The position is part of the DFG and FWF-funded project GAPED – Group Appeals in Parliamentary and Electoral Debates led by Ass.-Prof. Dr. Hauke Licht and Dr. Lena Maria Huber. GAPED explores why, when, and how political actors appeal to social groups, and how these appeals influence political competition, voter behavior, and representation in Western European democracies. The research objectives of this project are to (1) conceptualize the types and dimensions of group appeals and explain their prevalence and functions for party competition in the electoral and parliamentary context, (2) investigate party- and individual-level determinants of group-based rhetoric, and (3) examine the effect of group appeals on voters.
Your Profile
- A PhD in political, social, or communication science or computational linguistics with a focus on the analysis of political communication and/or electoral competition
- Good understanding of and practical experience with computational (political) text analysis, especially deep learning, transfer learning, NLP approaches and including large language models
- Demonstrable practical experience with programming in Python and/or R
- Solid understanding of and demonstrable practical experience with applying quantitative social science research methods
- Strong interest and ability to produce high-quality and high-impact research, as demonstrated through international peer-reviewed publications in leading (computational) political, communication, or social science journals and/or computational linguistics proceedings
- Ability to work in a team, and ability to work independently
- Strong command of English (knowledge of German and other European languages is an asset)
Your Tasks
- Take a leading role in implementing work packages 1 and 2 of the project focusing on data collection, measurement of communication strategies, and comparative statistical analyses. This includes developing and applying computational methods for text annotation and measurement in parliamentary debates and election campaigns.
- Conduct and publish high-quality research within the context of GAPED.
- Collaborate with other project members and supervise research assistants.
- Participate in the intellectual life of the university.
Our Offer
With us, you can engage in cutting-edge research within a well-funded project, expect exciting tasks, flexible working hours, a family-friendly working environment, attractive training and development opportunities, a paid lunch break, a meal allowance and much more!
The minimum gross salary for this full-time position amounts to € 87,220.00 / year (paid monthly in 14 installments) and will increase by 5% in the second year of your employment (based on the FWF’s Personnel Costs and Salary table for 2026). Costs for conference travels, summer school training, and computer hardware as well as access to GPU computing resources (LEO5, Vienna Science Cluster) are covered by the project.
Apply for this position by emailing a letter of interest (max. 2 pages), your CV (including list of publications and working papers), and a writing sample (e.g., dissertation paper or chapter) as a single PDF to Ass.-Prof. Dr. Hauke Licht (hauke.licht@uibk.ac.at) by August 22, 2025. For further information, please contact Hauke Licht.
The University of Innsbruck emphasizes equal opportunities and diversity in its personnel policy. The University of Innsbruck strives to increase the percentage of women and thus expressly encourages women to apply. This is particularly true for leading positions and scientific job offers. In case of underrepresentation women with the same qualifications will be given priority. Following Austrian disability legislation, qualified persons are strongly encouraged to apply.