Postdoctoral Position in Computational Social Science
(Fulltime, E 13 TV-L
Reference No: 2023/079. The start date is October 1st, 2023 or by agreement. The position is available for three years. In principle, this position can be divided into two part-time positions.
The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy.
The position is available as part of the project “Transparency in Content Moderation.” The project studies the transparency efforts in content moderation of social media companies, and it is funded by a Max Planck/Alexander von Humboldt Research Award to Professor Margaret Roberts. The successful applicant will be involved in collecting social media data, processing the data, and conducting research within the project’s framework. The project is led by Professors Margaret Roberts (UC San Diego), Yannis Theocharis (TU Munich) and Nils B. Weidmann (Konstanz). The working language is English.
Your Responsibilities
- Development of a new data collection on content moderation policies
- Scraping of social media
- Design, analysis, and presentation of research project and results
Your Competencies
- A strong research background in digital politics
- Solid training in programming (Python) and statistics (R)
- Experience with the secure and efficient storage of large datasets
- Strong written and oral communications skills in English
We Offer
- an excellent international project team
- a project that studies a highly relevant issue using computational tools
- a work environment at one of the universities within the framework of Germany’s Excellence Initiative
- good development opportunities, extensive training and an attractive remuneration package.
Questions can be directed to Professors Margaret Roberts (molly.e.roberts@gmail.com) or Nils B. Weidmann (nils.weidmann@uni-konstanz.de).
We look forward to receiving your application documents (a letter of motivation that details your research interests, a CV and your three most important academic articles) until 30th of April 2023 via our Online Application Portal. Please include three references we can contact. We will start reviewing applications on April 15 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).