT is a campus university, located in the city of Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands. Enschede is a lively city of 150,000, located in beautiful countryside and near spectacular nature areas. It is only two hours away from major European cities like Amsterdam, Cologne and Düsseldorf, three hours from Brussels and less than six hours from Berlin, Paris and London.

The department of philosophy

The department of philosophy at the University of Twente (https://www.utwente.nl/bms/wijsb/) is internationally leading in the philosophy and ethics of technology. At a recent research evaluation of philosophy programs in the Netherlands, it ranked highest in the area of ethics and practical philosophy. The department currently includes eight tenured/tenure-track staff members, three postdocs, seven PhD students, and several part-time faculty. The department participates in and directs the interuniversity 4TU.Center for Ethics and Technology (www.ethicsandtechnology.eu). Both the department and the Center have a strong international orientation and include members from many different nationalities. The department’s research has a strong focus on ethics of emerging technologies and their impact on society (including information and communication technology and robotics, biomedical and neurotechnologies and environmental technologies), the philosophy and ethics of human-technology relations, and the philosophy of engineering and social science.

Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
The Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences (BMS) of the University of Twente strives to play a pivotal role in understanding, co-engineering and evaluating innovation in society. Innovation is driven by advances in technology. Through ‘social engineering’ these technological advances are embedded in society befitting human needs and behaviour, within proper public and private management and business structures. For this the faculty of BMS upholds high quality disciplinary knowledge in psychology, business administration, public administration, communication science, philosophy, educational science and health sciences. All with a focus on the challenges in society. Research is strongly connected to our Institutes on Governance (IGS), ICT (CTIT), Health (MIRA) and Nanotechnology (MESA+).


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[JOB] Vacancy: Ethics or political philosophy of IT, University of Twente, The Netherlands

PDF: vacancy ethics or political philosophy of IT

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Twente in the Netherlands is looking for an
Assistant Professor (full-time) in Ethics or Political Philosophy
with a (future) emphasis on information technology and the information society
Appointment for two years, with prospect of a permanent position
The department is currently expanding with an assistant professor position in ethics and/or political philosophy with a focus on information technology (which may include Internet technology and social media, robotics, artificial intelligence, digital communication technologies, database technologies and other digital technologies) and its impacts on society.
The challenge
You teach ethics and possibly political philosophy in the master program in Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (PSTS; https://www.utwente.nl/en/psts/) and professional and applied ethics and other philosophical subjects for bachelor and master programs in engineering and social science. In particular, you will teach several ethics and philosophy courses for the bachelor programs in computer science, business information technology and creative technology, and the master programmes in computer science, human-media interaction and internet science & technology. Optionally, you could also participate in the University College Twente, an interdisciplinary, highly selective bachelor program with a focus on engineering and social science. You are involved in the supervision of master’s theses in the PSTS program and will at some point supervise PhD students in the department’s PhD program in Ethics and Technology (the scope of which also includes social and political philosophy).
You perform research in the area of ethics and/or political philosophy, with a focus on the role of information technology in society. We are open to all specialties within this scope. We have a particular interest in candidates who will be able to establish collaborations within CTIT (Centre for Telematics and Information Technology; https://www.utwente.nl/ctit/) at the University of Twente. Your research will be embedded in the department’s research program as well as in the 4TU.Center of Excellence for Ethics and Technology (www.ethicsandtechnology.eu), a joint center of the departments of philosophy of the University of Twente, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and Wageningen University which currently counts over sixty members, including twenty-four PhD students.
As part of your research activities, you are also expected to apply for external funding and to engage in international and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Your profile
You hold a Ph.D. in philosophy, preferably with a specialization in ethics or political philosophy. Ideally, you combine your specialization in ethics or political philosophy with a broad understanding of and orientation to philosophy and its various subdisciplines. You have either had a focus on information technology in your past research or you have a demonstrable interest in focusing on this technology and it implications for society for your future research. You already have an excellent list of publications in peer-refereed journals, and have relevant international experience.
You also have experience in teaching at the university level, preferably including students in science & engineering, social science, or other nonphilosophical fields, and preferably including professional and/or applied ethics/political philosophy. You have demonstrable didactic skills in teaching, good teaching evaluations, and a passion for teaching. You are able and willing to teach in areas of philosophy outside your philosophical specialization, both in philosophy at large and in the philosophy and ethics of technology. You are willing and able to collaborate with researchers and teachers from nonphilosophical disciplines.
You have an excellent command of the English language. All master programs and many bachelor programs at the University of Twente are taught in English, and in the near future, all bachelor programs will be taught in English. English is the official language at departmental meetings. You are prepared to move to the Netherlands, to the region where the University of Twente is located.
Our offer
You are appointed as assistant professor (full-time), for an initial period of two years, with prospects of a permanent position upon good performance. The position is 40% research, which can be expanded by attracting external funding. The department and faculty support excellence and growth in research and teaching. We are committed to supporting your career development and to enabling you to hold positions of responsibility within the organization. The terms of employment are in accordance with the Dutch Collective Labor Agreement for Universities (CAO). Salary is competitive. Initial assistant professor salary is € 3.427,- – € 4.691,- per month, depending on experience. Employees are also entitled to a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. Annual salary is € 47827 – € 65466. Starting date is August 2017 (later date negotiable; we opt for the best candidate). We offer excellent auxiliary terms of employment, such as professional and personal development programs; a secondary remuneration package; a dynamic environment with enthusiastic colleagues; an organization focusing on internationalization and a high degree of responsibility and independence.
Job application

Your application should include the following documents:  a cover letter which explains your interest in the position and your qualifications for it;  a curriculum vitae which includes the name and e-mail address/telephone number for at least two references. Please give a brief summary of your teaching evaluations in your CV or in a separate note (courses taught and evaluation received) – inclusion of full teaching evaluations is optional at this stage;  a writing sample (preferably a published article related to the position);  either a summary and table of contents of your dissertation or the entire dissertation Applications (including curriculum vitae, list of publications) should be uploaded via www.utwente.nl/vacatures/en > vacancies > current vacancies. The application deadline is April 26th, 2017. Interviews will be held within one week after the deadline. Since only three documents can be uploaded per application, please combine documents if needed. Preferred starting date is August 1st, 2017 (later date negotiable).
Further information

Location: This position is based at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente
Contact: prof.dr. Philip Brey (chair Ethics of Technology) T: +31 (0)53 489 4426 (p.a.e.brey@utwente.nl) or prof.dr. Ciano Aydin (Head of the Department) T: +31 (0)53 4893391 (c.aydin@utwente.nl).
About the University of Twente

We stand for science and technology, high tech, human touch, education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente (UT) is a research university with a strong international orientation and a focus on science & engineering and social and behavioral sciences. We include more than 3,300 faculty and staff and 9,000 students. Our motto “high tech, human touch” expresses the aim of combining research in engineering with social and behavioral sciences. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programs. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research. The UT is a campus university, located in the city of Enschede, in the east of the Netherlands. Enschede is a lively city of 150,000, located in beautiful countryside and near spectacular nature areas. It is only two hours away from major European cities like Amsterdam, Cologne and Düsseldorf, three hours from Brussels and less than six hours from Berlin, Paris and London.
The department of philosophy

The department of philosophy (https://www.utwente.nl/bms/wijsb/) at the University of Twente is internationally leading in the philosophy and ethics of technology. At a recent research evaluation of philosophy programs in the Netherlands, it ranked highest in the area of ethics and practical philosophy. The department currently includes eight tenured/tenure-track staff members, three postdocs, seven PhD students, and several part-time faculty. The department participates in and directs the interuniversity 4TU.Center for Ethics and Technology (www.ethicsandtechnology.eu). Both the department and the Center have a strong international orientation and include members from many different nationalities. The department’s research has a strong focus on ethics of emerging technologies and their impact on society (including information and communication technology and robotics, biomedical and neurotechnologies and environmental technologies), the philosophy and ethics of human-technology relations, and the philosophy of engineering and social science.
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Science

The Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences (BMS) of the University of Twente strives to play a pivotal role in understanding, co-engineering and evaluating innovation in society. Innovation is driven by advances in technology. Through ‘social engineering’ these technological advances are embedded in society befitting human needs and behaviour, within proper public and private management and business structures. For this the faculty of BMS upholds high quality disciplinary knowledge in psychology, business administration, public administration, communication science, philosophy, educational science and health sciences. All with a focus on the challenges in society. Research is strongly connected to our Institutes on Governance (IGS), ICT (CTIT), Health (MIRA) and Nanotechnology (MESA+).


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Last Modified: March 22, 2017

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