Postdoc Position in the Anthropology of Art and Digital Media

Universität Wien -
Wien, W

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Vollständige Stellenbeschreibung

The University of Vienna is a community of almost 11,000 individuals, including approximately 7,700 academic staff members, who passionately pursue answers to the profound questions that shape our future. Fueled by curiosity and a deep sense of duty, they contribute invaluable insights to research and teaching, enriching our society. Are you inspired and driven by the desire to make a meaningful impact? We are currently seeking a/an

Postdoc Position in the Anthropology of Art and Digital Media

49 Faculty of Social Sciences

Job vacancy starting: 10/01/2026 | Working hours: 40,00 | Classification CBA: §48 VwGr. B1 lit. b (postdoc)

Limited contract until: 09/30/2028

Job ID: 5672

Contract until: Sept 30 2028. The initial contract is for one year. Based on a satisfactory performance, the contract will be renewed for an additional year. Job interviews will be held on Zoom in early July.

Project Overview:

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will work for the ERC project ‘The Anthropology of the Future: An Art World Perspective’ (ANTHROFUTURE), led by Prof. Manuela Ciotti (Principal Investigator, PI). The project is based at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna.
ANTHROFUTURE focuses on the art world as an interlocked digital-physical system and ethnographic site. The project uses innovative multimodal methodologies to generate analytical and theoretical advancements on the future as a temporal category in its comparative and political dimensions across the regional contexts under analysis. Further details are available at:

As part of the ANTHROFUTURE team, you will carry out a digital ethnography of artists and social media in South Asia and the Gulf region. Short visits to the field sites to meet artists are included in the project. You will investigate the visual content production driving social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. These are unique generative sites for understanding how art world institutions and professionals inhabit spheres transformed by the acceleration of the future into the present, induced by the pandemic and the multiple crises of the present. You will capture and examine the visual content produced by artists and zoom in on a selected number of them – across age groups and based in the regions under analysis – in order to research and develop case studies. The above social media platforms have become increasingly popular in the art world, leading scholars to investigate ‘art after Instagram’ (MacDowall and Budge 2021). Research on how artists inhabit these spaces is therefore key. Scholars have argued that digital media are bound to be transformed by the actors using them (Miller et al. 2016) and need to be provincialised through ethnographic studies to show the particular ways in which they shape sociocultural worlds, beyond claims of universally homogeneous usage (Coleman 2010). You will extend these arguments to the social media platforms in question, which uniquely foreground the production of digital content and challenge ‘traditional’ art school education through an increasing number of users who are not formally trained in art. This project will ask: What does visual content tell us about artists’ participation in the art world? How do artists navigate the digital and physical dimensions of this world between censorship risks and precarious environments? How does visual content relate to ideas of the future?

Based on the insights generated through this ethnography, you will carry out a data harvest from social media platforms with the aid of a web developer provided by the project.

Your tasks:

You will take on research and administrative tasks to support the project ANTHROFUTURE and will be expected to:

Work on your research project within ANTHROFUTURE and its completion within 2 year

Develop and deliver high-quality, innovative research outcomes related to the topic of the research projec

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This is what we look for:

Must-haves:

Completed PhD degree in the fields of digital anthropology, digital humanities, anthropology of media, anthropology of data, or anthropology of art
Experience in academic writing and multimodal research methods, with a focus on digital media
Excellent command of written and spoken English (C1 Level)
You should be a team player with strong social skills to be able to successfully work and collaborate with the ANTHROFUTURE team
IT user skills: e.g. MS Office

What we offer:

Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible, family-friendly working hours, with the option for hybrid work (partially in home office) upon agreement.

Inspiring working atmosphere: You are a part of an international academic team in a healthy and fair working environment.

Good public transport connections: Your workplace in the center of beautiful Vienna is easily accessible by public transport.

Internal further training & coaching: Opportunity to deepen your skills on an ongoing basis. There are over 600 courses to choose from – free of charge.

Fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 5.014,30 (for 40,00 weekly working hours, 14 times per year) increases if we can credit professional experience.

Equal opportunities for all: We welcome every additional/new personality to the team!

It is that easy to apply:

Submit the following documents in English:

Letter of motivation, including the names and contacts of two referee

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Via our job portal/ Apply now - butto

If you have any questions, please contact:

Manuela Ciotti

[email protected]

We look forward to new personalities in our team!
The University of Vienna has an anti-discriminatory employment policy and attaches great importance to equal opportunities, the advancement of women and diversity. We place particular emphasis on enhancing women’s representation among the academic and general university staff, particularly in leadership roles, and therefore expressly encourage qualified women to apply. Given equal qualifications, preference will be given to female candidates.

University of Vienna. Space for personalities. Since 1365.

Data protection
Application deadline: 06/26/2026

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Postdoc Position in the Anthropology of Art and Digital Media

Project Overview:

Your tasks:

This is what we look for:

What we offer:

It is that easy to apply:

If you have any questions, please contact:

University of Vienna. Space for personalities. Since 1365.

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