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Type of Position:
ResearchersNo
Job Type:
RegularNo
Institution Name:
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Below you will find the details for the position including any supplementary documentation and questions you should review before applying for the opening.  To apply for the position, please click theApply link/button.

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Department:
COSMOS - Provisional Positions
Summary of Job Duties:
The Postdoctoral Fellow position is a full-time, provisional position with the COSMOS Research Center (cosmos.ualr.edu) at the University of Arkansas and is funded through a grant or contract. The position renewal is contingent upon continued grant funding and satisfactory job performance. Postdoctoral Fellow will develop socio-computational models to advance our understanding of cyber campaigns run on social media, grounded in the dynamics of various social and communication processes such as group formation, activation, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. The Postdoctoral Fellow will help extract relevant open-source information in a guided snowball data collection manner by leveraging cyber forensics and deep web search-based methodologies. Postdoctoral Fellow will work with the research team in developing predictive models of various socio-technical behaviors on different social media platforms (including multimedia-rich platforms), and usable tools/software to identify key actors and key groups responsible for coordinating cyber campaigns and disseminating propaganda. This is an on-campus position. This position is governed by state and federal laws, and agency/institution policy.

The position reports to Prof. Nitin Agarwal ([redacted]), Maulden-Entergy Endowed Chair, Distinguished Professor, and Director, COSMOS Research Center at UA-Little Rock.
Qualifications:

Required Education and/or Experience: 

• The candidate must have a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Information Science, or a related discipline;

• The candidate must have 3+ years of research experience in social media mining, computational modeling of social science theories, working with social network analysis tools, and examining cyber campaigns conducted on social media. The research experience must be demonstrated through published research articles in leading journals and conferences relevant to the topics mentioned above; and

• The candidate must have 1+ years of experience in grant writing and management. Grant writing experience must be demonstrated through a successful grant acquisition and management record.

Preferred Education and/or Experience: 

• Candidates with extensive research experience in computer programming and data management will be given preference.

• Candidates with successful grant-writing experience and a strong publication record will be given preference.

Job Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Prepare and submit grant applications for external funding;

• Project management (e.g., setting and tracking deadlines and progress of team members, providing reports to the supervisor);

• Lead and coordinate project meetings, including agenda setting and minute-taking;

• Assist in developing new research initiatives aligned with the Center’s mission;

• Manage complex research projects, offering strategic direction and oversight;

• Conduct social media analysis to support research projects, including ideation, hypothesis generation, data collection, preprocessing, and analysis of cyber behaviors;

• Analyze multimedia-rich content within online information environments;

• Synthesize research findings into written reports and scholarly publications, and present at conferences, program reviews, and other scientific venues;

• Develop software modules to operationalize and transition research outcomes into practical tools;

• Support stakeholder training in research methodologies and developed tools;

• Mentor and oversee graduate students involved in research, preparing for an academic or professional career;

• Perform other duties and provide additional support as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Advanced in data analysis, modeling, machine learning, and AI, using Python and SQL, with extensive experience in libraries and frameworks such as Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, Gensim, BERTopic, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and LLMs;

• Advanced in data visualization using Matplotlib, Seaborn, and ggplot2, and experienced in managing research projects with tools like Git/GitHub, ClickUp, and Jupyter Notebooks;

• Advanced in NLP, text mining, and graph analytics, including the use of NLTK, spaCy, TextBlob, VADER, and transformer-based models (e.g., BERT, GPT);

• Familiar with social network analysis (SNA) using NetworkX, igraph, and Gephi for complex network and graph-based data exploration;

• Successful research grant writing and management record for federal (e.g., NSF, DoD) and state (e.g., ARA) funding agencies and foundations;

• Advanced understanding of research methodologies, data collection strategies, and statistical/analytical techniques;

• Advanced in computational social science, including social network analysis and social media mining;

• Extensive experience researching cyber campaigns on social media platforms;

• Skilled in analyzing multimedia content in dynamic and complex online environments;

• Proficient in qualitative and mixed-methods data collection and analysis;

• Demonstrated ability to translate research into usable, operational tools or applications;

• Strong computer programming and data management skills;

• Culturally competent and able to work effectively with individuals from diverse disciplinary backgrounds;

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills for scholarly publication, collaboration, and public engagement;

• Experience supervising and mentoring student researchers and volunteers;

• Excellent organizational and project management capabilities, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and deadlines;

• Proven ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary research team.

Additional Information:

$95,000 annualLetters of Recommendation, Listing of Publications, List of three Professional References (name, email, business title), Resume
Special Instructions to Applicants:
Prof. Nitin Agarwal
Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Chair and Donaghey Distinguished Professor
Director, COSMOS Research Center

All application materials must be uploaded to the University of Arkansas System Career Site   

Please do not send to listed recruitment contact.