Postdoctoral Fellow (Generative AI, Digital Media, and Public Attention)
Job Description
We are seeking a full-time Postdoctoral Fellow to conduct research at the intersection of political communication, digital media, and artificial intelligence. The position is part of a broader interdisciplinary research programme that uses computational and social scientific approaches to study emerging technologies and their role in shaping public attention and digital media ecosystems. The Principal Investigator is Assistant Professor Zening Duan in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore.
The position is well suited for a scholar interested in the communicative, political, and societal implications of generative AI technologies, particularly large language models (LLMs). The successful candidate will contribute to a research programme investigating how AI-generated content and conversational systems influence information seeking, attention allocation, and civic engagement. The programme also examines how global publics and organizations make sense of AI technologies and their implications for everyday digital life and communication practices. Depending on the fellow’s interests, the work may include AI auditing and evaluation, computational and multimodal analyses, experiments, surveys, and mixed methods research.
Benefits
- Internationally competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience
- Initial one year appointment with the possibility of renewal for a second year, subject to satisfactory performance and available funding
- Opportunities for collaboration across communication, computational social science, and AI-related research communities at NUS
- Excellent research support and infrastructure provided by CNM and NUS
Qualifications
Applicants should have, or expect to have by the start date, a PhD in Communication, Computational Social Science, Political Science, Information Science, Data Science, or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates with a strong grounding in political communication, messaging effects, media psychology, human-computer interaction, and computer-mediated communication. The successful candidate should demonstrate expertise in computational social science methods and experience working with large scale digital trace, multimodal, survey, and experimental datasets. Candidates with research experience involving large language models, such as prompt engineering, AI auditing and evaluation, human centered simulations, or agentic systems, would be especially well suited for the position. Due to the nature of the role, involving scientific writing and international collaboration, excellent written and spoken English is essential. Intellectual independence and a demonstrated interest in developing innovative research on AI, digital media, and their societal implications are highly desirable.
Responsibilities
The successful candidate will conduct independent, publishable research on generative AI technologies and digital media. Research topics may include AI-generated content, online discourse, public attention, and the societal implications of AI for communication and media ecosystems. The full-time Postdoctoral Fellow is expected to contribute to high-quality journal publications during the appointment. Other responsibilities include:
- Contribute to the design and implementation of research projects
- Conduct data collection, management, and analysis
- Prepare manuscripts for submission to academic journals, book chapters, and conferences
- Prepare presentation materials for meetings, workshops, and conferences
- Assist with research administration and project coordination
- Perform other duties as assigned
Application Procedure
Interested applicants are invited to submit the following documents via the NUS Career Portal.
- Cover letter describing the applicant’s interest in the position, relevant qualifications, and fit with the research agenda
- Curriculum vitae
- Two academic publications (journal articles, conference proceedings, or scholarly commentary)
- Names and contact information for at least two referees. Referees will be contacted for letters of recommendation if the applicant is shortlisted
- Optional link to a professional website, GitHub profile, or portfolio
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted directly by a faculty member or administrator for an interview.
