Postdoctoral Fellow

Tulane • New Orleans, LA

15h • Onsite

About The Position

A postdoctoral position is available in the Department of Sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. The overarching goal of this project is to transform the transparency, equity, and accountability of local criminal court systems by empowering community-driven, real-time, fine-grained analysis of the decision-making pipeline, from first appearance to sentencing. Building on deep community partnerships and cross-disciplinary expertise in sociology, criminology, law, social inequality, data science, and artificial intelligence, we will develop a human-centered socio-technical platform that integrates municipal databases, volunteer court observations, and public record requests into a real-time and rigorous monitoring and analysis toolkit. The resulting system will enable communities to make informed, data-driven policy decisions around criminal justice, safety, and equity. The successful applicant will work with Prof. Andrea S. Boyles and be a part of the Tulane Center of Excellence for Community Engaged AI. Funding for this position comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The applicant is expected to work on research involving community disorder, deviance, crime, criminal justice practices, and resistance centered around the use of Artificial Intelligence.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Sociology or a related field.
• Experience in research involving community disorder, deviance, crime, criminal justice practices, and resistance.
• Experience with Artificial Intelligence concepts and applications.
• Ability to work with community partners and conduct outreach.
• Strong publication and presentation record.
• Ability to collaborate with faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with data science and AI.
• Experience in developing socio-technical platforms.
• Existing community connections in New Orleans.

Responsibilities

• Work on research involving community disorder, deviance, crime, criminal justice practices, and resistance centered around the use of Artificial Intelligence.
• Be motivated to both join existing projects as well as propose new opportunities and directions.
• Work with Prof. Boyles as well as graduate and undergraduate students on the project.
• Develop community connections.
• Develop project strategies for data collection.
• Collaborate with fellow scholars.
• Disseminate their work through publications and presentations in top-tier venues including those in Sociology, Criminology, AI, society, and related areas.
• Conduct community outreach and project coordination within the greater New Orleans community including our non-profit community partners.

Benefits

• Stipend to assist with relocation expenses.
• Travel to conferences while employed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree