Contract lecturer-researcher – Epistemology and history of technology

Teaching

The successful candidate will join the teaching team in the Technology, Society, and Humanities (TSH) department to teach social science courses within the Humanities & Technology curriculum in the engineering program.

As part of the dual process of consolidating the program and increasing its enrolment, some courses will be created and others expanded. The teaching model needs to be revisited and new methods of cooperation with UTC's engineering departments developed.

1. Teaching

Depending on his/her skills and experience, he/she will be expected to contribute to existing teaching units (or even take responsibility for them) and develop new ones.

This will involve teaching some of the following topics:

• Epistemology and history of technology (existing UE HT02 and HT03), aimed at shaping students' sociotechnical culture;

• Sociotechnical application projects: taking charge of UE HT05 every other semester: a sociotechnical project workshop, which could thereafter be offered every semester (rather than only in the fall as is currently the case).

• Design and teaching of sociotechnical methodological tools: contribution to the HT06 UE, then taking charge of one of the two semesters.

• Monitoring of end-of-Hutech internships (HT09, 6-month internships).

• Depending on the engineering field mastered by the person recruited, creation of courses/project workshops to be developed in relation to UTC's engineering branches: knowledge-focused (epistemology, history, and contemporary issues) and/or methodology-focused (challenges and limitations of classic and more recent design methods, particularly those that better address social and environmental issues).

2. Supervision and development of the Humanities & Technology curriculum

Depending on their skills and experience, the successful candidate will contribute to and/or take full responsibility for the following activities:

• Strengthening partnerships (with companies and institutions for internships, projects, and recruitment, as well as the Hutech alumni network);

• Student management (recruitment, monitoring, support);

• Strengthening cooperation with engineering specialties at UTC, particularly with regard to internships and applied projects;

• Participating in internal administrative activities such as intra- and inter-departmental coordination meetings, working groups, and monitoring committees;

• Overall responsibility for the curriculum (in the long term).

Research

The successful candidate will join the Costech (Connaissance, Organisation et Systèmes Techniques) laboratory.

The research will be conducted within one of the Costech teams and will contribute to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the Hutech approach, which is directly related to Costech's technical approaches. It will therefore cover all or part of the following topics:

• History and epistemology of science and technology;

• Design of formal tools for sociotechnical problem-solving and modelling;

• Transition from engineering methodologies to sociotechnical and socio-environmental approaches.

Thus, a complementary focus to epistemology may lie in disciplines such as history, sociology, and/or the socio-economics of transition.

The candidate will naturally participate in the life of the laboratory and its scientific activities, particularly through seminars and working groups.

Additional information

Additional activities

Participate in the implementation of the UTC Sustainable Development & Social and Environmental Responsability (SD&SER) Master plan.

Ressources

The successful applicant will have access to everything they need to fulfil their teaching and research duties: an office, IT equipment, books, software, etc.

The institution

The université de technologie de Compiègne (UTC), a member of the Sorbonne University Alliance (ASU) and the network of universities of technology (UT), is ranked among the top French engineering schools in a number of national rankings, and offers a particularly favorable environment for teaching and research.

https://www.utc.fr/en/

The Department

Among UTC's six departments, the Technology, Society, and Humanities (TSH) department provides cross-disciplinary courses for the entire UTC program:

• In the Humanities & Technology curriculum (integrated preparatory cycle);

• In the core curriculum (integrated preparatory cycle);

• In specialized fields (engineering cycle: student and apprentice status training, continuing education);

• In graduate studies (master's and doctorate).

With 70 permanent members, the department focuses on the situations faced by contemporary engineers. It aims to highlight the inextricable links between technical and technological developments and the socio-economic world, between work situations and ethical, societal, and political responsibility. Its goal is to build, teach, and promote: 1. Knowledge and research paradigms that can renew the analysis and understanding of these situations. The department is interdisciplinary, drawing on and combining knowledge from cognitive sciences, information and communication sciences, economics and management, social sciences, philosophy, etc. 2. Approaches and tools for acting in these situations (design of interfaces and interaction devices, management of innovative projects, etc.).

The department hosts the Costech laboratory.

It maintains strong relationships with industry in both training and research. It cultivates close ties with national and international institutions.

The Humanities & Technology (Hutech) curriculum is an integrated preparatory cycle for engineering training. This three-year program combines engineering sciences and humanities. At its core, it combines:

• A technocritical component to take a step back and look at social changes brought about by technology;

• A technoclinical component to learn how to care for individuals, groups, and society, both preventively and curatively, based on the fact that technology is not neutral, but always embodies values and choices: the aim is to have tools and methods of intervention at our disposal to go into the field wherever technology “rubs on” or reshapes, sometimes harshly, the social fabric.

  Transverse training courses: Technology, Societies, Humanities - UTC

The Laboratory

With some thirty permanent members, UTC-Costech Laboratory (Knowledge, Organization and Technical Systems) interdisciplinary research unit is developing a technological research program in the social and human sciences to study contemporary sociotechnical environments. The relations between the human, technical and social spheres are addressed by 5 programme teams (PTs) entitled: Narrative (PT1), Care, Inclusion and Technologies (PT2), Sustainability, Contemporary Capitalism and Bifurcations (PT3), Design and Intersubjectivity (PT4) and Cognition, Epistemology and Technology (PT5).

Costech is committed to carrying out original and far-reaching research that it simultaneously puts to the test in technical, organizational and social projects.

Members of Costech are therefore involved in concrete developments: interfaces and coupling devices, new tools for teaching and cooperation, and strategies for technology transfer.

https://www.utc.fr/en/research/utc-research-units/knowledge-organization-and-technical-systems-costech/

Contract type and excepted start date

Three-year fixed-term contract, renewable, to start on 1 September 2026

Gross monthly salary

From €2,590 to €5,000 depending on experience

Application dates

From 10 March 2026 to 9 April 2026

Contacts

Guillaume Carnino, Director of the Technology, Society and Humanities (TSH) Department

guillaume.carnino@utc.fr

Olivier Gapenne, Head of the Knowledge, Organisation and Technical Systems (Costech) Laboratory

olivier.gapenne@utc.fr

Profile and keywords

Profile: Epistemology and history of technology: socio-history, technology, engineering

Keywords: History of technology, engineering, interdisciplinary studies, socio-technology

Qualification, education

All applicants must either hold a PhD in social sciences and humanities or, based on their training and research experience in social sciences and humanities, have developed a thesis project that will enable them to immediately begin doctoral work at the Costech laboratory.

The following will be particularly appreciated:

• A double degree in engineering (if possible, in a field taught in the UTC engineering program) and in the humanities. Ideally, the candidate will also have worked at the intersection of certain disciplines;

• Experience in the field, particularly related to UTC engineering specialties;

• An understanding of the practical and educational challenges associated with the development of the Hutech curriculum.

Fluency in English is required.