The University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany, is hiring five PhD and postdoctoral researchers.
Expressions of interest are possible until November 18, 2026. The job announcement reads:
The Professorship of Practical Philosophy (Ethics) at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN), led by Prof. Michael Klenk, invites expressions of interest for five full-time PhD and postdoctoral research positions, with anticipated starting dates between January and April 2027. We are building a research group dedicated to rigorous philosophical research on ethics, social influence, practical agency, and emerging technologies.
ERC Starting Grant: Careful, Now! (3 positions)
The project develops a new socio-technical theory of manipulation and its normative status.
1. Postdoctoral researcher: Social and Agentic Dependence ( 3 years)
AOS/AOC: Social epistemology, feminist epistemology, disability studies, relational autonomy, 4E cognition, or related areas.
2. Postdoctoral researcher: Experimental Philosophy of Manipulation (3 years)
AOS: Experimental philosophy. AOC: Ethics, social philosophy, or related fields. Expertise in advanced empirical methods and interdisciplinary collaboration is particularly welcome.
3. PhD researcher: Ethics and Politics of Manipulation (4 years)
AOS/AOC: Moral and political philosophy, particularly manipulation, autonomy, social influence, and their normative and axiological significance.
Two additional positions in Analytic Philosophy
4. Postdoctoral researcher (4 years)
5. PhD researcher (4 years)
AOS (both positions): Open. Particularly welcome are research interests complementing or extending the group’s work, including action theory, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, formal epistemology, and related areas. Research projects need not focus on manipulation. We particularly welcome applicants whose research will complement or extend the group’s broader interests in ethics, agency, social influence, and related areas.
Employment Conditions
All positions are full-time (100%) and fixed-term, with salaries according to the German public-sector collective agreement (TV-L), normally E13 (currently starting at approximately €4,760 gross per month, with higher salaries depending on recognized professional experience).
Practical Philosophy at UTN
My vision for the group is to build a team of excellent, ambitious, and intellectually curious philosophers who enjoy working together, exchanging ideas, and pursuing shared goals. I want to foster a collegial, supportive, and ambitious research culture in which everyone can develop their own research agenda while contributing to joint projects, teaching, publications, grant applications, and engagement with the wider philosophical and interdisciplinary community. Above all, I want us to do excellent philosophy and enjoy doing it together.
About UTN
UTN is a young, internationally oriented university being built from the ground up, offering a rare opportunity to help shape a new academic environment. Its interdisciplinary profile brings philosophy into close contact with computer science, AI, psychology, and other fields. The Practical Philosophy group benefits from substantial research funding, including an ERC Starting Grant, and is developing strong connections with philosophical and interdisciplinary research communities in Germany and internationally. Joining now means helping to shape the group’s intellectual direction and research culture from the beginning.
Expressions of interest – Deadline: 18 November 2026
Further information about the positions and the short expression-of-interest form:
Please use the form as the first point of contact. For additional questions not addressed there, please contact Prof. Michael Klenk at michael.klenk@utn.de.
Please note: This is a preliminary call for expressions of interest, not a formal job advertisement. Official recruitment procedures will follow.
This announcement is being circulated from a different email account due to current technical difficulties subscribing to PHILOS-L.
Please circulate this announcement to potentially interested candidates.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.