One-year post-doctoral position in Cultural Evolution and Social Cognition

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A one-year post-doctoral position in Cultural Evolution and Social Cognition is currently open at the Département d’Etudes Cognitives (DEC) of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. This project will be conducted under the supervision of Nicolas Baumardat the Institut Jean Nicod (IJN) and Julie Grèzes at the Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC).

Project Summary

The project aims to document the so-called ‘process of civilization’, the set of long-term psychological changes that occurred in Europe from 1300 to 1900. The project will study the evolution of emotional displays in European literature (novels, plays) from the late Middle Age to the modern times and will test whether economic development can account for the evolution of social preferences such as trust, morality and honor. More generally, the goal of the project is to test whether life history parameters (mortality, affluence, external threat) can account for psychological changes in history. We are looking for a postdoctoral fellow with a strong background inprogramming and data analysis.

Funding and Salary

The position is funded by a LabeX grant from PSL* Research University. The salary will be adjusted to the candidate’s post doctoral experience (start salary for a 1st year post doc: 30,000 euros/year net; 5 years of experience: 38,000).

Start Date

The start date will be determined with the candidate but will need to fall within the following range: 30/09/2018 to 01/01/2019.

Requirements

  • The candidate should have a PhD (or be in the final stages of obtaining such a degree) in Cognitive Science, Cultural Evolution, Economics or areas related to quantitative analysis of social phenomena.
  • Experience with data analysis along with strong programming and statistical skills (matlab, r).
  • Strong language and writing skills in English are required (note: speaking French is not required).

Please send a complete CV, a cover letter and contact information of two references by September 15th to nicolas.baumard@ens.fr and julie.grezes@ens.fr, and feel free to contact us for more information!