Are you exceptionally interested in political communication, and specifically in the field of elite negative and uncivil rhetoric? Is it your ambition to develop an academic career and research agenda on dynamics of elite communication and its consequences? Are you looking for a challenging job in a dynamic setting?
The Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCOR) of the FMG faculty is looking for a Two-year Postdoctoral researcher within the Research Priority Area (RPA) “Conflict & Society” (C&S).
The C&S RPA is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) which has received funding for the period 2024 - 2028. The C&S RPA is directed by Dr. Alessandro Nai (Communication Science) and Dr. Abbey Steele (Political Science). The C&S RPA is hosted by the Amsterdam Center for Conflict Studies (ACCS) within the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), but the Postdoctoral researcher will primarily be embedded within the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR).
Within the framework of “Conflict & Society” RPA, budget has been set aside to conduct fundamental research into dynamics of conflict – for instance, in terms of (de)escalation of physical and symbolic violence. Several research projects will be developed during the duration of the RPA (2024 – 2028). The Postdoctoral researcher is hired to provide research support on the first of such research project. The project, directed by Dr. Alessandro Nai, aims specifically at investigating the multilevel dynamics of propagation of political violence during election campaigns leveraging, among others, data collected during the 2024 presidential election in the USA.
What are you going to do? The Postdoctoral researcher is expected to contribute significantly to the development of the following research components:
- Collection of longitudinal survey data at the individual level, including a rolling cross-section component (RCS), to uncover patterns of (changing) aggressive attitudes and support for political violence in voters;
- A detailed analysis of the level of political aggressiveness voters are exposed to in social media, potentially relying on data donations (linked with data collected in the survey);
- An analysis of the evolution of campaign content to expose patterns of elite aggressiveness, potentially adopting a multimodal perspective (i.e., looking at text, images, and videos).
Overall, the Postdoctoral researcher is expected to
- Conduct high-quality research within the framework of the project;
- Publish high-quality research within the framework of the project, including co-authoring publications;
- Cooperate with parallel research initiatives – for instance, parallel projects on negativity and affective polarization that are currently being developed at ASCoR;
- Provide a mentoring support to junior scholars (PhD students) working on these projects;
- Assist in training and supervision of project-related research, such as data coding and collection;
- Assist with administrative responsibilities related to the project, including organizational tasks such as organization of workshops, deliverables such as ethics and data management, and dissemination of project findings in general audience venues;
The Postdoctoral researcher is expected to live in Amsterdam (or within commuting distance) and take active part in team meetings and the research environment at ASCoR and AISSR.