[Commlist] Vacancy: Research Associate for the Project “Which Public Sphere System for Democracy? –PSS4DEMOCRACY” (Postdoc)

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Research Associate for the Project “Which Public Sphere System for 
Democracy? – PSS4DEMOCRACY” (Postdoc) § 28 Subsection 3 HmbHG

https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenangebote/ausschreibung.html?jobID=60b2dc4f6c5ace2c09eba9ee1fa4cdb12a8e95fc

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Institution: Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, 
Department of Social Sciences, Journalism and Communication Studies, 
Digital Journalism

Salary level: EGR. 13 TV-L

Start date: 01.05.2026 pending approval of external funding, fixed until 
30.04.2029 (This is a fixed-term contract in accordance with Section 2 
of the academic fixed-term labor contract act 
[Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG]).

Application deadline: 05.02.2026

Scope of work: full-time position suitable for part-time

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YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Duties include academic services in the project named above. Research 
associates may also pursue independent research and further academic 
qualifications.

This project introduces a fundamentally new way of studying the public 
sphere by designing and testing models of algorithmic news supply that 
translate normative democratic ideals into experimentally observable 
news environments. More information on the project is available at:

Public Spheres for Democracy : Journalism and Communication Studies, 
esp. Digital Journalism: 
https://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/en/fachbereich-sowi/professuren/lischka/forschung/projekte/pss4democracy.html

As Postdoctoral Researcher, you are responsible for the computational 
core of the project: translating public sphere theory into operational 
algorithmic news recommender systems as follows:

NLP-based News Content Metrics:

* implement and refine Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to 
operationalize public sphere concepts in political news

* develop and validate content-based metrics (e.g. party visibility, 
viewpoint diversity, emotionalization intensity) using multilingual news 
corpora

* integrate entity linking, stance detection, sentiment/emotion 
analysis, and topic modeling into a framework

* collaborate with PhD and other researchers to validate automated 
metrics against manual content Analysis

News Recommender System (NRS) Development:

* develop multi-objective ranking and scoring mechanisms that combine 
NLP-based metrics with user metrics

* implement and optimize Pareto-based and reinforcement learning 
approaches (e.g. Deep Pareto Reinforcement Learning) to balance 
competing public-sphere objectives

* build and maintain the NRS pipeline that produces distinct user news 
feeds for subsequent testing

* evaluate recommender performance using standard metrics

* present results at international workshops, conferences, and lead as 
well as contribute to publications in academic Journals

Collaboration & Project Coordination:

* work closely with an interdisciplinary team

* support and take over responsibility in project coordination

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YOUR PROFILE

A university degree in a relevant field, plus doctorate.

You are a postdoctoral researcher with strong computational expertise 
and an interest in normative, diversity-aware algorithmic systems.

Required Qualifications:

* completed PhD in Computer Science, Computational Social Science, 
Information Systems, or a closely related field

* strong experience with recommender systems, machine learning, or 
algorithmic ranking

* solid expertise in Python and relevant ML/NLP libraries

* experience working with large-scale textual data and multilingual corpora

* proven ability to design reproducible computational pipelines

* excellent command of English (written and spoken)

Desirable:

* experience with NLP applied to news or political text

* familiarity with multi-objective optimization, fairness-aware 
algorithms, or reinforcement learning

* interest in public sphere theory, journalism, or democratic 
implications of AI systems

* experience working in interdisciplinary research teams

* command of German (written and spoken)

* Polish or Norwegian language skills are a plus

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WE OFFER

* Reliable remuneration based on wage agreements

* Continuing education opportunities

* University pensions

* Attractive location

* Flexible working hours

* Work-life balance opportunities

* Health management, EGYM Wellpass

* Educational leave

* 30 days of vacation per annum

Additional benefits:

* a key role in a flagship ERC Consolidator Grant at the intersection of 
AI, journalism, and democracy

* structured collaboration with experts of University of Hamburg Hub of 
Computing and Data Science (HCDS)

* intellectual freedom to develop theory-informed algorithmic systems

* access to excellent computational infrastructure

* strong support for high-impact publications, open science, and 
international visibility

* a stimulating interdisciplinary research Environment

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Universität Hamburg—University of Excellence is one of the strongest 
research educational institutions in Germany. Our work in research, 
teaching, educational and knowledge exchange activities is fostering the 
next generation of responsible global citizens ready to tackle the 
global challenges facing us. Our guiding principle “Innovating and 
Cooperating for a Sustainable Future in a digital age” drives 
collaboration with academic and nonacademic partner institutions in the 
Hamburg Metropolitan Region and around the world. We would like to 
invite you to be part of our community to work with us in creating 
sustainable and digital change for a dynamic and pluralist society.

The University of Hamburg is committed to equity. Diversity enriches our 
university life, whether in our studies, research, teaching, education, 
or workplace. We therefore welcome all applications, regardless of 
gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic or social 
background, age, religion or belief, disability, or chronic illness.

The University of Hamburg strives to increase the number of women in 
academia, and encourages qualified female academics to apply.

Severely disabled and disabled applicants with the same status will 
receive preference over equally qualified non-disabled applicants.

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HOW TO APPLY

Application is only accepted via the online application form. You can 
access the form via the vacancy posting on University Hamburg's homepage:

https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenangebote/ausschreibung.html?jobID=39d9c56f5fbbf91ea35aa10838e5592b65c4310a

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Juliane Lischka

(juliane.lischka /at/ uni-hamburg.de)

+49 40 2395-24703

Reference number: 9

Location:

Von-Melle-Park 5

20146 Hamburg

Application deadline: February 5, 2026

Application is only accepted via the online application form. You can 
access the form via the vacancy posting on University Hamburg's homepage:

https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenangebote/ausschreibung.html?jobID=60b2dc4f6c5ace2c09eba9ee1fa4cdb12a8e95fc

Submit your application with the following documents:

* cover letter

* CV

* copies of degree certificate(s)

If you experience technical problems, send an email to 
(bewerbungen /at/ uni-hamburg.de).

More information on data protection in selection procedures: 
https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/stellenangebote/datenschutz.html


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