# TU Eindhoven Lecturer Application - Reference: 2026/264 - Deadline: **18 May 2026** - Position page: [[Clippings/Lecturer Philosophy and Ethics (P&E)]] - Apply URL: https://tue.varbi.com/en/apply/positionquick/929492/ - Hiring manager: Prof. Filippo Santoni de Sio ([email protected]) - HR contact: Jolanda van der Sande ([email protected]) ## Required Documents (per JD) - [ ] Cover letter (motivation + qualifications) - [ ] CV with publications + contact information for **3 references** → [[Nick Young CV 2026]] - [ ] Teaching portfolio (overview of teaching experience) - [ ] Teaching statement (1–2 pages: vision, principles, or goals in teaching) - [ ] Research statement (1–2 pages) ## Position Summary - Permanent contract after one-year probation - 0.8 FTE teaching / 0.1 FTE P&E community / 0.1 FTE research-or-personal-development - Mandatory ITEC courses (Bachelor College, all majors): - *Engineering for Society* (Q1, Q3 — third-year BA) — risk analysis, cost-benefit analysis, life cycle analysis, value-sensitive design, systems thinking - *Engineering Ethics* (Q2, Q4 — first-year BA) — ethical theories applied to technology cases - Opportunity later to take over coordination of one course - University Teaching Qualification must be obtained within two years (if not held) - Career path: up to University Teacher 1 (≈ Senior Lecturer 2 / Associate Professor 2), advancement on teaching excellence only - Salary scale 10/11/12 (€3,546 – €7,297 monthly) - Start: 1 September 2026, no later than 9 October; teaching begins 9 November 2026 - Dutch teaching capacity an advantage, not required ## Strategy Notes ### Fit - PhD in philosophy ✓ - Demonstrable teaching experience in philosophy of technology and philosophy of AI via Genova MA course ✓ - Five years of pre-PhD university teaching at Saxion (Deventer) and Erasmus (Rotterdam) — academic writing and critical thinking for non-philosophy postgraduates (MBA, MA Neuroscience). Directly relevant to ITEC pedagogy for engineering students who are not philosophy majors. ✓ - Prior years in Dutch HE (Saxion, Erasmus, Antwerp PhD) — familiarity with the Dutch university environment ✓ - Good written and oral English ✓ - Permanent + teaching-focused + no grant or publication pressure: structurally matches "loves research, hates academia / craves security" — frame this as a genuine alignment, not as fallback ### Gaps to address - No explicit teaching of engineering ethics, value-sensitive design, risk analysis, cost-benefit analysis, or life cycle analysis — frame transferable applied-ethics work from the Genova course and acknowledge the learning curve directly - Genova teaching is MA level, not large-cohort Bachelor's — frame readiness to scale and willingness to coordinate - No UTQ — JD says fine, but flag commitment to obtain within two years - No Dutch — note prior Antwerp years and willingness to develop capacity ### Voice notes (for cover letter and statements) - Genuine register over performed enthusiasm - Acknowledge gaps cleanly rather than hide them - Don't oversell teaching as "first love" if it isn't — frame the structural shape of the position as what matters - No TED-talk earnestness, no rhetorical reversals, no "let me be clear" --- ## Cover Letter [TO DRAFT] Address: Prof. Filippo Santoni de Sio Drafting brief: - Open with what specifically interests me about a permanent teaching-focused role — the structural shape (security, advancement on teaching, no grant pressure) as a genuine fit - Connect Genova MA course (40h, philosophy of technology + AI) to the ITEC courses, especially Engineering Ethics - Acknowledge the engineering-ethics-specific literature as a learning trajectory I'd build into - Brief mention of research that would continue in the 10% slot, without overclaiming - Close cleanly — no "Best", no "I look forward to hearing from you" if a cleaner phrasing fits [Draft goes here] --- ## Teaching Portfolio ### Overview [1–2 paragraphs — to draft. Likely: range from MA philosophy of technology / AI at Genova; comfortable with seminar discussion + essay-and-oral assessment model; built a course from scratch combining classical phil of tech with current phil of AI; oral examiner experience.] ### Courses Taught **Philosophy of Technology and AI** — University of Genova, DAFIST Master's level, 40 contact hours, 6 CFU, English. Course code 108721. SSD M-FIL/02. - Two-part structure. Part I: philosophy of technology (artifacts, function, aesthetic appreciation of designed objects). Part II: philosophy of AI (large language models, AI creativity and assertion, ethics and responsibility for AI outputs). - Readings include Parsons & Carlson on functional beauty, Preston on material culture, Verbeek on technological mediation, Clark on the extended mind and AI, Butlin & Viebahn on AI assertion. - Assessment: 3000-word essay plus oral examination. - Taught 2025/2026; running again 2026/2027. - Full syllabus: [[Notes/Philosophy of Technology and AI - Course Page Draft (2026-2027)]] ### Earlier University Teaching (pre-PhD) - **Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Deventer** (2008–2012). Academic writing and presentation skills for MBA programmes. - **Erasmus University Rotterdam** (2007–2012). Academic writing and critical thinking for MA Neuroscience and MBA programmes. Five years of teaching at Dutch HE institutions, focused on applied academic skills for non-philosophy postgraduate students. Pre-PhD, but directly relevant to ITEC: engineering students at TU/e are also non-philosophy specialists requiring applied-skills pedagogy. [Add: any guest lectures, MA thesis supervision, or other teaching from the CPT Milan period — TBD] ### Examination and Supervision - Oral examiner on philosophy of technology and aesthetics modules at DAFIST. - [Add any MA thesis supervision] ### Course Evaluations [Check UniGE evaluation system for student feedback on the 2025/2026 Genova MA course. Whatever exists, include as appendix.] ### Pedagogical Materials Available on Request - Full syllabus and reading list (Genova MA Philosophy of Technology and AI) - Sample essay prompts - Sample oral-exam protocol --- ## Teaching Statement [TO DRAFT — 1–2 pages] Drafting prompts (Nick, these need your input): 1. What do you want students to leave a philosophy course actually able to *do*, rather than know? 2. The Genova course pairs the philosophy of technology with the philosophy of AI in a single semester. What is the pedagogical claim implicit in that pairing? Why not treat them separately? 3. Why a 3000-word essay plus oral exam? What does the oral surface that the essay can't, and vice versa? 4. The ITEC courses are taught to engineers, not philosophy majors. What changes when philosophy is required-and-applied rather than chosen-and-foundational? How would you teach Engineering Ethics to first-year BA engineers across all majors? 5. How do you handle the ethics of AI when students are using AI for their assignments? You have first-hand experience of writing-with-LLMs — does that shape your pedagogical line? 6. What's the role of seminar discussion vs lecture in your view, especially at large Bachelor's scale? [Draft goes here] --- ## Research Statement [TO DRAFT — 1–2 pages] Drafting prompts: 1. The 20-year arc: auditory perception → temporal phenomenology → aesthetics of AI. What's the underlying intellectual through-line? 2. Current centre of gravity: aesthetics of generative AI (Growing the Image, Environmental Aesthetics of AI) plus philosophy of LLMs (Generating Philosophy with AI). How do you frame this without overclaiming ethical or political ambitions you don't have? 3. The Lecturer role gives 10% research time and no grant pressure. The research statement should describe a coherent ongoing programme that *fits inside that envelope* — not a research agenda that requires full-time research. What does the realistic version look like? 4. Why this fits TU/e P&E specifically (rather than aesthetics-heavy departments): philosophy of technology + AI is the active territory. [Draft goes here] --- ## Pre-submission Checklist - [ ] Cover letter finalised - [ ] CV finalised with 3 referees confirmed and notified - [ ] Teaching portfolio finalised - [ ] Teaching statement finalised - [ ] Research statement finalised - [ ] All documents converted to clean PDF (Typst per established style) - [ ] Online application submitted via Varbi ## Open Items - [ ] Confirm 3 referees and notify them - [ ] Pull Genova course evaluations if any - [ ] Source actual Feb 2024 CV PDF for fact-checking employment history - [ ] Skim P&E recent publications (Santoni de Sio in particular — meaningful human control, responsibility, value-sensitive design)