UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution, with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus, CHUV and Epalinges. As an employer, UNIL encourages excellence, individual recognition and responsibility.

„impresso – Beyond Borders“ is an interdisciplinary research project which aims to pioneer new approaches for the joint exploration of newspaper and radio sources published in five languages and to advance innovative historical research practices in a transnational and transmedia perspective. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (2023–2027), it is led by the DHLAB at EPFL, the Department of Computational Linguistics at the University of Zurich, the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH, Luxembourg) and the History Department at the University of Lausanne, with additional support from 21 European partners including leading national libraries, audiovisual institutes, newspapers, radio stations, cultural heritage institutions, and international research networks. Historians, computational linguists, computer scientists, digital humanists and designers will work closely together to develop the technical means and scientific methods to reach these goals.

„impresso – Beyond Borders“ follows the first impresso project which developed a scalable architecture for the processing of Swiss and Luxembourgish newspaper collections and created an interface with powerful search, filter, and discovery functionalities based on semantic enrichments. The present project puts forward the vision of a comprehensive connection between media archives across languages and media types.

Job information:

Expected start date in position : 1 September 2023
Contract length : 3,5 years (42 months)
Activity rate : 100 percent
Workplace : Lausanne-Dorigny
Deadline : 4 May 2023

Your responsibilities:

In collaboration with the project team, you will contribute to this international and interdisciplinary research by strengthening the historical perspective. You will be expected to produce a thesis at the crossroads of media and diplomatic history from a transmedia perspective. In particular, you will have access to an unprecedented corpus of historical newspaper and radio archives stemming from 8 Western European countries and written in five languages.

Main tasks:

- complete a PhD thesis on European mass media and Swiss cultural diplomacy in the 20th century. There is some flexibility in determining the exact research topic, depending on your interests. The dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Raphaëlle Ruppen Coutaz, may be written in French or English
- contribute to the common project objectives (e.g., co-design the tools and the interface for the exploration of historical newspaper and radio archive corpora)
- participate regularly and actively in the events organised by the project (workshops, internal research stays, etc.)
- Support the organisation of international conferences and the editing of publications
- Present research work at conferences and through scientific publications
- Contribute to teaching activities related to the project
- 15 percent of work time will be reserved for the activities and life of the History Department (UNIL)

Your qualifications:

You have a substantial background in contemporary history, as well as a strong interest in digital humanities and interdisciplinary research.

- A Master’s degree in contemporary history (obtained at the time of taking up the position) or equivalent qualification
- Strong interest in media history and the history of cultural diplomacy
- Ability to work on sources in French and German
- Interest in using digital humanities and digital history methods; interest for data-driven and computational approaches is desirable
- Very good oral and written skills in French and English and good reading skills in German
- Strong collaborative and team spirit
- Autonomous and accountable with a proactive approach
- Comfortable in an international and multicultural context

What the position offers you:

We offer a nice working place in a multicultural, diverse and dynamic academic environment. Opportunities for professional training, a lot of activities and other benefits to discover. Please contact : Dr. Raphaëlle Ruppen Coutaz (raphaelle.ruppencoutaz@unil.ch). Please submit the following documents in PDF format only via the career website of the University of Lausanne:

- Letter of motivation
- Full CV
- Copies of university diplomas and degrees; transcripts (indicating marks/grades achieved)
- List of research work carried out
- Copy of your Master’s thesis, a seminar work or another scientific publication
- One letter of reference

Only applications through the website will be considered.

We thank you very much for your understanding.