PhD Research Fellowship in Political Science

About the position

We are offering one PhD position with specialisation in either comparative politics, or political data science. The successful applicant(s) will be part of the research project “Authoritarian Threats to Scientific Knowledge” (AutoKnow), which is funded by the European Research Council. The PhD fellowship period is three years and devoted to carrying out research and pursuing a PhD in the context of the AutoKnow project. The position may also include other career-enhancing activities: depending on the candidate’s competence and the teaching needs of the department, the fellowship period can be extended up to four years for qualification work consisting of e.g. teaching duties.

The primary aims of AutoKnow are to investigate how the production of scientific knowledge is affected by authoritarian regimes and politics. The project will look at how authoritarian rule affects the contents and research trajectories of scientific fields, and which fields are targeted for repression and co-optation by authoritarian rulers and movements. It will use computational text analysis to measure content-dimensions of published science and collect different data on attacks on academic freedom. It will study how authoritarian rule affects scientific progress, topic choice, political bias, idea novelty and other dimensions.

It will answer questions such as:

• Which academic fields and institutions are repressed and which are supported by authoritarian leaders?
• How does authoritarian rule shape the contents and political profile of academic work in different fields?
• What is the impact of authoritarian rule on scientific progress?

The PhD Fellow is expected to develop a research project within the overarching thematic scope of the larger project, namely authoritarian threats to science. While the PhD project should align with the framework of the main project, the candidate has significant flexibility to pursue their own approach and research agenda. The project proposal should above all include a tentative overall thematic and theoretical framework, along with at least three ideas for academic articles (see below). The Fellow will be expected to contribute to data collection and measurement, and data analysis.

The successful candidate will be part of the Faculty’s PhD programme. The work is expected to lead to a PhD in political science.

Qualification requirements

Formal qualifications

• Education equivalent to five years at university level in Norway, with two years (120 credits) at Master’s level in a relevant field. The MA thesis must be equivalent to at least half a year’s workload, i.e. 30 ECTS.
• The Master’s degree must include relevant education in research methods or game theory.

Other qualifications

• Applicants must have a very good to excellent command of English (written and oral).
• Applicants must be well-trained in conducting quantitative analyses.
• Experience with large language models, machine learning, and/or programming in R or equivalent programs is an advantage but not a requirement.