Working at the VUB
For more than 50 years, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has stood for freedom, equality and solidarity, and this is very much alive on our campuses among students and staff alike.
At the VUB, you will find a diverse collection of personalities: innovators pur sang, but above all people who are 100% their authentic selves. With some 4,000 employees, we are the largest Dutch-speaking employer, in the private sector, in Brussels; an international city with which we are only too happy to connect and where (around) our 4 campuses are located.
Add to this our principle of free research - in which self-reflection, a critical attitude and an open, creative mind around scientific and social issues are central - and you have a university that is fundamentally groundbreaking and pioneering in education and research. In short: the VUB all over again.
Moreover, the VUB is a member of EUTOPIA, an alliance of like-minded European universities, all ready to reinvent themselves.
Position description
The Faculty Social Sciences & Solvay Business School, Department Sociologie, Research Group Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant.
More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains:
The position is designed as a six-year doctoral trajectory including a teaching component of approximately 30% of the workload and a research component of approximatively 70%.
You will contribute to the department’s teaching activities, primarily by supporting and assisting statistical and quantitative courses within the Bachelor of Sociology. A strong affinity with quantitative methods is therefore essential. As the program is taught in Dutch, proficiency in Dutch, at the beginning of the appointment, is required. Furthermore, you will take part in the day-to-day functioning of the department.
The research part of this vacancy is situated at the intersection of sociology, artificial intelligence, and social inequalities. The PhD project is expected to engage with how AI systems shape, reproduce, or challenge inequalities across domains such as public services, labour markets, education, or migration governance. Topics may include but are not limited to algorithmic bias and fairness, trust in AI, data-driven decision-making in public institutions, the societal implications of AI deployment and the ethically and socially responsible use of AI for socio-political challenges. Both quantitative and computational approaches are welcome, with a strong openness to mixed methods designs.
You will be expected to develop a PhD research topic at the start of the appointment. This topic should be submitted to the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) as part of an application for a ‘Fellowship fundamental research’. You will receive guidance throughout this process from the supervisor and experienced colleagues.
You will be supervised by prof. dr. Tuba Bircan, within a dynamic research environment focusing on digitalisation and society.
For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.