Associate professor in Logic and Philosophy of Language (internal vacancy)

This vacancy is open only to candidates who hold a permanent appointment within the University of Amsterdam.

The Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy, is looking for an Associate professor in Logic and Philosophy of Language, to be embedded in the Capacity Group Logic and Language (LLA).

The position is affiliated to the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), a research institute at the University of Amsterdam 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.

The members of the ILLC and of the Capacity Group Logic and Language participate in different educational programmes, including the two-year international Master's of Logic programme which provides intensive interdisciplinary research training. 

Job description

The ideal candidate for this position will have an ambitious research profile and a strong record of publications in top international peer-reviewed journals or in media of comparable quality and prestige; demonstrable success with acquiring third-party funding; broad background, outlook and interests, preferably with a strong interdisciplinary component, and as demonstrated by e.g. quality and diversity of collaborative research output with both junior colleagues and peers; solid experience with teaching logic and philosophy of language at all levels, including to non-philosophy students; leadership potential in an academic context as demonstrated by e.g. bringing to successful completion a major, team-oriented research project, and coaching of students as demonstrated by e.g. papers jointly written, successful joint research project applications, and career placements of students at prestigious international academic institutions.

We welcome applications from candidates with research expertise in philosophy of language and semantics, philosophical logic or the history of these fields, as well as interests in the interplay of logic with other disciplines. The research of the candidate will be embedded in the ILLC and must fit its research profile and ambitions.

We are looking for a candidate who is demonstrably able to teach courses in philosophy of language and logic at all levels, as well as able to take up coordination and/or design of important parts of the BA and MA curriculum in these areas. As the teaching of the Logic and Language capacity group is a fundamental component of the Master of Logic (MoL) at the ILLC, the candidate must also be demonstrably able to offer fitting, forward-looking teaching for the MoL curriculum, and have demonstrable potential for coordination and curriculum (re)design of (at least parts of) the MoL.

The candidate is expected to take an active role in the activities of the Department of Philosophy, ranging from research seminars to (important) board memberships, and grant applications. Excellent social skills, a deeply collegial attitude, and ability and willingness to take up substantial administrative tasks are particularly welcome.

We are especially interested in candidates who are willing and able to act as a chairperson of the Capacity Group Logic and Language for a period of up to five years immediately following the appointment. The chairperson is the Head of Department’s delegate for conducting the yearly evaluations of the LLA group. The chairperson is also expected to have regular meetings with the Head of Department and the Chairpersons of the other three research groups, and to coordinate every year the assignment of teaching tasks to the LLA group both with the LLA staff, the BA- and MA-directors, and the administration.

Requirements

• Relevant PhD degree;
• solid experience with teaching logic to philosophy students, and philosophy of language to non-philosophers;
• strong research expertise in e.g. philosophy of language and semantics, philosophy of logic, or the history of any of these fields; interests in the interplay of logic with other research areas;
• reliable team worker;
• philosophical background, broad outlook and clear visionary potential, e.g. entrepreneurial command of emerging research directions in relevant areas;
• successful third-party funding acquisition and proven record of academic leadership potential as demonstrated by quality, quantity and diversity of research cooperation with peers, and coaching of students and junior researchers;
• a thorough command of Dutch and English. We standardly require that if the candidate's native language is not Dutch, he/she must learn it within 2 years.

Further information

• Prof. A. Betti 

Appointment

The initial appointment will be on a temporary basis for a period of no more than two years. Subject to satisfactory performance, this will be turned into a permanent position. The gross salary will normally conform to min. €4,749 to max €6,349 gross per month, based on 38 hours per week in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU) and depending on experience and qualifications.​

Job application

Applications should include the following information in one single pdf file (not zipped), named using the applicant’s surname and'UHD-LLA' as file name, e.g.: UHD-LLA-Fisher.pdf:

1. a cover statement of maximum two A4 pages highlighting motivation and qualifications;
2. a CV, including (a) details of background and relevant experience; (b) full list of relevant output;URLs for downloading two output pieces (e.g. sample publications, etc) that you have selected for their representativeness for the position. Please add a brief motivation for your selection (do not send the two pieces as part of your application).

Please submit your application to solliciteren2017-FGW@uva.nl no later than 2 April 2017. Only complete applications submitted to this email address will be considered.

Please state vacancy number 17-129 in the subject line of your application. The subject of the e-mail message and the attachment must consist of the vacancy number and the text '[UHD-LLA-applicant's last name].  #LI-DNP