Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor, French Language

The Faculty of Arts, the Department of Languages invites applications for a PROFESSOR/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR/ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN FRENCH LANGUAGE for an employment from January 1, 2024, or by agreement.

The successful applicant may be appointed to a permanent professorship or a fixed-term associate professorship/assistant professorship (tenure track), depending on their qualifications and career stage.

The Faculty of Arts studies and teaches French, French literature and the culture of French-speaking countries as part of the diverse offering of the Department of Languages.

French language plays an important role in the Department of Languages as one of the languages taught in Finnish schools and as a European civilisation language. The research of modern French language and literature is an important focus of teaching and research in the discipline. In addition, the Department's main research themes include among other things multilingualism and language in society, which are also the focus of the research of French language.

The position is for an expert in modern French language who, in addition to their own specific field, has linguistic and other skills that will benefit the Department of Languages more broadly. To be successful in this position a vision of the discipline in addition to one’s own specific expertise is needed. Teaching and research experience in literature research will be an advantage.

A Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in French Language teaches in the degree programmes of the Department of Languages. They are responsible for the advanced studies of French language, together with other teachers in the discipline. They will be expected to supervise master's theses and doctoral dissertations in and to cooperate with other degree programmes.

The job description also includes participation in administrative tasks.

SELECTION CRITERIA

An appointee to the position of professor shall hold a doctoral degree and have high-level academic qualifications; experience in leading scientific research; the ability to provide research-based teaching and supervise dissertations and theses; as well as evidence of international cooperation in the research field they represent. The appointee shall also have academic leadership skills. When considering the applicant’s qualifications, attention shall be given to scientific publications and other research results of scientific value, teaching experience and pedagogical training, the ability to produce teaching material, other teaching merits and, if necessary, a demonstration of teaching skills as well as the applicant’s participation in doctoral education. Account shall also be taken of the applicants’ activity in the scientific community, success in obtaining external research funding, international research experience and international elected positions as well as leadership and interaction skills.

An appointee to the position of assistant professor in the tenure track system shall hold a doctoral degree and have the ability to conduct independent scholarly work as well as the teaching skills required for the position. In addition, the appointee shall have the ability and motivation to pursue an academic career, as demonstrated by publications and other means. When assessing the applicants’ qualifications, attention shall be paid not only to research work and teaching qualifications, but also to success in the acquisition of external research funding as well as international scholarly work and other international experience.

Successful performance of the task requires excellent knowledge of French and English. The knowledge of other languages taught in the Department, as well as Finnish and Swedish, is considered an advantage. If the person to be selected does not know Finnish, they are required to be able to acquire sufficient Finnish language skills within a reasonable time. Support is offered for studying Finnish. 

WHAT WE OFFER

The University of Helsinki offers the appointee a first-class research and teaching environment as well as the preconditions necessary for international cooperation (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers/why-university-helsinki ).

The salary will be based on levels 8-10 (professors) or on level 7 (associate and assistant professors) of the job requirement scheme for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition, the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal performance. The annual gross salary of a professor is approximately €64,000–€96,000, and that of an associate professor/assistant professor approximately €50,000–€68,500, depending on their qualifications and work experience. The position is filled on a six-month probationary period.

The University of Helsinki provides its staff with occupational health and sports services as well as professional development opportunities (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers/why-university-helsinki/staff-benefits ). International staff is supported in relocating to Finland (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers/welcome ).

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

The application must be submitted through the University of Helsinki recruitment system by clicking on the link “Apply now”. Employees of the University of Helsinki must submit their applications through the SAP Fiori portal https://msap.sap.helsinki.fi .

Applicants are requested to enclose the following documents in English with their applications as a single PDF file which is named “lastname_firstname_french”:

Please, read the more detailed instructions https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/faculty-of-arts/faculty/instructions-to-applicants-for-teaching-and-research-positions .

After the application period shortlisted applicants are requested to submit a maximum of 10 publications of their choice to assessors via the recruitment system. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview and to provide a teaching demonstration. They are also asked to provide a separate report of their teaching qualifications.

The University of Helsinki welcomes applicants from a variety of gender identities, linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further information about the position can be obtained from Head of the Department, Professor Johanna Viimaranta johanna.viimaranta(at)helsinki.fi . Further information about the recruitment process can be obtained from HR Specialist Anni Kauppinen hr-humtdk(at)helsinki.fi .

Read more about academic careers at the University of Helsinki https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers .

THE LAST DAY TO APPLY 26.4.2023

The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest science university in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. In international university rankings, the University of Helsinki usually ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. The University of Helsinki is looking for solutions to global challenges and creating new thinking for the benefit of humanity.

The Faculty of Humanities of the University of Helsinki (http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/ ) is the oldest and largest unit of teaching and research in the field of humanities in terms of structure and subject matter in Finland. It is also an important international research, educational and cultural community. The Faculty of Arts studies and teaches literature and languages spoken in Europe and other parts of the world – in total of almost 40 languages. In addition, the Faculty develops the general theory of linguistics, translation science and literary research.