Stellenangebot: PhD Position (30hrs/week) in Political Communication at Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences

The Political Communication Research Group at the Department of Communication of the University of Vienna studies the interaction between political elites, media, and citizens. Current research is focused on understanding how and under which conditions political elites communicate with citizens, what role media organisations and journalists play in the political communication process, and how citizens process elite and journalistic communication. Scholars in the group use a variety of qualitative and quantitative social research methods to develop and test theories that help understand the quality of political communication in democracies today.

To extend the group’s research profile, we are looking for a motivated praedoc (PhD candidate) in political communication with a specific focus on the politics of science communication. Possible topics include (but are not limited to): (1) the interaction between science communication and political elites, (2) activism and political ideology in science communication, and (3) disinformation and conspiracy beliefs in science communication. The praedoc will be co-supervised by Professor Sophie Lecheler and at least one other faculty member of the Department of Communication (depending on the dissertation topic chosen).

Required in addition to the general expectations:

  • In-depth knowledge of qualitative and/or quantitative research methods, e.g., interviews, focus groups, survey, experimental designs, content analysis, computational approaches
  • Very good knowledge of qualitative data analysis and/or quantitative data analysis (using, e. g., R, Stata, SPSS)

Desired:

  • Knowledge of university processes and structures
  • Programming skills (using, e. g., Python)

Employment duration: The announcement is made for 3 years. The employment contract is initially limited to 1.5 years and is automatically extended to a total of 3 years, unless the employer submits a declaration of non-renewal after a maximum of 12 months.

Starting date: 1 February 2023

Website of the research group

Contact: Sophie Lecheler

Application documents:

  • Letter of motivation
  • Academic CV (incl. list of publications, if applicable)
  • Degree certificate/s (incl. transcripts) of previously completed university degree programmes
  • Record of teaching experience (if applicable)
  • Doctoral project proposal (5 pages max.)

All documents have to be submitted in one single PDF file. Applications have to be submitted in English.

You can find more information here.