Student Research Assistant in Digital History

The Department of History and Classical Studies, School of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University invites applications for a fixed-term student research assistant position (September–December 2026). The position is tied to the MELICA project and carries an expected workload of 4 hours per week, flexible across the period.

Research context

We are looking for a technically skilled and detail-oriented student assistant with a background straddling history (or a related humanities discipline) and computer science or another technical field.

MELICA (‘Modeling Everyday Life in Cold-War Aarhus: The Plan and the Reality of Civil Defense’) is a digital history project investigating Cold War civil defense infrastructure in Aarhus. The project works with historical maps, archival documents, spatial data, and AI-enabled workflows including vLLM-assisted transcription, annotation and automated georeferencing. The project is hosted at the Department of History and Classical Studies and affiliated with the School of Culture and Society.

As our assistant, you will work at the intersection of geospatial digitisation and data quality assurance in a genuinely digital history project. The role scales with your skills: the essential work involves careful, methodical verification of data; more technically experienced candidates will also contribute to testing and illustrating AI-assisted pipelines.

The position

The successful applicant will be expected to carry out tasks including:
 

• Verify and cross-reference spatial data (addresses, institutions, locations) against historical source lists - systematic, detail-oriented data-detective work
• Georeference scanned historical maps, aerial photographs, and archival floor plans in QGIS or equivalent GIS software
• Digitise and vectorise spatial features (polygons, points) from georeferenced sources
• Report issues, assist with testing, and document results from AI-assisted workflows (vLLM transcription, automated georeferencing)
• Contribute to quality assurance and validation of outputs produced by AI-enabled pipelines
• Work within and contribute to the project’s GitHub repositories (issue tracking, testing, documentation), depending on experience

 

Qualifications

Applicants must document:
 

• Demonstrated proficiency in QGIS or equivalent GIS software (required)
• Strong Danish language skills, both written and oral — essential for working with historical sources and project communication
• Good English communication skills, written and spoken
• High attention to detail and comfort with repetitive, methodical verification tasks
• Reliability, organisational skills, and a results-oriented working style
• Familiarity with GitHub, software development workflows, or AI tools (models not chats) is a significant advantage
• An interest in digital history, urban history, historical geography, or related fields is welcome but not required

You must be enrolled as an active student at a Danish higher education institution. 

What we offer

You will become affiliated with an active digital history research project and gain hands-on experience with real-world geospatial data, historical sources, and AI-assisted research workflows. The workload is flexible and can vary from week to week within the 4 hour range. More technically skilled candidates will find increasing scope to engage with the project’s more experimental pipelines.

Remuneration is in accordance with the applicable collective agreement for student employees at Danish universities.
 

Application

Applications must be written in English and include: a concise statement of motivation (maximum one page) and a CV. Please describe your experience with QGIS and any relevant technical skills specifically.

For further questions about the position, please contact Adéla Sobotková at adela@cas.au.dk.

For questions about the application procedure, please contact iks-hr-sag@au.dk.
 

The work environment

The Department of History and Classical Studies is a dynamic research and teaching environment with strong expertise in digital methods and historical research.
 

The School of Culture and Society

The School of Culture and Society is a vibrant research community dedicated to understanding the cultural and social conditions that shape human life. Our work examines how people interact with their environments, from prehistory to the present, and across both local contexts and global dynamics. Through cross-sector and cross-disciplinary partnerships, we aim to drive research innovation and contribute to address the major questions facing society. In both research and education, we are committed to bringing the humanities into active dialogue with partners beyond the university.

The School is committed to:
 

• Fostering an international environment characterized by strong academic and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Embracing an innovative and experimental approach to research, teaching, and communication.
• Cultivating a school that both generates knowledge and educates students for the present and future.
• Advancing a broad engagement with digital humanities.
• Upholding a strong commitment to both local and global societal challenges.
• Creating an inclusive, diverse, and sustainable workplace and organization.

Read more about the school here: School of Culture and Society – Aarhus University

Aarhus University is keen for its staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified applicants regardless of their personal background.
 

Salary and terms of employment

In accordance with the current collective agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and HK STAT.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

About Arts

The Faculty of Arts is one of Northern Europe’s most significant faculties for research and higher education in the humanities, theology and education. Within this broad academic scope, the faculty comprises approximately 700 researchers, 200 PhD students, 9,000 Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students, and 1,500 further and continuing education students. We believe that the best ideas arise when different perspectives meet – and that research, teaching and innovation are best developed in dialogue with the surrounding society.

You can find more information here: Faculty of Arts | Aarhus University

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.
 

Aarhus University

Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 37,000 students (FTEs) and 8.700 employees and has an annual revenue of EUR 1.106 billion. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/