Interdisciplinary PhD Studentship on Multimodal Argumentation

Scholarship opportunities

The Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Philosophy (both at the University of Groningen, NL) offer a four year studentship to complete a PhD within a joint interdisciplinary project led by Dr Janina Wildfeuer, Prof. John Hoeks (Faculty of Arts) and Dr Jan Albert van Laar (Faculty of Philosophy). The proposed PhD research plan will be embedded in the department of Communication and Information Studies at the Faculty of Arts.

The PhD project is located at the intersection of multimodality research on the one hand, and argumentation theory on the other. It focuses on the analysis of visuals (photographs, diagrams, images) in social media communication. By combining multimodal-linguistic and philosophical methodologies, this project aims at providing more clarity on the kind of normativity that characterizes multimodal argumentation in social media, and thereby also on the possibilities and problems of multimodal argumentative exchanges. Can multimodal communication be genuinely critical and argumentative, rather than illogical or primarily rhetorical?

You are invited to write your own proposal for this PhD project.

Possible research themes are the following:

• what are the prospects and pitfalls of multimodal argumentation, specifically in social media?
• do the affordances provided by specific non-verbal modes of argumentation generate specific opportunities for the addressee to point out faults, flaws or fallacies?
• do authors of multimodal arguments anticipate critical reactions, and if so: how?
• what guidelines for multimodal messages would promote a critical discussion, and discourage manipulative effect hunting?

All proposals should involve a precise empirical reconstruction and evaluation of the multimodal argumentation constructed in social media. The proposal must therefore seek to analyze a corpus of images in their contextual embedding in specific social media accounts (e.g. from Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok or others)

Qualifications

The PhD student is expected:

• to have a thorough training in research skills in multimodal analysis
• to have a completed MA degree related to one of the areas mentioned above with an excellent academic record (MA thesis grade: min. 8/10)
• to have a background in linguistics with a clear interest in philosophical issues, or else a background in philosophy with a clear interest in linguistic issues
• to have a special interest in interdisciplinarity and willingness to bridge between multimodality, linguistics, particularly discourse analysis, and philosophy, particularly argumentation theory
• to be fluent in English (both oral and written)
• to be able and willing to work in an interdisciplinary environment
• to be able to finish the PhD thesis in four years
• to enjoy planning, taking initiative, and academic writing; and
• to have a desire to publish.

Organisation

Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has enjoyed an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 36,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. Belonging to the best research universities in Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, the University of Groningen is truly an international place of knowledge.

Conditions

The successful candidate will receive a scholarship € 2,249 gross per month. She/he will be required to be resident in Groningen.

General information about the University of Groningen’s PhD scholarship programme can be found here https://www.rug.nl/(...)ditions-application/

The preferred starting date is 1 September 2022 or 1 October 2022.

Application

Your application (uploaded in one pdf) should include:

• a brief letter of motivation
• a CV, including contact details of two academic referees
• a research proposal of up to 2,000 words, covering (a) state of the art, (b) main research question, key objectives, and relevance, (c) the proposed corpus and (methodological) approach, and (d) the proposed timetable for the writing of your thesis. This proposal should correspond to the project description above
• a writing sample of no more than 5,000 words, such as an essay or part of a Master’s thesis
• certified official transcripts of your academic degrees.

Official documents must be in the English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch language. Any translation of originals not in these languages must be authenticated.

You may apply for this position until 20 June 11:59 pm / before 21 June 2022 Dutch local time by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website).

Note that the procedure will include interviews. Selected candidates will be invited for an interview via online conferencing. Interviews are scheduled to take place in the first week of July 2022.

The University of Groningen strives to be a university in which students and staff are respected and feel at home, regardless of differences in background, experiences, perspectives, and identities. We believe that working on our core values of inclusion and equality are a joint responsibility and we are constructively working on creating a socially safe environment. Diversity among students and staff members enriches academic debate and contributes to the quality of our teaching and research. We therefore invite applicants from underrepresented groups in particular to apply. For more information, see also our diversity policy webpage: https://www.rug.nl/(...)rsity-and-inclusion/

Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP): https://www.nvp-hrnetwerk.nl/sollicitatiecode/ and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code

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Information

For information you can contact:

• Janina Wildfeuer, [email protected]
• Jan Albert van Laar, [email protected]
• Nadja Zadorina, for questions regarding the submission procedure, [email protected]

Please do not use the e-mail address(es) above for applications.

Apply