Tobias Widmann

Two three-year postdoctoral positions are open at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University for a project titled The Politics of Shaming and Shamelessness: How Elite Rhetoric Fuels Hostility and Tolerance for Political Violence . The project sits at the intersection of political communication , political psychology , political behavior , and computational social science. It examines how elite rhetoric, emotions, norms, hostility, and political violence interact across democracies. The team will study shaming and shamelessness in parliamentary debates, party manifestos, press releases, and social media, and will also test experimental and AI-based interventions. Postdoc 1 will focus on computational text analysis, NLP, multilingual LLMs/transformer models, large-scale data collection, and related computational tools such as generative agent-based simulations and chatbot-based dialogue interventions. Postdoc 2 will focus on experiments, quasi-experiments, causal inference, and AI-chatbot-based dialogue interventions. Applicants must hold a PhD in political science or a closely related discipline by the start date. Strong programming skills in Python and/or R , a strong research record relative to career stage, professional English proficiency, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively are expected. Experience with comparative research across multiple democracies is welcome. The positions are funded by a Carlsberg Foundation Semper Ardens: Accelerate grant. The call mentions a competitive salary, support for data collection, conferences/travel, and research assistance. Teaching duties are modest, equivalent to one course per year. The expected start date is between December 2026 and February 2027 . Applications must be submitted by 31 August 2026 . Apply via the Aarhus University vacancy page and include the required application documents. Candidates may apply for one specific postdoc or both.