Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern (icmb)
Start of employment: 01.09.2025 or by agreement
Fixed term for four years
The five year project “Through a Glass, Darkly: How to Study Authoritarian Regimes” is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and examines how foreign audiences learn about the inner workings of authoritarian regimes (specifically the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation), focusing on the role of country experts and their connections of China and Russia experts.

• Write a dissertation within the broader scope of the project
• Adapt opensource LLMs to extract elite networks from unstructured text, including adapting them to Russian and Chinese texts
• Help collect publicly available data on the experts and their social media and publications
• Help disseminate results and organize stakeholder conferences

• An aboveaverage completed or soon-to-be completed master's degree in communication science, political science, or other relevant social sciences. Applicants with a master's level background in computer science and a strong interest in social science are also welcome to apply.
• Proven quantitative research and data science skills, experience working with ML applications and/or APIs, and interest in using LLMs as research tools.
• Excellent English skills (German and French is an asset)
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within interdisciplinary and crossinstitutional teams.
• Chinese and/or Russian language skills are an asset, as is demonstrated interest in the politics of those two countries

• A fully funded PhD position for four years, with a starting salary of approximately 50'000 CHF and no teaching requirements. Compensated teaching assignments may be available, subject to departmental needs. Employment adheres to the regulations of the Canton of Berne.
• An attractive work environment with a collegial and international team, committed to supporting young scholars through cooperation and exchange.
• The freedom to develop your own ideas for your dissertation and request additional support from the University of Bern's Data Science Lab.

To apply for this position, please submit one PDF file with:

• a letter of motivation including research interests and ideas
• a current CV including a list of publications (if available)
• a writing sample (e.g. MA thesis)
• a copy of university transcripts and degrees
• a letter of recommendation