The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 26 500 students and 7 200 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.

RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion is financed through the Research Council of Norway’s Centre of Excellence Scheme.

RITMO combines a broad spectrum of disciplines – from musicology, neuroscience and informatics – to study rhythm as a fundamental property of human cognition, behaviour and cultural expression. The Centre is organized under the Department of Musicology, in close collaboration with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Informatics.

About the position

A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (SKO 1352) in the computational analysis of gesture-vocalization interactions is available in connection with the research project, SongGesture: Co-singing gesture and vocal performance across three musical traditions, funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project is affiliated with RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo

All RITMO researchers are co-located and work in a unique interdisciplinary constellation, with world-leading competence in musicology, psychology and informatics. It is expected that all members of the centre contribute to the general activities and collaborations within RITMO. 

The researchers have access to state-of-the-art facilities in sound/video recording, motion capture, eye tracking, physiological measurements, various types of brain imaging (EEG, fMRI), and rapid prototyping and robotics laboratories.

Applicants are required to upload a research outline (uio.no), stating research questions and theoretical and methodological approaches that will further the goals of the project. 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. It is suggested that candidates should carefully read the project website (uio.no) and details given below, in order to align their research plan appropriately. 

More about the position

The project, SongGesture, aims to significantly advance knowledge on how expert vocalists use gesture in support of their performance goals. Building on recent research showing an effect of gesture on co-occurring vocalization, SongGesture will advance the theorization of gesture-vocalization relations in musical contexts by considering also the physical interactions between gesture and vocal production movements (e.g., breathing and articulation). The project looks at co-singing gesturing practices in three different vocal performance traditions: beatboxing, European art song, and karnatak vocal music from South India. The candidate is not expected to have previous experience with these musical traditions, as this is covered by other project personnel. 

The successful candidate for this position is expected to investigate physical interactions between co-singing body movements (gestures) and vocalization. This will involve exploring how vocalists’ gestures affect their own vocal performance (both sound produced and vocal production movements), as well as how vocalists physically adjust to achieve their performance goals when their gesturing or vocalization is manipulated. Tasks will include contributing to project theory and methods development on multimodal communication in song performance; using experimental methods that involve the manipulation of performers’ gestures and/or vocalizations to examine interactions between the two; making either motion capture or multi-camera video recordings (for pose tracking) of human movement; preparing human movement data for analysis; audio feature extraction; the computational analysis of human movement, biomechanics and vocalization; and co-writing articles.

The position is available for a period of 3 years. There is a 10 % component of the position that is devoted to teaching and administrative duties or other career-enhancing work. Given additional funding, the position may be extended to 4 years, with a 25 % duty component. This would depend on the qualifications of the recruited candidate, the department’s needs for teaching, and the centre’s need for assistance.

The successful candidate is expected to become part of the research environment and contribute to its development. The main purpose of postdoctoral research fellowships is to qualify researchers for work in higher academic positions within their disciplines.

A career plan shall be developed for the Postdoctoral Fellow, specifying the competencies the Postdoctoral Fellow should acquire. UiO is responsible for following up on the career plan and ensuring that the Postdoctoral Fellow has access to career guidance throughout the postdoctoral term.

If the Postdoctoral Fellow does not already have educational qualifications that meet the requirements for an associate professor position, UiO shall facilitate the acquisition of such competence during the employment period.

Selection criteria 

Mandatory requirements

• PhD or equivalent academic qualifications with a specialization in human movement science, gesture studies, cognitive linguistics, laboratory phonology, voice studies, cognitive science, experimental psychology, computational musicology, music cognition, musicology, sports science, linguistics, psychology, or related fields. The applicant is required to demonstrate that their degree corresponds to the profile of the post.
• Experience with one or more of the following: experimental approaches to examining gesture and/or vocalization, motion capture recording and motion/biomechanical analysis, computer vision approaches to pose tracking from video, surface electromyography (EMG) recording and analysis, vocal recording and analysis, dataset preparation, time-series analysis, statistical modelling, programming in R, Matlab, or Python.
• Excellent skills in written and oral English.
• Personal suitability and motivation for the position.

The doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the application deadline. Appointment is dependent on the defence of the doctoral thesis.

In assessing the research outline, special emphasis will be placed on

• The alignment with the main project "SongGesture" and to what extent the outline is furthering the goals of the project, focusing in particular on examining interactions between gesture and vocalization in song performance
• The scientific merit and innovation of the research outline
• Feasibility of the research plan and outcomes 

What are we looking for in you? 

• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to successfully join in academic teamwork within and across disciplines
• Time-management and ability to carry out the project within the allotted time frame
• Adaptability and willingness to contribute to a good working environment

Employment in the position is based on a comprehensive assessment of all qualification requirements applicable to the position, including personal qualifications and assessment of the research outline.

We need different perspectives in our work 

UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.

We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues—could you be the next one?

We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.

If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps (Norwegian), we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).

The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports.More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.

We hope you will apply for the position with us. 

We offer

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• Committed colleagues in a good working environment.
• Good welfare schemes.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities. 
• Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
• Salary in position as Postdoctoral Fellow, position code 1352 in salary range NOK from 595 000 to 677 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.

Application

Your application should include:

• Application letter describing your qualifications and motivation for the position.
• CV (complete list of education, positions, teaching experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activities)
• A complete list of publications with links to the full versions of published paper
• If available, a code repo (e.g., Github), representative of the applicant’s work
• Research Outline: approx. 3 pages, maximum 9,000 characters. See Research Outline - template for PhD and Postdoctoral applications to RITMO (uio.no). 
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

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

Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for the position". 

The short listed candidates will be invited for interviews. 

General information

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we cannot, you will hear from us.

Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian) and Guidelines concerning appointment to post doctoral and research posts at UiO. Note that no one can be employed for more than one fixed-term period in the same position category at the same institution.

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.

Apply to this role

Questions about the position

• Lara Pearson (Project Leader), lara.pearson@imv.uio.no
• Pia Søndergaard (Head of Centre Administration), piason@uio.no
• Julie Bårdsen Tøllefsen (HR adviser), j.b.tollefsen@hf.uio.no