PhD student (m/f/d, E13 TV-L, 75%) Universität Tübingen

International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (ZEW), Universität Tübingen

The IZEW is an international, interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Tübingen that examines ethical issues arising within and from the sciences. We address the full spectrum of applied ethics. This includes topics such as AI, sustainable development, digitalisation, media and security. In addition to academic research and teaching, the IZEW pays particular attention to the transfer of findings from research in the ethics of science to the education sector and the general public.

Job description

The PhD student is based at the newly established Chair of ‘Ethics of Scientific and Technological Innovation’ at the International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences. Close collaboration with the ‘Norms & Practices Lab’ of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Machine Learning – New Perspectives for Science’ is planned. The successful candidate will work on a research project concerning ethical standpoints in large language models (LLMs), focusing in particular on issues of diversity, under the supervision of Prof. Sabine Ammon.

Responsibilities include:

• Contributing to the chair’s research focus on ethical perspectives in LLMs
• Pursuing a PhD in the subject area of the research focus
• Publishing, conference presentations and activities in science communication

Required qualifications

• A successfully completed academic degree in philosophy, computer science, or thematically related disciplines
• Major areas of study in the philosophy of language, philosophy of technology, ethics of technology, AI ethics, philosophy of science and/or feminist philosophy
• Basic programming skills and experience in prompting large language models (LLMs), or a willingness to learn these skills quickly
• Basic knowledge of statistics, or a willingness to learn these skills quickly
• A passion for interdisciplinary collaboration
• Very good command of English
• Ability to work as part of a team and to work independently

Modalities

Disabled candidates will be given preference over other equally qualified applicants. The University of Tübingen is committed to the goals of equality and diversity and actively promotes equal opportunities. The University aims to increase the proportion of women in research and teaching and therefore encourages suitably qualified female researchers to apply.

Please submit your application, comprising the standard documents (cover letter, tabular CV, certificates, an extract from your Master’s thesis and a term paper, a brief outline of a potential PhD topic, references and your proposed start date), consolidated into a single PDF document, by email by 30 September 2026 to: mone.spindler@izew.uni-tuebingen.de.

Recruitment is handled by the Central Administration of the University of Tübingen.