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Researcher within Literature, Cognition and Emotion

Deadline: 02.08.2021

Universitetet i Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.


The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages is involved in extensive research, teaching and outreach in the fields of literature, area studies and linguistics within European languages apart from the Nordic ones. The Department has an active research environment with a wide range of international collaboration. Many of our researchers play a part in giving the general public insight into the results of this research. The Department has about 130 members of staff: approximately 80 in academic posts, approximately 30 Ph.D. fellows and postdoctoral fellows, and 18 in administrative posts. The Department has approximately 300 master students and 1000 bachelor students.

Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages

Job description

A temporary Researcher position (SKO 1109) for 3 years is available at the Department of Literature, European Languages and Area Studies, University of Oslo.

The position is associated with “Literature, Cognition and Emotions” (LCE), a strategic research and teaching priority at the Faculty of Humanities. LCE is an interdisciplinary hub, connecting literary studies, linguistics and psychology in shared research and teaching. The successful candidate will join a vibrant research environment with numerous ongoing research activities, postdoctoral and doctoral projects. The candidate will be expected to contribute with a research project of their own design, to participate actively and regularly in reading group meetings, guest lectures and other LCE events, and to engage in the group’s on-going development of proposals for external funding.

We seek applicants with a strong research track-record who will support and complement the existing expertise in the LCE group. The candidate is expected to contribute to the group’s outreach and public engagement activities, and to assist with the planning of guest lectures, reading group sessions, etc.

In the application, the candidate is expected to present a research project on the interaction between literary texts and processes in authors’ and/or readers’ minds. The chosen approach can be based on cognitive literary theory, textual analysis or empirical studies.

The successful candidate is expected to become an active member of the research environment of LCE and contribute to its building a legacy beyond the initial funding period (2019–2023).

Expected start date: 1 January 2022

Qualification requirements

  • PhD with a specialization in any area of literary studies, literary linguistics or psychology (with demonstrated experience in empirical approaches to literature / arts)

At least one of the following backgrounds is required:

  • Cognitive literary studies: cognitive poetics, cognitive narratology, applied to texts from all periods and all literatures
  • Corpus-based approaches to textual analysis within cognitive literary studies
  • Empirical methods from psychology (behavioural methods like experiments, surveys, interviews, etc.) in connection to literature

Further requirements are:

  • Excellent research track record; ideally with demonstrated excellence in research (commensurate with career stage) in the last five years
  • Experience with working across disciplines
  • The candidate's research project must support and complement the on-going research activities at “Literature, Cognition and Emotions”
  • Excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written
  • Personal suitability and motivation for the position

Further qualifications

In the evaluation of the applications, emphasis will be placed on:

  • The project’s scientific merit, research-related relevance and innovation
  • The applicant’s estimated academic and personal ability to carry out the project within the allotted time frame and contribute to Literature, Cognition and Emotions
  • Good co-operative skills, and the ability to successfully join in academic collaboration within and across disciplines
  • Experience with grant-writing and securing external funding
  • Experience with outreach activities

We offer

How to apply

The application must include

  • Application letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position
  • Curriculum Vitae with grades listed (with a list of education, positions, teaching experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activities)
  • List of publications
  • Project description (3–5 pages, maximum 14,000 characters, excluding references). The project description must present a feasible progress plan. It is expected that the applicant will be able to complete the project during the period of appointment

Writing samples may be requested at a later stage in the application process.

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system, jobbnorge.no. Applicants with education from a foreign university must attach an explanation of their university’s grading system.

The short-listed candidates will be invited for an interview.

Formal regulations

See Rules for the use of research posts at UiO.

Following the Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) § 25, Chapter 2, information about the applicant may be used in the public list of applicants even if the applicant opts out from the entry in the public application list.

The University of Oslo has an Acquisition of Rights Agreement for the purpose of securing rights to intellectual property created by its employees, including research results.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

Contact information

  • Project leader, professor Karin Kukkonen (e-mail)
  • Head of Administration Karina Kleiva (e-mail)
  • HR Adviser Evian Nordstrand (for questions on electronic application) (e-mail)

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