Post Doctoral researcher in music psychology

About this position

PI, Simon Høffding is looking to employ a post doctoral researcher in music psychology for his project “Toward an Integrated, Embodied Cognitive Science of Music” (MUSETIC) funded by the regional government of Madrid under its “Cesar Nombela” grants (2025-T1/PH-HUM-36273).

The candidate should have a PhD in music psychology or related fields, preferably with specialization in interactivity analysis such as movement synchronization, breathing synchronization and heartrate variability synchronization. The candidate is expected to plan, gather, analyse, and publish data based on such analyses in an independent and original manner. Experience with appropriate statistical tools (Python, Matlab, R etc) and methods (Multidimensional cross recurrence quantification, Granger causality etc) is necessary.

The candidate should preferably have demonstrated experience with interdisciplinary collaboration and an interest in phenomenology, embodied cognition, and music therapy. Experience with working in ecological settings outside the classic laboratory, such as in concert halls or therapeutical settings will be an advantage. The candidate is expected to contribute to discussions on and development of the integration of physiological, qualitative, and phenomenological strands of work.

Demonstrated ability to publish in English speaking journals is also a requirement.

The research project is a mixed methods investigation of music therapy. The post doc will be responsible for physiological measurements and interactivity analyses performed on music therapists and their clients with “Equivital” vests. The other half of the project will be conducted by a PhD fellow or research assistant under the PI’s supervision and consist in ethnographic observations and phenomenological interviews with the therapists and clients.

The PI is an internationally leading researcher in the integration of qualitative research methods and phenomenology, not least in the context of musical absorption and expert musicianship. He also has extensive experience collaborating with music psychologists, engineers, music therapists, and psychiatrists. The guiding hypothesis of the project is that the degree of shared musical absorption will predict recovery in music therapy and that such absorption can be assessed combining heart-rate variability synchronization and phenomenological interviewing.