Type of position: 3 full-time postdoc positions

Expected starting date: 1 September 2025 

Duration of employment: 54 months (until 28.02.2030) 

Working time: 100% (40 hours per week) 

Application deadline: 2 June 2025 

Apply here: https://ut.ee/en/job-offer/research-fellow-digital-humanities

We are happy to announce that the University of Tartu Faculty of Arts and Humanities is launching a call for applications for 3 postdoctoral research fellows in Digital Humanities, at the Center for Digital Text Scholarship (DigiTS), funded by the European Union (see the project description here).

DigiTS is aimed at carrying out cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research using modern digital methods applied to textual data in Humanities and Social Sciences. To this end, an international and interdisciplinary team will be formed at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Tartu (UT), including postdocs and doctoral students. This new team of experts will enable key actions establishing UT as a center for research and education in Digital Humanities. Each Research Fellow will mainly conduct research in the field of digital humanities, computational linguistics, computational literary studies, digital history, or related fields (depending on individual competencies), while also having the opportunity to teach and to participate in governance and institutional development.

Applicants must have a PhD in Humanities, Social Sciences, Computer Science or related fields, experience in analysing textual data with digital tools, as well as experience in programming languages, such as Python or R. The research fellows will be employed at the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, but their specialisation and focus will depend on the broader context of their research. For further information, see the Center for Digital Humanities website and the job vacancy (opens 1 May). Applications should be submitted online by June 2. Each fellowship will run from the agreed-upon starting date (ideally 1 September 2025) through the end of the DigiTS project in February 2030. The gross salary is 3500€/month.

Please also note that the DigiTS team is looking for one junior research fellow (PhD student) in Digital Humanities to join the team, as well as possible collaboration with other new junior research fellows at our faculty. More information about the PhD job can be found here, and admission requirement are here.

For more information about the positions contact the project leaders Prof. Maciej Eder (maciej.eder@ut.ee) or Prof. Liina Lindström (liina.lindstrom@ut.ee)

Why apply now?

Currently there are multiple innovative projects being conducted in Estonia on closely related topics. This creates an exciting and promising scene for both formal and informal collaboration, especially since many of these projects are carried out at least partly at the University of Tartu, including the Estonian Center of Excellence in AI (EXAI), the ERC Consolidator project Rise and Demise of Industrial Modernity (RiDe), the Language Data Research Infrastructure (KeTa), and Neural text analysis models enhanced with external linguistic resources (description); note that RiDe is also offering PhD and postdoc positions.

Why study or work in Estonia?

Estonia offers Nordic quality of life, a strong academic environment and convenient digitized services—all while maintaining a reasonable cost of living that supports comfortable student life. The University of Tartu, founded in 1632, ranks among the top 1% of the world’s most cited universities and actively fosters sustainability and intersectoral collaboration, having produced numerous successful startups. Estonia itself ranks #1 in startups per capita in Europe. As a member of the EU and NATO, Estonia is internationally minded, and English is widely spoken. Estonia’s digital infrastructure streamlines official procedures, as everything from contracts to taxes can all be handled online in minutes by citizens and residents alike. Tartu is a lively university town known for its cozy atmosphere, vibrant student life, bike and walking friendly spaces, and scenic riverside. It has been named the UNESCO City of Literature, and the European Capital of Culture in 2024. The city is well connected to Europe and the world, but also offers easy access to nature, with nearby vast networks of forest hiking trails, excellent winter sports opportunities, and the charm of four distinct seasons.