"PhD Candidate in Emotionally and Socially Aware Natural Language Processing"

Job Description

The Faculty of Science and the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) are looking for a PhD Candidate in Emotionally and Socially Aware Natural Language Processing (1.0 FTE).

Project Description: Current Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems, especially large language models (LLMs), interact with human emotions but lack frameworks to understand and shape these interactions. These systems often reproduce social biases, generate toxic content, or fail to respond safely to emotional cues, as language is treated as data rather than a social practice.

This PhD project aims to make NLP systems emotionally and socially aware by understanding human engagement, creating models that respond safely to emotional cues, respect cultural variation, and adapt to interactions. The candidate will:

• Create datasets and benchmarks capturing emotional cues, conversational norms, and cultural variation beyond English;
• Run user studies on how people perceive and collaborate with conversational AI, focusing on trust, cultural sensitivity, and affective interaction;
• Design methods and metrics to evaluate bias, fairness, inclusivity, safety, and emotional responsiveness;
• Explore applications in conversational agents, mental well-being, and education;
• Design interventions to reduce bias and improve fairness and safety in human-AI interaction.

The research combines computational modeling (e.g., NLP, machine learning, deep learning) with human-centered research (e.g., user studies, experimental design, qualitative analysis). Candidates should have curiosity about how people experience language technologies and how AI shapes interactions. Background in bias and fairness, emotion, or user-centered evaluation is advantageous.

The candidate will be embedded in the Human AI cluster at LIACS, supervised by Dr. Flor Miriam Plaza del Arco, Prof. Suzan Verberne, and Prof. Joost Broekens. More information: Human AI cluster.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct original research in socially aware and trustworthy NLP;
• Publish and present articles in international conferences (e.g., ACL, EMNLP) and journals;
• Collaborate in interdisciplinary settings;
• Assist in teaching and supervision activities at LIACS;
• Write a dissertation.

Selection Criteria:

• MSc degree in Computer Science, NLP, AI, Computational Linguistics, or related field;
• Strong background in NLP, machine learning, and deep learning;
• Excellent programming skills in Python, with experience in fine-tuning language models and frameworks like PyTorch;
• Interest in interdisciplinary research (e.g., HCI, computational social science, affective computing);
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively;
• Good writing and presentation skills;
• Interest in educational activities and public engagement;
• Excellent English proficiency.

Research at the Faculty:

The Faculty of Science is a dynamic international environment focused on academic development and societal challenges. It includes diverse research from mathematics to environmental sciences, with over 2,300 staff and 5,000 students at Leiden’s Bio Science Park.

Terms and Conditions:

Full-time position for one year, extendable to four years upon positive evaluation. Salary: €3,059 to €3,881 gross per month. Benefits include holiday bonus, training, and sabbatical leave.