Postdoc Position in the Anthropology of Art and Digital Media

Postdoc Position in the Anthropology of Art and Digital Media

49 Faculty of Social Sciences
Startdate:01.10.2026 | Working hours:40 | Collective bargaining agreement:§48 VwGr. B1 lit. b (postdoc)
Limited until:30.09.2028
Reference no.:5672

Contract until: Sept 30 2028. The initial contract is for one year. Based on a satisfactory performance, the contract will be renewed for an additional year. Job interviews will be held on Zoom in early July.

Project Overview:

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will work for the ERC project ‘The Anthropology of the Future: An Art World Perspective’ (ANTHROFUTURE), led by Prof. Manuela Ciotti (Principal Investigator, PI). The project is based at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna.

ANTHROFUTURE focuses on the art world as an interlocked digital-physical system and ethnographic site. The project uses innovative multimodal methodologies to generate analytical and theoretical advancements on the future as a temporal category in its comparative and political dimensions across the regional contexts under analysis. Further details are available at: https://www.anthrofuture.com.

As part of the ANTHROFUTURE team, you will carry out a digital ethnography of artists and social media in South Asia and the Gulf region. Short visits to the field sites to meet artists are included in the project. You will investigate the visual content production driving social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. These are unique generative sites for understanding how art world institutions and professionals inhabit spheres transformed by the acceleration of the future into the present, induced by the pandemic and the multiple crises of the present. You will capture and examine the visual content produced by artists and zoom in on a selected number of them – across age groups and based in the regions under analysis – in order to research and develop case studies. The above social media platforms have become increasingly popular in the art world, leading scholars to investigate ‘art after Instagram’ (MacDowall and Budge 2021). Research on how artists inhabit these spaces is therefore key. Scholars have argued that digital media are bound to be transformed by the actors using them (Miller et al. 2016) and need to be provincialised through ethnographic studies to show the particular ways in which they shape sociocultural worlds, beyond claims of universally homogeneous usage (Coleman 2010). You will extend these arguments to the social media platforms in question, which uniquely foreground the production of digital content and challenge ‘traditional’ art school education through an increasing number of users who are not formally trained in art. This project will ask: What does visual content tell us about artists’ participation in the art world? How do artists navigate the digital and physical dimensions of this world between censorship risks and precarious environments? How does visual content relate to ideas of the future?

Based on the insights generated through this ethnography, you will carry out a data harvest from social media platforms with the aid of a web developer provided by the project.

Your tasks:

You will take on research and administrative tasks to support the project ANTHROFUTURE and will be expected to:

• Work on your research project within ANTHROFUTURE and its completion within 2 years
• Carry out research in full compliance with ethics, data, and best-practice research guidelines agreed with the ERC, and be supported to do so
• Develop and deliver high-quality, innovative research outcomes related to the topic of the research project
• Participate in conferences of appropriate learned societies and associations
• Produce research publications for leading international peer-reviewed journals, as well as book chapters for ANTHROFUTURE
• Produce research dissemination materials for the project’s public-facing website and social media channels
• Assist with exhibition projects (both physical and digital)
• Work with the project administrator to ensure that they have the information and materials needed to support the smooth running of the case study and the wider ANTHROFUTURE project
• Work closely with the PI and the other members of the ANTHROFUTURE research team to assist with research and outcome delivery, and other tasks as agreed with the PI
• Travel, including international travel where necessary and appropriate

This is what we look for:

Must-haves:

• Completed PhD degree in the fields of digital anthropology, digital humanities, anthropology of media, anthropology of data, or anthropology of art
• Experience in academic writing and multimodal research methods, with a focus on digital media
• Excellent command of written and spoken English (C1 Level)
• You should be a team player with strong social skills to be able to successfully work and collaborate with the ANTHROFUTURE team
• IT user skills: e.g. MS Office

What we offer:

Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible, family-friendly working hours, with the option for hybrid work (partially in home office) upon agreement.

Inspiring working atmosphere: You are a part of an international academic team in a healthy and fair working environment.

Good public transport connections: Your workplace in the center of beautiful Vienna is easily accessible by public transport.

Internal further training & coaching: Opportunity to deepen your skills on an ongoing basis. There are over 600 courses to choose from – free of charge.

Fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 5.014,30 (for 40,00 weekly working hours, 14 times per year) increases if we can credit professional experience.

Equal opportunities for all:We welcome every additional/new personality to the team!

It is that easy to apply:

Submit the following documents in English:

• Letter of motivation, including the names and contacts of two referees
• Your scientific curriculum vitae (including a list of publications)
• Writing sample (an article or a chapter from your thesis)
• Statement outlining how you will contribute to the project attached to this position and ANTHROFUTURE
• PhD degree certificate / Diploma
• Via our job portal / Apply now - button

If you have any questions, please contact:
Manuela Ciotti
manuela.ciotti@univie.ac.at

Application deadline: 06/26/2026