Research Assistant (PreDoc)

Within the framework of the research group "Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure (RISS)" at the Department of Social Science at Goethe University Frankfurt, we 
are looking for the project no. 5, The Impact of Social Structure, Discrimination and Violence on the German Muslim Community for a 

Research Assistant (PreDoc) (m/f/d) 
(E13 TV-G-U; 65-part-time) 

for a project duration of 4 years. The project is jointly led by Prof. Dr. Constantin Ruhe, Prof. Sigrid Roßteutscher, PhD and Prof. Dr. Richard Traunmüller. The salary grade is based on the job characteristics of the collective agreement (TV-G-U) applicable to Goethe University.

The religiosity and religious identity of Western European Muslims has received increasing attention in academic research and public discourse. Yet, despite extensive research over the past decade, Muslims’ strong preservation of religious traditions remains an unsolved pattern in Western European immigration societies. A dominant explanation of religious identity is the discrimination or exclusion of Muslim immigrants by the majority population. However, beyond the often individually experienced discrimination in everyday situations, Muslim individuals are subject to a more severe and increasingly visible form of xenophobia: violence and acts of terror, which explicitly target Muslims indiscriminately. Moreover, radical Islamic terror organizations try to fuel this vicious cycle. Caught between a faction of radicalized Muslims as well as hostile, islamophobic elements of the majority population, secular segments of the Muslim population are in an awkward position, where they feel resentment and pressure from different sides.

Surprisingly, however, we have very little empirical research on how this two-pronged threat of violence affects Muslims in Germany. The proposed research project addresses core questions within this research gap: How does religiously motivated violence alter religious identity? How do identity, discrimination and violence affect civic or political behaviour? And how do these reactions vary with the social position which individuals occupy? After all, social mobility has fundamentally altered and diversified German society, including the largest Muslim-origin immigrant group, the Turkish guest worker communities. Today, many Muslim-origin immigrants of all generations hold a wide range of positions in politics, economy and society, with the result that religion crosscuts many other dimensions, which are potentially relevant to individuals’ social identity.

We build on the theoretical framework of the overarching RISS research and expand it by illuminating how exogenous events, such as Islamist and anti-Muslim violence, perturb the association between social structure, identity and behaviour.

The proposed project examines these questions using an original survey of German Muslims, which we will collect as part of the RISS Internalization Survey. We rely on an innovative measurement strategy using a conjoint experiment to estimate the importance of religion within individuals’ multidimensional social identity. Furthermore, our proposed empirical analysis uses an experimental design to evaluate how social identity, as well as political preferences and behaviour, are linked to perceptions of violence and discrimination. 

Requirements for a successful application are an excellent academic university degree (Master/Diplom or equivalent) in the field of social sciences (preferably political science), relevant knowledge in several of the above-mentioned subject areas (violence and discrimination, religion, social and political participation, political attitudes of Muslims) and excellent knowledge in the application of advanced quantitative analysis procedures with state-of-the-art software, i.e. Stata and/or R, as documented also by the Master or Diploma thesis. Excellent command of English language skills is required, command of the German as well as the Turkish language will be an asset. Please indicate in your application the job number(s) to which your application refers.

The following documents are required for an application (in one PDF document): 
• cover letter; 
• curriculum vitae;
• certificates; 
• Master or Diploma thesis, including reviews, if available;
• one-page outline for a dissertation project that you consider develop within the project framework during these four years.

Applications should be sent electronically, quoting the reference number 22/2021, by 30 September 2021 to the Dean of the Department of Social Sciences of the J.W. Goethe University, e-mail address: dekanat.fb03-bewerbungen@soz.uni-frankfurt.de