Two PhD Positions in Critical Humanities Approaches to Platform Society

• 40 hours per week
• Maximum gross monthly salary: € 2,972
• Faculty of Arts
• Job level: Research University Degree
• Duration of the contract: 4 years
• Application deadline: 10 May 2020

We are looking for

As a PhD candidate you will be responsible for one of the three subprojects within the ERC-funded project “Platform Discourses: A Critical Humanities Approach to the Texts, Images, and Moving Images of Tech Companies”. This project studies how companies like Google, Facebook, and Airbnb increasingly position their for-profit online platforms as neutral spaces for social exchange, while addressing their users as “digital citizens”. The project employs methods of literary analysis, visual analysis, and film studies to explore the visions of humanity that speak from tech company discourses, forming an integral part of these companies’ branding strategies (from advertising and corporate blogs to manifestos and user interfaces). The first subproject, on discourses of everyday life, is carried out by the Principal Investigator (Dr Niels Niessen). The two vacancies concern two other subprojects. The second subproject examines the topic of digital citizenship: How do tech companies intervene in debates on democracy and state structures? The third subproject explores the topic of climate crisis: What visions of humanity are ingrained in tech companies’ self-presentation as green?

https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1097177&doel=embed&taal=nl