PhD Candidate, “NanoBubbles” at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of History,...

Research project
The NanoBubbles ERC Synergy project’s objective is to understand how, when and why science fails to correct itself. The project’s focus is claims made within the field of nanobiology. Project members combine approaches from the natural sciences, computer science, and the social sciences and humanities (Science and Technology Studies) to understand how error correction in science works and what obstacles it faces. For this purpose, we aim to trace claims and corrections through various channels of scientific communication (journals, social media, advertisements, conference programs, etc.) via both qualitative and digital methods.

Your contribution to the overall project will be a study of the role of conferences in the circulation of claims and counter-claims, and of the ways that conferences interface with other sites of scientific activity such as laboratories and journals. Your study will be largely ethnographic – you will conduct participant observation at scientific conferences and in nanobiology laboratories. You will also conduct interviews, visit archives, and collect other published and unpublished sources. Although you are not expected to have a background in digital humanities, you will work with a postdoctoral researcher at Maastricht University and members of the NanoBubbles teams at other universities to apply digital tools to trace claims and counter-claims as they move through and beyond scientific conferences.

Your research will be located in the Research Institute for Arts and Social Sciences (see: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/fasos-research-institute ).

Job description
You will:

• Determine a set of current and historical nanobiology (and related) conferences where scientists promote, challenge, and discuss contested claims.
• Carry out ethnographic, interview, and archival research in several countries. For this, travel will be required.
• Work closely with other members of the project, both at Maastricht University and elsewhere.
• Learn and apply some basic digital humanities techniques relevant to your project, both for data acquisition/processing (e.g., OCRization of sources) and analysis (e.g., tools for distant reading of large numbers of texts). Other members of the project will provide you with some training and infrastructural support for any digital humanities techniques that you adopt.
• Write academic publications, and co-author with other members of the team.
• Participate in team meetings.
• Take part in training by the Graduate School of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, as well as the WTMC Graduate School.

The position is 0,8 fte research and 0,2 fte teaching (some reduction in teaching is likely, especially in the final year). The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers BA programmes in Arts & Culture, European Studies, Digital Society, and Global Studies. Information on those and other FASoS teaching programmes can be found on our website. Other faculties at Maastricht University also host programmes, such as University College Maastricht, that provide teaching opportunities closely related to your expertise.