Here you find the profiles of the participating professors in the Humanities, Economics, and Social Sciences. This list is constantly updated. You can conveniently apply directly at the end of each profile: please download and fill in the application form and send it to us via e-mail (use the blue button at the end of the PDF form) by 15 February 2024. Please keep in mind to attach your CV and a publication list to the e-mail.
Important note: In case you would like to work with a researcher who has not uploaded a profile, please fill in the application form (PDF) and send it with your academic CV and a publication list to research-explorer@rs.rub.de by 15 February 2024 so that we can get in touch with the respective professor. Do NOT send any kind of application to a professor directly.
Faculty of Social Sciences
Institute for Socio-Economics
Focus on Empirical Inequality Research
Host's Website
Research Area:
Miriam Rehm is Professor of Socioeconomics with a focus on Empirical Inequality Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She is a member of the Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council (Fiskalrat). Her research focuses on inequality, the wealth distribution, labour economics, and gender. Her work has been published in journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, European Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Oxford Economic Review, Review of Income and Wealth, Review of Keynesian Economics, and Urban Studies.
Candidate Profile:
The ideal candidate's research profile revolves around quantitative inequality research, with a special emphasis on socio-economic and real-world phenomena. Cutting-edge econometrics combined with an interest in wealth and gender is preferred.
Faculty of Computer Science
Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security
Department for Human-centered Computing and Cognitive Science
Chair for Social Psychology: Media and Communication
Host's Website
Research Area:
My team and me are currently working on the mechanisms of human-AI-interaction. Specifically, we look into trust and how trust can be calibrated, i.e. how can the reliability of a system be communicated in a way that users trust in the system to exactly the amount the system warrants trust. Also, we are interested in how understanding/transparency of a system is related to the level of trust. However, we also address questions that more broadly look at humans and technology (desinformation, privacy, microtargeting). We are conducting empirical research, predominantly experimental designs.
Candidate Profile:
The candidate should be trained in empirical research methods (either qualitative or quantitative and preferrably quantitative). The best fit with the expertise which is present in my team would be training in conducting experimental studies. The candidate should have knowledge regarding human-technology-interaction from a social science perspective. Potential disciplines would be psychology, communication science or cognitive science.
Apply (download application form)
Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology
Institute of General Educational Sciences and Vocational Pedagogy
Education in the Context of Work and Occupations
Host's Website
Research Area:
My general research field is vocational education and training. Potential candidates should have an interest in
- Staff in Vocational Education and Training
- Formalised VET in-company programmes (e.g. traineeships and apprenticeships)
- Systems of Vocational and General Education.
Future projects and co-operation will be specifically targeted at the following issues:
• international comparisons on the topics of interest in qualitative and quantitaive terms and
• processes and effects of vocational knowledge transfer in a generational (e.g. between senior and junior workers) and institutional (e.g. between educational institutions and business and industry) perspective in an era of digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.
Cooperation will take place within the context of the Institute of General Educational Science.
Candidate Profile:
Candidates should have finished a PhD in the field of vocational education and training or in a neighboring field such as HRD or educational or work psychology or sociology. They should be interested in the abovementioned issues and proficient in the use of qualitative and/ or quantitative methods in international (comparative) research design.
Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences
Philosophy II
Philosophy of Mind, A. Newen
Host's Website
Research Area:
The main focus of the research group of Prof. Newen lies on the areas philosophy of mind and cognition. The central methodological approach is interdisciplinary: philosophical theory formation concerning the human mind should be intensely anchored in our empirical results from psychology, psychiatry and cognitive neurosciences. Furthermore, the research topics are often investigated from a comparative perspective, i.e. either comparing human mental abilities with cognitive abilities of nonhuman animals or with AI systems, especially social robots.
The research topics include:
1. philosophy of consciousness and self-consciousness
2. philosophy of memory and mental disorders
3. philosophy of social cognition including empathy (including Human-Robot-Interaction).
The research group offers a vivid and international environment which is connected with intense collaborations with (i) the Institut für Philosophie II and (ii) the Center for Mind and Cognition. Our working language is English.
Candidate Profile:
The candidate must have an outstanding PhD in philosophy (“summa cum laude”, “with distinction” or equivalents) and already have a profile which is typical for postdoc after two successful years. It is expected that the list of publications contains at least three articles published or accepted at international peer-reviewed journals. Alternatively the candidate should have published a monography with a highly respected publisher.
The research topics which are expected in this call are the following:
1. philosophy of consciousness and self-consciousness
2. philosophy of memory and mental disorders
3. philosophy of social cognition including empathy (including Human-Robot-Interaction).
We expect an academic CV (including a list of publications, academic talks etc.) and a letter of motivation as part of the application.
Institute of Work Science
Competence Center HUMAINE
Chair of Work, Human Resources & Leadership
Host's Website
Research Area:
The research community of the competence center HUMAINE follows a sociotechnical system perspective and faces challenges of work and employment against the background of artificial intelligence (AI) implementation in high-stake processes such as medical care, nursing, industrial management or quality control. The research approach includes cross-disciplinary analysis as well as design principles for job and process descriptions with respect to an user-oriented human-robot-interaction or AI application. The normative background results from the UN sustainable development goals, especially human-centered approaches in work and business (Industry 5.0). The HUMAINE team is awarded member of the World Universities Network and cooperates with seven international partners from five continents. In addition, the center is engaged in certain transfer activities and collaborates with regional companies and institutions.
Candidate Profile:
The perfect candidate has a research focus on responsible artificial intelligence (AI) applications in high-risk AI systems (e.g. recruitment, global supply-chain, medical care, defense, etc.) and contributes to operational processes such as human-centered job designs and process descriptions. The candidate elaborates on human-centered approaches either with respect to technological challenges of AI (e.g. trustworthiness, privacy, explainability), challenges in organizational development (e.g. accountability, user-integration) or challenges in personnel development, especially human agency and augmentation. The candidate complements the research perspectives and methodological approaches of the competence center HUMAINE (human-centered AI network) and combines a disciplinary background e.g. from computer science, engineering, psychology, human factor studies or management studies with ethical issues.
You can find more information here:
https://humaine.info/en/
Department of Arts and Sport Sciences
Institute for Sport and Sport Sciences
Research group: Data Analytics in Sport Sciences
Host's Website
Research Area:
At the Institute for Sport and Sport Sciences, we are pioneering work at the intersection of machine learning, health data science, wearable health, and human movement behavior analysis. Dr. Farrahi's team specifically focuses on studying movement behaviors measured by wearables and examining their links to health and diseases. The research group is dedicated to exploring innovative methodologies for investigating the interrelationships among wearable-measured 24-hour physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, and health. Our goal is to understand how the use of time and patterns of movement and non-movement behaviors are related to health and diseases. The research group utilizes data from large population-based cohort studies, integrating data from wearables, health records, and behavioral factors. Machine learning, deep learning, and other statistical approaches are utilized to make sense of these data, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of health and diseases, particularly at population level.
Candidate Profile:
We are seeking a candidate with strong expertise and backgrounds in (health) data science, machine learning, data-driven health, health informatics, statistics, mathematics, and/or related fields. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated skills in applying these disciplines within domains associated with sports sciences. Prior experience in working with wearable data and/or study of health behaviors in population-based studies would be advantageous.
Faculty of Humanities
Department of Geography
Economic Geography, Transport & Logistics
Host's Website
Research Area:
In research and teaching we are dedicated to the field of economic space and locations of commerce, spanning from a local to regional and to a global scale while exploring spatial structures, functions and interdependent complexities. One particular core area of our research focuses on geospacial aspects of traffic, mobility, transport and logistics. Regional emphases of our work lie on North-Rhine Westphalia (including the Ruhr Area and the Rhine Land), the region of BeNeLux, Alpine countries such as Switzerland and Austria, the U.S.-American northeast (New England and the BosWash-Megalopolis), the states of South Caucasus; Armenia and Georgia as well as the United Arab Emirates.
Our Department features the single one Geography Chair in Germany incorporating a specific focus on transport and logistics into the economic geographical research. In doing so, our department pursues - within the sense of applied geographics - a design-oriented strategy at the intersection of research and science to applications in economy, politics and administration.
Candidate Profile:
The candidate should have a degree in geographical sciences with a background in human or/and applied geography. The candidate should have interests in economically relevant regional topics and be able to master empirical (quantitative) research methods, GIS and data analysis with SPSS, R or Python.
Research Academy Ruhr (RAR) is the cross-university platform of Ruhr-Universität Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen for promoting early career researchers in the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr).
Stay up to date: Subscribe here for our latest news.
Event Calendar
Connect with us on 
