Open position for a PhD in Digital Humanities
The science of culture: Complex networks methods applied to cultural analytics
Supervisors: Dr. Gustavo Ariel Schwartz / Dr. Juan-Luis Suárez
Centro de Física de Materiales – San Sebastián – Spain
CulturePlex Lab – London – Canada
The call for a predoctoral position in the field of complex networks applied to digital humanities is open. The PhD will be developed at the Donostia International Physics Center (San Sebastián – Spain) and at the CulturePlex Lab (London – Canada), half of the time at each institute. The objective of the work is to explore numerical routes based on data mining, complex networks analysis and machine learning to understand the emergence of genius, revolutionary ideas, and the collective imaginary.
Is genius a result of nature or nurture? How much chance and context are involved in the emergence of revolutionary ideas? Can we predict the appearance of the next Mozart? Artists, writers, and scientists develop their ideas in a specific historical, social, and economic context that conditions how they look at the world. In the last decades, new approaches based on big data, complex networks and natural language processing have been shown to analyze different cultural complexities successfully. From quantifying reputation and success in art [Fraiberger, 2018] to the study of emergent processes driving cultural history [Schich, 2014] to understand the complexity of Baroque [Suárez, 2007, 2012]. More recently, a new method has been developed for mining Wikipedia to map and understand how different disciplines, like art, science and literature, are related to and interact with each other [Schwartz, 2021; Miccio, 2022]. This research project aims to analyze further and understand the complex cultural networks around iconic people and revolutionary ideas to characterize the structure and dynamics of the networks that allow their emergence.
The contract is for three years and the tentative starting date is the first trimester of 2023. We are looking for highly motivated candidates, from the fields of science or digital humanities, with solid programming skills (Matlab and/or Python) and a good level of English (written and oral). A general knowledge on complex networks and natural language processing will be positively pondered. Candidates must have completed their master’s (or Licenciatura) studies before the starting date of the contract.
We offer a multicultural work environment of high professional level and excellent human quality. Those interested should send a CV (including career marks), a brief letter of motivation (one page) and the name and contact of two references to Dr Gustavo Ariel Schwartz (gustavo.schwartz@csic.es).
