Two Doctoral Positions in “Inequality Discourse Observatory” – Project at the Cluster “The Politics of Inequality”

(part-time 75 %, salary scale E 13 TV-L)

Reference no.: 2025/218.

Applications are invited for the following: Two 4-year, part-time 75 % doctoral research positions as part of the project "In-equality Discourse Observatory" led by Miriam Butt and David Garcia. The project is part of the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" (https://www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/en/inequality/).

The positions are available as of January 1, 2026 and involve the automatic identification, analysis and automatic extraction of linguistic cues for NLP applications that detect topics and framing with respect to political discourse about inequality.  We will be looking at a number of different situations (climate change and economic investment policies) across a number of different languages and are searching in particular for competence in the following languages: English, German, Swedish, Spanish, Urdu/Hindi, Tamil or any other South Asian language.

The researchers will work closely with researchers from both Computational Social Science and Computational Linguistics in an international and interdisciplinary environment, including political science and economics.

Your Responsibilities

    • Research on inequality discourse across languages
    • Development of NLP tools for the automatic identification and analysis of linguistic cues indicating framing in inequality discourse
    • Contribute as a co-author to scientific papers
    • Write a dissertation and complete the required coursework within the Graduate School of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (GSBS) of the University of Konstanz
    • Integrate yourself within the vibrant scientific community of the Cluster and its participating departments

Your Experience

    • Applicants for the doctoral position should have an MA degree (or equivalent) in computational linguistics or linguistics
    • The applicants should be well versed in linguistic analysis (competence in morphosyntactic and pragmatics is a plus)
    • Programming skills. Knowledge of Python is particularly relevant

We Offer

    • An international and interdisciplinary research community engaged in frontier research on inequality and related issues
    • A family-friendly diversity-conscious university and work environment
    • A wide network of international and national partners, providing opportunities for research stays, contact to external advisers and conference or workshop participation
    • The University’s first-rate infrastructure includes its award-winning, 24-hour open library, research support and career counseling, and the provision of German and other foreign language courses
    • Constance is one of Germany’s choice destinations. Its unique setting on the shores of Lake Constance and the River Rhine, as well as its proximity to the Alps, Switzerland, Austria, and France, make it the ideal location for study and leisure
All Benefits

Contacts for questions about this position: miriam.butt@uni-konstanz.de and david.garcia@uni-konstanz.de.

We look forward to receiving your application documents (cover letter, a full CV and one writing sample (paper or thesis) via our Online Application Portal by November 15th, 2025. The deadline for applications remains open until the position is filled.

The University of Konstanz is committed to ensuring an environment that provides equal opportunities and promotes diversity, as well as a good balance between university and family life. As an equal opportunity employer, we strive to increase the number of women working in research and teaching. We also support working couples through our dual career programme. Persons with disabilities are explicitly encouraged to apply. They will be given preference if appropriately qualified (contact sbv@uni-konstanz.de, + 49 7531 88-4016).