Fully Funded PhD in Digital Democracy, Civic Technology, and Public Discourse at University of Lausanne University of Lausanne in Switzerland

University of Lausanne (UNIL) is offering a fully funded PhD position in Digital Democracy, Civic Technology, and Public Discourse within the Persuasive Technology Lab at HEC Lausanne. The project sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital democracy, civic technologies, online communities, public discourse, human-computer interaction, and computational social science.

The successful candidate will work on research questions such as how digital platforms, AI systems, online communities, and civic technologies shape democratic participation, political engagement, deliberation, misinformation, trust, and collective decision-making. Potential directions include AI and large language models in political communication, online deliberation, civic participation platforms, algorithmic influence, social media and public discourse, and human-AI collaboration in democratic decision-making.

The position is co-supervised by Prof. Mauro Cherubini and Prof. Mathias Humbert. Mauro Cherubini is Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab. Mathias Humbert works at the intersection of privacy, cybersecurity, machine learning, and social media analysis. The supervisory team offers an interdisciplinary environment spanning Information Systems, Computer Science, Political Science, and Communication Studies.

Eligibility: applicants should hold or be close to completing a Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Computational Linguistics, Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science, Communication Science, Political Science with strong computational skills, or a closely related field. Strong analytical and research skills, programming experience, interest in empirical research on digital platforms or AI systems, and excellent English are expected. Experience in NLP, machine learning, generative AI, computational linguistics, social network analysis, experimental methods, HCI, political communication, or digital governance is an asset.

Funding: the role is a 100% graduate assistant contract, fully funded for 1 year and renewable twice for 2 years each, up to 5 years total. The post includes 50% teaching assistant duties and 50% research/PhD work, plus support for conference participation and international collaborations.

Application: apply via the UNIL career portal only. The deadline is open until filled. Required documents include a CV, motivation letter, transcripts and diplomas, a master's thesis or representative paper, and contact details for two academic references.