[Job Vacancy] PhD positions in Creativity, Translation and Technology (3.0 FTE) (V23.0606)
Job description
Applications are invited for three fully funded, four-year PhD positions within the research project “Uncovering the creative process: from Inception to Reception of translated content using machine translation” (INCREC), financed by an ERC Consolidator Grant and coordinated by the Principal Investigator (PI), dr. Ana Guerberof Arenas.
The new machine translation paradigms have drastically changed society’s perception of technology and the act of translation. The recent advances in large language models and generative AI has highlighted the need to understand how the creative mind works when translating and the differences experienced when working with technology.
INCREC aims to understand the creative process of translation of literary and audiovisual content and its reception by users with various techniques to enhance MT use, thus improving the translator’s working environment and job sustainability, as well as the user experience. To better understand this complex process, INCREC triangulates data from eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud interviews, translated material, diaries and questionnaires from professional translators and users.
The project will hire three PhD students, who will work together with the PI, a postdoc and a research assistant. Each will also focus on one work package dealing with 1) literary translation, 2) audiovisual translation 3) literary content reception the postdoc will deal with audiovisual reception. The PhDs will work principally in the Netherlands (Groningen) but will spend some time in another country for field work.
The INCREC project counts with the support of the commercial sector through AppTek, a MT provider, and OOONA, a toolkit provider for subtitling.
The PhD Project
In collaboration with the other team members, you will work together and also in your individual work packages. The project is very interdisciplinary, combining several methods and instruments for the analysis of creativity in its intersection with technology. You will use a mixed method approach to analyse the impact that technology has on creative content and how creativity influences the reception of stories. You will learn skills related to eye-tracking, retrospective think aloud protocols, statistics, machine learning, surveys as well as coding for qualitative analysis.
You will be asked to:
– complete a dissertation on creativity, translation and technology. The dissertation may take the form of a book or a series of (co-authored) journal articles in English
– familiarise yourself with the translation tools and research instruments (including CAT tools and eye-tracking)
– recruit and qualify participants for your experimental research
– collect data from translators, subtitlers, readers and viewers independently as well as together with the principal investigator and other team members with the proposed instruments
– analyse data quantitatively (statistics) and qualitatively (coding for interviews)
– create a framework of macro and micro creative process together with your PI and other team members
– co-organize research meetings within the Centre for Language and Cognition and the Network of Interdisciplinary Translation Studies in the Netherlands and Belgium
– contribute to the project’s public outreach and social media activities.
Interviews with selected candidates will be held between 20 – 24 November 2023.
For information you can contact: Dr Ana Guerberof Arenas, for information about the project, a.guerberof.arenas@rug.nl
Merel Lobo at Centre for Language and Cognition (for questions regarding the submission procedure), m.s.lobo@rug.nl
Please do not use the e-mail address(es) above for applications.
For more details, please visit: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000ACQP&cat=wp