Student assistant for the project “Applied text analysis”

The Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites candidates for a position as a student assistant for the project “Applied text analysis.”

The position is for 1 year and 10-15 hours weekly. The expected start date is 15 April 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Introduction
In this position, you will join a team of researchers at the Department of Economics. Your main task will be to help us structure and map data on thousands of texts. One dataset that you would work with consists of texts that describe the missions and activities of millions of nonprofit organizations. Another dataset consists of hundreds of speeches. The purpose of the project is to analyze the topics, their clustering, variation over time and space, etc. We expect to see patterns in cultural values and identities of politicians and organizations reflected by the data. More broadly, the project is part of a tendency in the social sciences to focus on cultural values and identities as an important determinant of social factors.

The position is located within the Macroeconomics and the Historical Record (MEHR) group in the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen.

You will be assisting with:
1. Gathering large unstructured data using different methods such as web scraping or document data extraction, or by structuring existing digitized data.
2. Cleaning, merging, and visualizing these data.
3. Mapping these data using methods such as Natural Language Processing and network analysis.

We welcome applicants who have already worked with these methods, but it is not a requirement to master them. Instead, the most important requirement is that you have an interest in learning these types of methods and the substantive questions they are used to answer. You may also assist in econometric analysis and literature reviews, but this is not a requirement.

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. For more on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University’s participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, see https://employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu-charter-for-researchers/

Your competences and responsibilities
We expect you to be a student in computer science, economics, social data science, or data-economics (Danish: datalogi-økonomi) and to have a solid interest in working with quantitative data.

Your opportunities
As a student assistant in our group, you will learn:

• Experience in handling and analyzing large datasets
• Familiarity with methods used to conduct empirical research in social science
• Exposure to scholarship in political economy, economics of culture, and economic history
• Active involvement in all steps of the research process

Strategy of the Faculty of the Social Sciences
The Department of Economics is part of the Faculty of the Social Sciences. The Faculty is a successful academic community that strives to put knowledge into action by:

• Engaging partners in the co-creation of knowledge, learning and social change.
• Empowering our students to become reflective and responsible citizens who have the vision, the knowledge and the competence to change society for the better.
• Energizing global, European and Danish communities of knowledge by innovating research methodologies and by research findings with impact

For more on the Faculty strategy, SAMF strategy. You can read the Department’s strategy here: Strategy Department of Economics

Terms of Employment
The employment is made in accordance with the Collective Agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Organisations of Public Employees – governmental institutions (the OAO-S collective agreement) and under the Professional Agreement for clerical employees, laboratory technicians and IT officers in the state.

The minimum wage is DKK 140,56 (1 April 2024-level). Your salary will be based on seniority.

To be considered for the position, you must be enrolled as a student at university level and an active student.

The employment is limited to 1 year.

How to Apply
Submit a complete application at our online portal. Click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of the page to apply. The documents must be in Adobe PDF or Word.

Your application can be written in either Danish or English and must include the following documents:

• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcript
• Enrolment certificate

The deadline for applications is 11 April 2025.
Applications or enclosures received thereafter will not be considered.

The University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding society and invites all qualified applicants regardless of personal background to apply for the position.

Further information
Additional information about the position can be obtained from Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, e-mail: jeanet.bentzen@econ.ku.dk

The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is in the process of implementing a new joint administrative organisation and new workflows, which will lead to changes in the coming years. For more information, please contact Jeanet Sinding Bentzen, jeanet.bentzen@econ.ku.dk or Christel Brink Hansen, christel.brink.hansen@econ.ku.dk. You can also read more here.

Københavns Universitet giver sine knap 10.000 medarbejdere muligheder for at udnytte deres talent fuldt ud i et ambitiøst, uformelt miljø. Vi sikrer traditionsrige og moderne rammer om uddannelser og fri forskning på højt internationalt niveau. Vi søger svar og løsninger på fælles problemer og gør ny viden tilgængelig og nyttig for andre.

Kontakt
Jeanet Sinding Bentzen
E-mail: jeanet.bentzen@econ.ku.dk

Info
Ansøgningsfrist: 11-04-2025

Ansættelsesdato: 15-04-2025

Afdeling/Sted: Økonomisk Institut