Postdoc Position in Sociology/Anthropology: Muslim Users and Halal Dating Platforms

By joining this project, you will be part of a vibrant academic environment within the Radboud Social Cultural Research institute (RSCR), where scholars work at the intersection of sociology, media studies, religious studies, and anthropology. Your research will generate new insights into digital courtship among Muslim communities in the Netherlands while contributing to broader discussions on religion, technology and emotional labour in digital spaces.

This postdoctoral position is part of the NWO-funded project ’Faith Meets Swipe: Exploring Islamic Courtship on Halal Dating Apps’. The project investigates how Muslim users in the Netherlands engage with halal dating apps such as Muzz and Salams, navigating the tensions between faith-based values and algorithmic matchmaking in commodified digital environments. While online dating is often framed within Western-secular paradigms, this research examines how religious users adapt, negotiate and challenge digital dating norms.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will:

• Conduct digital ethnography, analysing app functionalities, algorithmic processes and user interactions.
• Lead semi-structured interviews with Muslim users in the Netherlands to explore their experiences on halal dating apps.
• Analyse qualitative data and contribute to theoretical discussions on digital religion, emotional labour and commodification.
• Write and submit a research article based on the project’s findings.
• Engage in academic discussions, conferences and potential outreach activities related to the research topic.

Postdoc Position in Sociology/Anthropology: Muslim Users and Halal Dating Platforms

By joining this project, you will be part of a vibrant academic environment within the Radboud Social Cultural Research institute (RSCR), where scholars work at the intersection of sociology, media studies, religious studies, and anthropology. Your research will generate new insights into digital courtship among Muslim communities in the Netherlands while contributing to broader discussions on religion, technology and emotional labour in digital spaces.

This postdoctoral position is part of the NWO-funded project ’Faith Meets Swipe: Exploring Islamic Courtship on Halal Dating Apps’. The project investigates how Muslim users in the Netherlands engage with halal dating apps such as Muzz and Salams, navigating the tensions between faith-based values and algorithmic matchmaking in commodified digital environments. While online dating is often framed within Western-secular paradigms, this research examines how religious users adapt, negotiate and challenge digital dating norms.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will:

• Conduct digital ethnography, analysing app functionalities, algorithmic processes and user interactions.
• Lead semi-structured interviews with Muslim users in the Netherlands to explore their experiences on halal dating apps.
• Analyse qualitative data and contribute to theoretical discussions on digital religion, emotional labour and commodification.
• Write and submit a research article based on the project’s findings.
• Engage in academic discussions, conferences and potential outreach activities related to the research topic.

PhD Position: Sustainability of Scalable AI

The goal of your PhD project is to develop methods to steer developments of large AI systems in such a way that they are environmentally sustainable. To this end, different designs of AI systems should be assessed during the design phase. Data flow diagrams are already used in NOLAI, and capture all the processing, storing and transmission of data: elements in the environmental impact of IT systems. You can extend these data flow diagrams with the expected environmental impact so different design variants can be considered by the team working on these systems.

You will measure and fill the unknowns uncovered in such a data flow diagram. The scalability of the core algorithms of a new nationwide AI system can be predicted using generated data sets of different sizes and measuring the environmental impact. This impact can be measured and calculated using our Software Energy Lab, which has multiple test machines with GPUs and, in the future, AI accelerators.

Development teams currently lack guidance on how to create sustainable systems. You will develop a method to help development teams choose the right algorithm and right hardware. This can be done by measuring (during the above-mentioned experiments) how the algorithms are constrained. They can be constrained by either compute power or memory bandwidth. This information can be used to calculate the theoretical maximum energy efficiency of an algorithm that is run on an architecture/accelerator. To make testing multiple architectures easier, you will leverage our existing approach to generate code from a single source code for multiple architectures and accelerators, called SaC.

You will create a way to disseminate the scalability and environmental impact within NOLAI. To this end, sustainable scalability labels of core algorithms should be made available within NOLAI. These labels can be used to design new systems. What should be included in these labels is part of this PhD research project. You will collaborate with scientific staff and PhD candidates from different disciplines and with a small team of software developers working on AI prototypes and infrastructure.

There is no teaching load in this position.

PhD Position: Sustainability of Scalable AI

The goal of your PhD project is to develop methods to steer developments of large AI systems in such a way that they are environmentally sustainable. To this end, different designs of AI systems should be assessed during the design phase. Data flow diagrams are already used in NOLAI, and capture all the processing, storing and transmission of data: elements in the environmental impact of IT systems. You can extend these data flow diagrams with the expected environmental impact so different design variants can be considered by the team working on these systems.

You will measure and fill the unknowns uncovered in such a data flow diagram. The scalability of the core algorithms of a new nationwide AI system can be predicted using generated data sets of different sizes and measuring the environmental impact. This impact can be measured and calculated using our Software Energy Lab, which has multiple test machines with GPUs and, in the future, AI accelerators.

Development teams currently lack guidance on how to create sustainable systems. You will develop a method to help development teams choose the right algorithm and right hardware. This can be done by measuring (during the above-mentioned experiments) how the algorithms are constrained. They can be constrained by either compute power or memory bandwidth. This information can be used to calculate the theoretical maximum energy efficiency of an algorithm that is run on an architecture/accelerator. To make testing multiple architectures easier, you will leverage our existing approach to generate code from a single source code for multiple architectures and accelerators, called SaC.

You will create a way to disseminate the scalability and environmental impact within NOLAI. To this end, sustainable scalability labels of core algorithms should be made available within NOLAI. These labels can be used to design new systems. What should be included in these labels is part of this PhD research project. You will collaborate with scientific staff and PhD candidates from different disciplines and with a small team of software developers working on AI prototypes and infrastructure.

There is no teaching load in this position.

Promovendus/Docent: Sociaal Recht

Als docent ben je betrokken bij het arbeidsrechtelijk onderwijs van de vaksectie Sociaal Recht. Denk aan het geven van werkgroeponderwijs en het begeleiden van scripties in zowel de bachelor- als masterfase. Als docent heb je een belangrijke taak om de volgende generatie juristen te inspireren en hen op een wetenschappelijke manier te leren nadenken over het arbeidsrecht.

Daarnaast verricht je promotieonderzoek op het snijvlak van het arbeids- en migratierecht. Arbeidsmigratie staat volop in de schijnwerpers. Veel arbeidsmigranten in Nederland hebben te maken met oneerlijke, onveilige en/of ongezonde woon- en werkomstandigheden. Tegelijkertijd hebben de Nederlandse economie en arbeidsmarkt arbeidsmigranten de komende jaren hard nodig. Met jouw onderzoek lever je een belangrijke bijdrage aan de maatschappelijke en juridische discussie over de positie van arbeidsmigranten in Nederland.

Aangezien arbeidsmigratie op het snijvlak van het arbeidsrecht en het migratierecht ligt, verricht je het onderzoek niet alleen binnen de vaksectie Sociaal Recht maar ook binnen de vaksectie Rechtssociologie en Migratierecht (Centrum voor Migratierecht). De samenwerking stelt je in staat de twee rechtsgebieden met elkaar te verbinden en vernieuwend onderzoek te doen.

De precieze invalshoek van het onderzoek staat niet vast. Het begeleidingsteam denkt bijvoorbeeld aan een onderzoek naar de bijzondere positie van kennismigranten in het (Europese) migratie- en arbeidsrecht, maar we moedigen je aan je eigen draai te geven aan het onderzoek. De onderwijstaak is vastgesteld op 70% en de onderzoekstaak op 30% van je werktijd.