Associate Professorship of Social Data Science

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is seeking to appoint an Associate Professor of Social Data Science, in association with a Governing Body Fellowship at Wolfson College. The post will sit within the OII.  The successful candidate will conduct outstanding research and deliver graduate teaching in the field of social data science or computational social science.

The position is open to candidates with a research profile in fields such as data science, statistics, computer science, machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, computational social science, or related areas. The successful candidate will be expected to conduct innovative research that combines methodological strength with important social-data-driven insights for society, and to be willing to engage in cross-disciplinary collaborations that support this. We particularly welcome candidates conducting policy-relevant social data science research and those who apply skills in machine learning, natural language processing or computer vision to questions of interest to the social sciences. As an outward-looking multi-disciplinary social science department, the successful candidate should enjoy engaging across social science disciplines and should also be comfortable engaging with non-academic audiences.

The successful candidate will contribute research-led teaching and supervision for OII graduate students and will also contribute to the delivery of core and option papers on OII MSc degrees.

Candidates must demonstrate a research record in or, relevant to, social data science, with an international standing appropriate to the stage of their career; the ability to deliver excellent teaching, and a willingness to undertake administration and pastoral responsibilities on behalf of Wolfson College and of the University. Candidates should hold a completed doctorate, or a completed doctoral dissertation submitted for examination by the advertised closing date for this position.

This post is available from 1st October 2024, or as soon as possible thereafter. This is a permanent appointment (subject to successful review during the initial period of office).

For the University, the post holder will teach, supervise graduate students, and participate in examining students within the OII, and play a full and active role in the intellectual life of the department. They will be expected to engage in independent and original research, to secure funding and engage in the management of research projects and disseminate research of the highest international standard through publications, conferences, and seminars. They will be entitled to office space at the OII.

The University of Oxford holds several awards of recognition of its efforts to introduce organisational and cultural practices that promote gender equality and create a better working environment for both men and women, including an Athena Swan Bronze award and the Race Equality Charter Bronze award. The University signed the Mindful Employer's Charter for Employers Who Are Positive About Mental Health in February 2018 and is currently one of Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers. More information can be found at https://edu.admin.ox.ac.uk/equality-charters.

Informal enquiries about the post should be directed in the first instance to the Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor Victoria Nash, ([email protected]), or to Sir Tim Hitchens ([email protected]) at Wolfson College. All enquiries will be treated in strict confidence and will not be considered in the selection decision.

Applications are particularly welcomed from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in Oxford.

The closing date for applications is 12noon (midday) 7th March 2024 and Interviews are expected to be held on 9th April 2024.