[Commlist] Job: Postdoc in Computational Social Science - MULTIREP project, University of Vienna

The Faculty of Social Sciences (Department of Government) of the 
University of Vienna is advertising

Postdoc in Computational Social Science,
especially text analysis

Overview:
The position is offered within the MULTIREP project funded by a Starting 
Grant from the
European Research Council (September 2023 – August 2028) and led by 
Assoz. Prof.
Christopher Wratil (Personal website: https://wratil.eu/).

MULTIREP – “Multidimensional Representation: Enabling An Alternative 
Research Agenda on
the Citizen-Politician Relationship” aims to expand quantitative 
scholars’ understanding of
political representation beyond the traditional conceptions of 
substantive and descriptive
representation. The project will develop novel quantitative 
text-analytical models and tools to
measure how politicians represent citizens in speeches and social media 
posts. Thereby,
MULTIREP aims to reshape the scope and depth of quantitative empirical 
research on
representation and enable an alternative research agenda on the 
citizen-politician
relationship. A description of the project can be found at: 
https://wratil.eu/files/MULTIREP_Wratil_B1_PUBLIC.pdf

The postdoc will co-lead (together with the principal investigator and 
in collaboration with a
PhD student) the development, validation, calibration and application of 
models that can
automatically scale different dimensions of representation from 
politicians’ texts in several
languages. This will involve methodological contributions as well as 
works that apply the
models to substantive questions (e.g. of special interest to the 
postdoc). A key deliverable is
an R package that makes the models usable for the academic community.
The project is hosted by the Department of Government at the University 
of Vienna, a vibrant
research environment with currently four European Research Council 
projects and several
further third-party funded projects, providing for an international 
community of PhDs,
postdocs and faculty. Key research areas of the Department include 
political representation,
party competition, political institutions and political behavior. For 
many years, Vienna has
consistently been ranked as the most livable city in the world in 
several international rankings.


Postdoc in Computational Social Science
Job description:
• Develop, validate, calibrate and apply (new) quantitative text / 
natural language
processing models that can infer how politicians aim to represent 
citizens from
legislative speech and social media data
• Publish methodological and substantive research on politicians’ 
representation styles
(together with other team members), aiming for manuscript placements in 
leading
political science outlets
• Share responsibility for data collection, data documentation and data 
management as
well as the ethical implementation of research activities
• Co-lead the development of an R software package providing easy-to-use 
access to
calibrated models, overseeing and supervising research assistants as well as
collaborating with PhD researchers
• Starting date: Any starting date between January and August 2025 
(please indicate
preferred date in your cover letter)
• Contract length: Contract will expire on 31 August 2028
• Salary: from €66,500 to €75,000 p.a. gross, depending on relevant 
experience
(Austrian take-home pay calculator)
• Benefits: paid annual leave, social insurance (incl. healthcare, 
pension), flexible
working hours, home office arrangements, funds to attend further methods 
trainings
and collect large amounts of research data in the framework of the 
project, career
development support (e.g. for job talks, funding applications)

Your profile:
• Doctorate/PhD in computational social science, data science, political 
science, communication science or
another relevant discipline (completed or close to completion)
• Emerging research agenda on a topic broadly connected to the themes of 
MULTIREP
with a strong methodological/technical focus
• Substantial experience with quantitative content/text analysis
• Excellent publication record (e.g. articles in leading disciplinary or 
methodological
journals) or demonstrated potential thereof (e.g. manuscripts with R&Rs, 
prizes)
• Excellent command of and advanced programming skills in R; willingness 
to learn new
programming languages (e.g. on training courses)
• Interest in political representation
• Strong communication skills, ability to organize and contribute to 
team work, high
reliability, attention to detail, pro-active and responsible attitude, 
intellectual
independence and originality
• Excellent command of English (knowledge of German is not necessary)
• Desirable experiences and skills (ANY of this would be an asset):
	o Experience with the analysis of political texts, especially 
legislative speeches
	or social media posts of politicians
	o Experience with developing software packages in R
	o Programming skills in Python, JavaScript, C++, Stan or other
	statistical/programming languages
	o Experience in developing new methods in a social science discipline
	o Analysis skills regarding other modes of human behavior (e.g. 
visuals, voice)


Application
Applications should consist of:
• Cover letter (incl. discussion of “desirable experiences and skills”)
• Curriculum vitae (incl. list of publications where applicable)
• Transcripts of record from undergraduate and postgraduate study
• Contact details of two potential referees

These documents should be compiled in a single PDF file and sent via 
e-mail to
(multirep.staatswissenschaft /at/ univie.ac.at) as well as 
(christopher.wratil /at/ univie.ac.at) by 23:59
CET on 25November 2024. Please use the e-mail title “Application 
MULTIREP CSS”. Interviews
with short-listed candidates will be held mid of December 2024.

For informal inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact the principal 
investigator, Christopher
Wratil, via e-mail: (christopher.wratil /at/ univie.ac.at)


Funded by the European Union (ERC, MULTIREP, 101076033). Views and 
opinions expressed are
however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those 
of the European Union or the
European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union 
nor the granting authority
can be held responsible for them
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