Doctoral Position in Political Science, Completion Funding

(part-time 63 %, E 13 TV-L)

Reference No.: 2025/277

Starting date April 1st, 2026. The position is available for 1.5 years (1 Apr 2026 – 30 Sep 2027).

The project “Nationalist Persuasion, Legacies of Transition, and Democratic Backsliding in Europe” (funded by the German Research Foundation) at the Department of Politics and Public Administration is seeking a doctoral researcher with excellent quantitative methods skills.

The project studies how illiberal elites use nationalist appeal to gain and maintain electoral support in post-fascist, compared to post-communist European societies. A module on all European democracies (module 1) is combined with focus groups (module 2) that inform survey experiments (module 3) in selected countries: Spain and Poland, East and West Germany and Croatia. The working language is English. We are seeking support for module 3 during the remaining 1.5 years of the project. The position is ideal for completion of an ongoing, well-advanced PhD project, ideally on a topic related to the project.

Your Responsibilities

    • Coordinate the activities in module 3 of the project
    • Help design and program an online survey experiment on nationalism, democracy and memory of the transition  to be fielded in DE, ES, PL and HR
    • Prepare the survey data and support the analysis
    • Co-author publications using the results of the survey experiment

Your Competencies

    • Research-oriented Master’s degree in Political Science
    • Ongoing PhD project nearing completion (ideally on a related topic)
    • Solid training in quantitative research methods and survey methodology
    • Experience with survey analysis and ideally with designing and implementing survey experiments
    • Excellent verbal and written skills of English (knowledge of Croatian or Spanish is a further asset)
    • Capable of independent, as much as team-oriented work

We Offer

    • A vibrant working group with enthusiasm for research in comparative politics and democracy studies
    • Funding for participation in conferences and support from student research assistants
    • Becoming a part of one of Germany’s leading political science departments
    • Access to the university’s excellent academic staff development
    • The beautiful environment of a University located next to Lake Constance
All Benefits

For further information on the position, please contact Christina Zuber at christina.zuber@uni-konstanz.de.

Please submit your application until 5 January 2026 via our Online Application Portal.

Interviews will be held in mid January 2026. Please include a letter of motivation with a description of your research experience and interests (including a short overview of your PhD project), CV, BA and MA certificates and merge all documents into a single PDF.

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).