Doctoral Scholarship in Political Science

Position

• You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of political sciences, working on a project on the link between political representation and political disinformation.
• You will conduct empirical research and publish scientific articles related to the research project.
• You will collaborate with other project members (PhDs, postdocs, principal and co-investigators)
• You will participate actively in internal seminars of the Department as well as international conferences and workshops.
• You will carry out a limited number of teaching and research support tasks for the Department of Political Science.

Project description

The two PhD positions are part of the DEMO-LIES project, “Deception in Democracy: Political Lying Accusations and Their Effects on Democratic Citizenship”, led by Prof. Dr. Maurits Meijers. Funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant, this five-year project (2025–2030) investigates how political elites use accusations of lying and disinformation, how citizens perceive such accusations, and what effects these dynamics have on democratic attitudes and behaviours.

DEMO-LIES addresses urgent questions about political communication and democratic integrity. It seeks to understand when and why political actors engage in disinformation accusations, how these accusations influence public perceptions, and what this means for democratic participation and trust. The project aims to generate insights that can strengthen democratic resilience in the face of manipulative political discourse.

The research employs a mixed-method approach. Elite discourse will be studied using advanced quantitative text analysis techniques, including natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs). To examine citizens' responses, the project will combine qualitative focus groups, cross-sectional surveys, and survey experiments. This integrated design allows for a comprehensive analysis of both top-down (elite-driven) and bottom-up (citizen) dynamics of political disinformation.

Application deadline: 21 August 2025.