[Commlist] Two PhD Scholarships on "Contentious Politics in the Digital Age” (CoPoDi) in Bremen

The Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) 
invites applications for two scholarships for international doctoral 
researchers in its Graduate School Scholarship Programme “Contentious 
Politics in the Digital Age” (CoPoDi), funded by the German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD). BIGSSS is an international inter-university 
graduate school in the social sciences, located at the University of 
Bremen and Constructor University Bremen, Germany.

Full call:
https://www.bigsss-bremen.de/academic-program/daad-graduate-school-scholarship-program/copodi-research-and-faculty 


BIGSSS graduate school: https://www.bigsss-bremen.de/ 
<https://www.bigsss-bremen.de/>

Information about DCID lab: 
https://zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/lab-digitale-kommunikation-und-informationsvielfalt/lab-digital-communication-and-information-diversity/ 
<https://zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/lab-digitale-kommunikation-und-informationsvielfalt/lab-digital-communication-and-information-diversity/>

Contact Cornelius Puschmann ((puschmann /at/ uni-bremen.de) 
<mailto:(puschmann /at/ uni-bremen.de)>)

Application deadline is **November 25th.**

+++

Contentious Politics in the Digital Age (CoPoDi)

We currently welcome applications for the Graduate School Scholarship 
Program “Contentious Politics in the Digital Age” (CoPoDi) until 
November 25, 2024.

Research Program

For the program Contentious Politics in the Digital Age (CoPoDi), BIGSSS 
was selected by the DAAD to host four international PhD students in its 
Graduate School Scholarship Programme (GSSP). The first two fellows will 
start their PhDs in September 2025, two more will follow in September 2026.

The program’s primary aim is to investigate how digital technology and 
media influence political activism, social movements, and 
socio-political conflicts. A secondary objective focuses on assessing 
the value of new digital data sources and computational methods for 
analyzing the dynamics of political protest and activism. Additionally, 
the program places particular emphasis on the Global South, where the 
potential of digital data is especially significant due to media 
restrictions and risks faced by informants, although this is not its 
sole geographical focus.

Potential dissertation projects may address one/more of the following 
topics:

    Social Media and Protest Dynamics: PhD research in this area 
focuses on the influence of social media in shaping protest movements. 
Key topics include:
        Exploring how social media platforms aid in mobilizing, 
organizing, and spreading protest movements.
        Analyzing communication patterns, sentiment, framing, and the 
spread of protest-related content on social media.
        Investigating government responses to online protests in 
non-democratic or authoritarian regimes, and the outcomes of such actions.
        Examining if social media usage in political activism enhances 
the representation of marginalized groups.
    Text-Based Analysis of Political Discourse: This area involves 
scrutinizing political discourse and its significance in contentious 
politics using text-as-data approaches, utilizing both digital and 
traditional media. Research could explore:
        Tracing the framing and evolution of contentious issues in 
protests using digital media.
        Identifying linguistic features and sentiments in the online 
communication of various political actors in protest movements.
    Audiovisual Communication in Activism: Research here delves into 
the impact of audiovisual content in political activism, particularly 
its role in mobilization and engagement. Potential topics are:
        Assessing how activists employ audiovisual content on new 
social media platforms for political messaging and support mobilization.
        Investigating the use of both online and offline media by 
activists, their interaction across different channels, and the 
resultant effects on political activities.
        Exploring the integration of traditional methods and digital 
tracking to study media usage beyond text.
    Agent-Based Modeling of Protest Dynamics: Proposed PhD projects in 
this field aim to create and test agent-based models for simulating and 
predicting protest dynamics. Research themes could include:
        Identifying key factors and mechanisms influencing the success 
or failure of protests and applying these models to real-world scenarios.
        Utilizing agent-based simulations to understand the effects of 
government or policy interventions on protests, particularly in 
authoritarian settings with political risks for researchers and subjects.

The program has strong ties to Bremen’s Collaborative Research Centre 
1342 Global Dynamics of Social Policy and the national Research Centre 
for Social Cohesion. Furthermore, there is an intense exchange with the 
fellows of our two other DAAD Programmes – Global Inequality, the Middle 
Classes and the Welfare State (GloWel) and Global Dynamics of Social 
Policy and Social Cohesion (GSPSC) – and the PhD students of the 
DFG-funded Research Training Group Social Dynamics of the Self.
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