Call for Applications for Visiting Faculty: AI & Society

Call for Applications for Visiting Faculty: AI & Society 

Academic Year 2025-2026

Application deadline: November 7, 2024

Sciences Po is calling for outstanding applications for visiting faculty from around the world.

In the 2025-2026 academic year (Fall 2025, Spring 2026), Sciences Po will open two visiting faculty positions in the social sciences or humanities, for up to a semester-long stay (13 weeks maximum) on the theme of AI and society.

Sciences Po is an international research university, both selective and open to the world, ranking among the finest institutions in the fields of humanities and social sciences. Sciences Po stands out for combining approaches and confronting different worldviews. This tradition of diversity and its multidisciplinary approach makes Sciences Po a reputed player in academic research through its scientific production, an internationally recognized teaching university, an active participant in public debate, and a forum where thought meets action.

Detailed information about our research units, Undergraduate College and Graduate schools can be found on our website.

Sciences Po has formed the Open Institute for Digital Transformations, with the objective of promoting a new institutional approach to research and teaching based on reaffirming the importance of social sciences and humanities to the field as well as collaboration between the social sciences and humanities and the natural and computer sciences.

Within this Institute, Sciences Po is calling for applications for visiting faculty from around the world on the transformative role of AI in society and its potential impacts on democracy.

Research proposals may focus on, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• The economic impact of AI technologies, including on productivity, markets, and the structure and history of technology companies;
• AI and society: the transformation of work in various industries (health, insurance, news, creation, entertainment, science and education, etc.) including the fairness and inequality issues machine learning-based technology may rise;
• Digital law and governance: including regulation of AI technologies, algorithms and their use in social media, digital surveillance, rule of law and constitutional freedoms, challenges and opportunities of AI decision-making in government, geopolitics and global governance of AI, legal issues of generative AI productions, digitalisation of public services and governance, etc;
• Algorithms and politics, including the impact of social media on political competition and partisanship; political communication and discourse; political participation, public consultations, and elections; democratic innovations;
• AI and the information ecosystem, including misinformation, narrative manipulation, micro-targeting, and media system transformation;
• Technology and public participation, including measurement of public opinion online, harmful online discourse (hate speech), online social mobilization, etc;
• Social sciences and AI: new methods and data sources for the humanities and social sciences including: machine learning for social sciences, in silico sociology, digital humanities, etc.

Visiting faculty will be hosted in one of the Sciences Po research units, and will benefit from a collaborative research dynamic between researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the Open Institute for Digital Transformations.

The Visiting programme is open to academics at any career stage and in any discipline. We encourage researchers from all around the globe, especially women, to apply.

CONDITIONS

Visiting faculty will receive an overall monthly stipend of 4,000 euros (before taxes).

Visiting faculty are expected to teach one full course (12 x 2 hour sessions) with a digital/technological focus over the semester. They are also expected to contribute actively to the research community they will join, and to deliver at least one academic lecture or seminar presentation during their stay in line with the activities organized by the Open Institute for Digital Transformations.

Visiting faculty will be given access to an office space on campus, in the heart of Paris, to the Sciences Po library and other university facilities and to the research activities and events programme driven by the research unit in which they will be hosted.

The stay is to be scheduled between late August / start of September 2025 and November / December 2025, or between January 2026 and April / May 2026.

Sciences Po is a bilingual university (English and French); French is therefore not required in order to apply for this position.

APPLICATION

Applicants must be current full-time permanent faculty members of their home university or research institute, hold a doctorate (or equivalent university degree), and have teaching experience.

Application materials include the following and must be submitted in English or in French:

• A statement of interest for the position;
• A presentation of current and future research projects;
• A proposed course to be taught in English or French, and a two-page, session-by-session description of each course’s content, for the Undergraduate College of Sciences Po or one of Sciences Po’s graduate schools;
• An up-to-date curriculum vitae, including list of publications;
• An invitation letter from one of the Sciences Po research centers;
• A letter of support from the relevant head of department or dean of the applicant’s home institution confirming their agreement for a one-semester residence at Sciences Po.

Important: Please note that you should contact the relevant Research Centre at least 2 to 3 weeks prior to the deadline for applications to secure a letter of invitation in due time.

Applications should be submitted by email to Carly Hafner, Secretary General of the Open Institute for Digital Transformations: carly.hafner@sciencespo.fr.

Applicants should feel free to reach out to Jean-Philippe Cointet, Director of the Open Institute for Digital Transformations: jeanphilippe.cointet@sciencespo.fr.

DEADLINE

Deadline for applications: November 7, 2024.

A selection committee will meet after the submission deadline, and decisions will be communicated to applicants by Sciences Po shortly thereafter.