An NWO XS grant has recently been awarded for my project entitled “AI in Great Power Competition: Comparing Political Narratives Across Chinese, Russian, and U.S. LLMs.” As part of the project, I am looking to hire two research assistants - students or recent graduates with an interest in textual analysis, AI, international relations and political science. 

STUDENT ASSISTANT: See attached - full vacancy description: SA Vacancy NWO XS Intigam Mamedov.

Information and application:
Applications should be submitted in English to Dr. Intigam Mamedov (i.mamedov@hum.leidenuniv.nl) and include a letter of motivation of approximately 500 words. It should be clear from the letter at what stage of the study the applicant is and when they intend to graduate. The letter should be accompanied by a resume (CV) and a certified copy of the list of grades obtained thus far in the BA and (where relevant) (r)MA. In the resume it should be clearly stated which software programs the applicant has experience with, and at what level. No letters of recommendation should be added, but instead the name of one staff member at Leiden University should be provided (name, e-mail, position) who is willing to provide further information should the need arise. Referees will be contacted directly.

Applications should be submitted no later than September 1, 2026.

Please direct all questions and related queries to Dr. Intigam Mamedov (i.mamedov@hum.leidenuniv.nl)

An NWO XS grant has recently been awarded for my project entitled “AI in Great Power Competition: Comparing Political Narratives Across Chinese, Russian, and U.S. LLMs.” As part of the project, I am looking to hire two research assistants - students or recent graduates with an interest in textual analysis, AI, international relations and political science. 

RESEARCH ASSISTANT: See attached - full vacancy description: RA Vacancy NWO XS Intigam Mamedov.

Information and application Applications should be submitted in English to Dr. Intigam Mamedov (i.mamedov@hum.leidenuniv.nl) and include a letter of motivation (approx. 500 words) explaining how the applicant meets the selection criteria and a resume (CV). In the resume it should be clearly stated which software programs the applicant has experience with, and at what level. No letters of recommendation should be added, but instead name(s), affiliation(s) and contact details of 1-2 academic referees should be provided. Referees will be contacted directly should the need arise.

Applications should be submitted no later than September 1, 2026.

Please direct all questions and related queries to Dr. Intigam Mamedov (i.mamedov@hum.leidenuniv.nl)

Enhancing, streamlining and maintaining the glottospace R package and creating educational content

For the NWO project Disentangling the roles of social and biophysical factors in the evolution of linguistic diversity in South America, we are looking for a research assistant (MA level) for 0.4 FTE (2 days per week) initially for 3 months, with possibilities for extensions. Task will consist of 2 parts: developing an existing R package (glottospace), and developing educational material for a few R packages for students of linguistics.

Project description glottospace

The glottospace R package (Norder et al. 2022) was developed to facilitate geospatial analysis of linguistic and cultural data. It is a popular and widely used package; so far it has been downloaded over 8000 times. However, since the package was launched in 2022, we’ve had limited time to update and maintain the package. The package now does four different things:

1. Data access to online global databases (e.g. glottolog, WALS, etc.)
2. Facilitate organizing/set-up of local (user-defined) databases following the glottodata structure
3. Statistical analysis and visualization (NMDS, etc.)
4. Geospatial analysis and visualization (mapping, etc.)

To make the package up-to-date, and to ensure long-term functionality, there are five things that need to be done:

1. enhance and improve existing functionality. This involves, amongst other things
   1. integrating access to new polygon databases (e.g. Glottography).
   2. modify some functions to match updates of dependencies (e.g. tmap V4 and ggplot2)
   3. improve visualizations (maps/figures) to be more publication-ready
2. simplify and split up the package into multiple related packages (to facilitate future maintenance)
3. fix bugs and implement feature requests (https://github.com/glottospace/glottospace/issues)
4. update README accordingly (https://github.com/glottospace/glottospace)
5. upload the package(s) to CRAN.

Project description creating educational content

Programming in R is only a small part of the descriptive track of Linguistics, but in we provide some of this in the Advanced Typology course. There is already some educational content for some basic steps in R (e.g. working with base R, dplyr, making maps). The idea would be to, in conversation with the supervisors, develop several step-by-step guides for MA students to create some visualizations and perform certain tests, mainly (but not only) focused on categorical data. The idea is to integrate (among other things) glottospace into these guides.

Job requirements

We are looking for an MA who has a solid background in programming (in R) and (geospatial) data analysis, and the desire to become more skilled in package development, as well as someone who is interested in translating this knowledge into educational materials. For package development, the candidate will follow the logic outlined in this book which provides concrete guidelines. The work can either be done remotely or on campus, regular meetings will be held with the supervisor(s). The job may also involve co-supervising interns. This project is an opportunity to contribute to open science, education, and to further develop your programming skills. The work relates to several ongoing (inter)national research projects.

If you are interested, send an email to e.van.gijn@hum.leidenuniv.nl where you outline your skills in relation to the job requirements.

The VALUE Foundation aims to design, facilitate, and conduct worldwide research, development, and outreach on the crossroads of gaming and academia. They are open to many types of collaborations at the interface of play and knowledge, whether volunteer or professional, from the gaming community and industry or research and education field. To get in touch please use their contact page.

PlayTime https://playfultimemachines.com/ is embedded in a lively community of play, game and heritage scholars at LUCAS, Leiden University’s Centre for the Arts in Society, and beyond. All team members are also members of the LUCDH, Leiden University’s Centre for the Digital Humanities.

See also Vidi grant award to Angus Mol for the research project 'A Study of the Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics of the Past in Video Games'