Research Assistant in DivCon project

Om jobbet

The University of Gothenburg tackles society's challenges with diverse knowledge. 58 000 students and 6800 employees make the university a large and inspiring place to work and study. Strong research and attractive study programmes attract researchers and students from around the world. With new knowledge and new perspectives, the University contributes to a better future.

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The University works actively to achieve a working environment with equal conditions and values the qualities that diversity brings to its operations.

We offer

The University of Gothenburg is a state authority, which means excellent employment benefits such as wellness time during working hours, compensation for medical visits, a base vacation of 28 days, and an occupational pension. You can read more about our employment benefits here.

At the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics, and Theory of Science (FLoV) within the Faculty of Humanities, we have around 120 employees and a teaching volume that includes around 350 full-year students. We are engaged in numerous large international and interdisciplinary research projects in areas such as theoretical and practical philosophy, logic, linguistics, computational linguistics, language technology, and theory of science. Our research has many applications and collaborations with other scientific fields, including biology, computer science, economics, history of ideas, law, medicine, psychology, religion, political science, and engineering. We educate philosophers, logicians, linguists, language technologists, theorists of science, historians of philosophy, and teachers of philosophy. The department also conducts doctoral education and development work within its various academic domains. If you are interested in working in an international, dynamic and collaborative enviornment, FLoV offers an inspiring setting for research and education. Read more about us here.

Project description

The successful applicant will be employed by the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics, and Theory of science (FloV), as a research assistant in the ERC Starting Grant Project: DivCon: Divergence and convergence in dialogue: The dynamic management of mismatches. The project is led by Christine Howes and started in May 2023.

As more and more of our interactions take place through digital channels, it has become increasingly important to understand how we communicate and interact with others via computers and digital devices. In this context, the DivCon project, funded by the European Research Council, aims to transform our understanding of human interaction, particularly in computer-mediated communication. It will create a novel experimental platform for live multimodal interactions using avatars and virtual reality and develop a precise theory of divergence and convergence in interaction that unifies verbal and non-verbal dialogue phenomena. Ultimately, the project's findings will pave the way for more adaptive conversational AI systems that can better simulate human-like communication.

Linguistic interaction is the main overarching theme for research in linguistics at FLoV. This entails an interest in the formal modelling of not only the systems of conventions that make up particular languages but also the social practices and psychological mechanisms enabling language use.

Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to assist project participants with tasks including, but not limited to, recruiting participants for experimental studies, running in person and remote data collection experiments using different forms of computer mediated communication (text, video and social robot) and analysis of collected data.

The research assistant is also expected to participate in the project's activities, such as meetings, workshops and seminars. The holder of the position is expected to carry out their research on site at campus of the University of Gothenburg. The working language of the research group is English.

Qualifications

To be eligible for this position you must have completed a masters degree that is relevant to the position or a foreign degree that is deemed to correspond to a masters degree in computational linguistics, cognitive science or linguistics, or holds experience that the employer deems equivalent.

Documented experience in research, research projects and research administration within universities or colleges in Sweden is a strong asset.

We are looking for someone with good organisational skills who has the ability to work independently but also appreciates working in a team. You need to be a meticulous, structured and creative person who is flexible in carrying out your tasks.

In this recruitment, we will make a comprehensive assessment of competence and skill in order to be able to hire the applicant who is deemed to have the best conditions to carry out the tasks. We place great importance on personal suitability.

Good knowledge of English and Swedish, both spoken and written, is a requirement.

Employment

Type of employment: Fixed-term employment
Extent: 50%
Location: Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, Gothenburg
First day of employment: March 2, 2026 to July 2, 2026, with possibility for extension

Salaries are set individually at the University.

Selection process

After the application deadline, the recruitment group at the department will review the applications and assess a shortlist. Whether interviews and reference are made depends on the number of applicants.

The appointment may be appealed to the Higher Education Appeals Board. The time for appeal is three weeks from the date of the announcement of the decision.

More information regarding the University's recruitment process you will find here.

Contact information

For questions regarding the position, subject, research project, responsibilities, or the workplace, please contact Christine Howes christine.howes@gu.se +46 (0)31-786 5911

For questions regarding the application, recruitment process, or employment conditions, please contact HR-officer Jennifer Stråle, jennifer.strale@gu.se +46 (0)31-786 4570

Unions

Information regarding union representatives at the University of Gothenburg, see link.

Application

Submit your application via the University of Gothenburg's vacancies website, here, select the advert for this position, and follow the link marked 'Apply' at the bottom of the page. It is your responsibility to ensure that the application is complete as per the vacancy notice, and that the University receives it by the final application deadline.

Please note that the following documents should be attached to the application (in PDF-format):

• Personal letter of maximum 1000 words (approximately 2 pages). The letter must consist of four paragraphs in the following order: a) a short presentation of yourself, b) a short presentation of your merits, c) a short account for why the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science and the project is of interest to you, and d) a description of previous scientific and pedagogical work and how this relates to the subject/project.
• A CV listing academic degrees, employments, publications, and other relevant merits
• Masters degree certificate
• Masters thesis
• Appendices (optional)

Any documents that are not available in electronic format should be mailed to: University of Gothenburg, HR administrator, FLoV, Box 200, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, SWEDEN. Reference number should be clearly stated on the mailed documents. The documents must be received no later than three days after the application deadline, or the sender must be able to show that the documents were posted no later than the deadline for electronic applications.

We welcome applications written in English, since a non-Swedish speaking person may be appointed as external assessor in the recruitment process.

References for candidates in the final selection may be requested.

Applications must be received by: February 5, 2026

The University works actively to achieve a working environment with equal conditions, and values the qualities that diversity brings to its operations.

Salaries are set individually at the University.

In accordance with the National Archives of Sweden's regulations, the University must archive application documents for two years after the appointment is filled. If you request that your documents are returned, they will be returned to you once the two years have passed. Otherwise, they will be destroyed.

In connection to this recruitment, we have already decided which recruitment channels we should use. We therefore decline further contact with vendors, recruitment and staffing companies.