[Commlist] PhD opportunity on far-right extremism

CASS is looking for an outstanding candidate to come and complete a 
fully funded PhD under the supervision of Dr. Isobelle Clark to 
investigate the boundaries of British far right extremism from a 
corpus-assisted discourse analytical perspective. See here for more 
information:

https://cass.lancs.ac.uk/fully-funded-phd-opportunity-at-the-cass-research-centre-2/ 


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We are delighted to offer a full-time, fully funded PhD studentship 
(including a Research Training Support Grant) within the group of Dr 
Isobelle Clarke in the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for 
Corpus Approaches to Social Science in Linguistics and English Language.

The successful applicant will join a team of researchers based at 
Lancaster University working on the project ‘A Multi-Dimensional 
Understanding of the Digital Far Right’.

Application deadline: 15 May 2026

Expected interview date: 15 June 2026

Start date: TBC (latest start date 01/09/2026)

Informal enquiries: Dr Isobelle Clarke ((i.clarke /at/ lancaster.ac.uk))

About the project

The project has three core aims:

    To systematically identify how far right groups vary (what 
linguistic features and repertoires they share and how the most high 
risk content compares).
    To develop an innovative methodology to allow for (1).
    To provide training of (1) and (2) to law enforcement.

The PhD candidate will play an important role in the project working 
collaboratively with the PI and postdoctoral researcher. The successful 
PhD candidate will conduct foundational research by exploring the 
boundaries of far right extremism. They will use Corpus-Assisted 
Discourse Analysis to compare the linguistic and cyber activity of 
convicted far right extremists (under terrorism offences in the UK) with 
those who were arrested under similar offences but were not convicted. 
The findings of the PhD research will be used to develop features that 
will assist in the prioritisation of offenders and will be used to train 
law enforcement.

The applicant should hold a Master’s degree in a relevant field, have 
experience in corpus-assisted discourse analysis, expertise in how to 
scrape data from the (dark) web and working with cyber data, and a 
critical academic interest in the far right. We are looking for a highly 
motivated, outstanding individual with excellent communication skills, 
the capacity to work collaboratively as part of a team and the ability 
to solve problems creatively.

The successful candidate will be expected to relocate to Lancaster and 
work regularly on campus as part of the CASS team.

Supervision and training

The project will be supervised by Dr Isobelle Clarke. The studentship 
offers advanced training in corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics and 
cybersecurity.

Funding and eligibility

The studentship covers full tuition fees and includes a tax-free 
maintenance stipend (currently £20,780 per year) and a Research Training 
Support Grant. It is open to UK and international applicants.

How to apply

1. Submit an application for a PhD at Lancaster University

Fill in the application form and indicate Dr Isobelle Clarke as your 
proposed supervisor.

Instead of a full PhD project proposal, applicants should:

    Describe their experience with corpus linguistics, discourse 
analysis, forensic linguistics, webscraping, and working with metadata.
    Provide concrete examples of the above skills.
    Clearly state in the proposal that the application is for the 
project ‘A Multi-Dimensional Understanding of the Digital Far Right’ and 
that it will be funded by Lancaster University.

2. Complete the motivation form

All applicants must complete the motivation form as part of the funding 
application process.
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