The University of Konstanz is a dynamic and internationally successful research university with approximately 10,000 students. The campus university’s architecture promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and a sense of community among researchers, lecturers and students. The University of Konstanz has been continuously funded by the German Excellence Strategy since 2006.

The newly granted SFB 1760 investigates the role of silence and noise in our capacity for perceiving, learning and producing linguistic signals (https://www.ling.uni-konstanz.de/sfb1760/about-us/scientific-aim/). The first phase will run from April 2026 to December 2029 and encompasses a wide variety of theoretical, experimental, computational and empirical research within linguistics, in collaboration with projects from computer science, computational social science, media studies and sociology.

The doctoral position advertised belongs to the project D01 “Memetic Noise and Sileince” (https://www.ling.uni-konstanz.de/sfb1760/research-projects/project-group-c-1/project-d01-memetic-noise-and-silence/), part of the SFB 1760. The project investigates the social, computational, and linguistic role of memetic noise and silence in social media text communication. Memetic noise is present when users obscure their social media posts (e.g. with diacritics as “zalgo text”) and memetic silence takes the form of additional line breaks and other formatting patterns that create “dramatic pauses”. The project has a special focus on political communication in online media. We are looking for a doctoral researcher to focus on the analysis of data from linguistic experiments on memetic noise and silence, on the representation of memetic noise and silience in language models, and in how to model the emergence of memetic noise and silence with a combination of Large Language Models and Agent-Based Modelling. This doctoral position is in Social Data Science Lab of the department of Politics and Public Administration, being part of a highly interdisciplinary team that combines social scientists, computer scientists, and other disciplines.

Your Responsibilities

Analyzing Language Models and large-scale social media data
Developing a Generative Agent-Based Model
Collaborating with linguists on experiments about online silence

Your Competencies

Background in Data Science, especially Natural Language Processing
Proven interest in Linguistics beyond data analysis
MA degree in Data Science, Linguistics, or a Social Science programme with a strong analytical curriculum
Experience with Large Language Models and/or Agent-Based Modelling are a plus

We Offer

The opportunity to do a PhD within the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Silence, Noise and Signal in Language’
An open, motivated research team and interdisciplinary research environment
Collaborating researchers at doctoral, postdoctoral and professorial levels
Excellent career and equal opportunity coaching

Applications should contain: (i) a short motivation letter, (ii) an academic CV, (iii) copies of all previous degrees, including detailed transcripts of records, (iv) the names and email addresses of two academic references (one from the supervisor of the BA/MA/MSc thesis or equivalent), and (v) a writing or project sample, such as a draft of a thesis, paper, or research project report. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

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).

Doctoral Position in Social Data Science

(part-time 65 %, E 13 TV-L)

Reference no.: 2026/032. One doctoral position is available as of April 1st, 2026. The position is available until the end of 2029.

Your Responsibilities

Your Competencies

We Offer