DC4: Analysis of political propagation campaigns in social networking platforms

Open Doctoral Candidate/PhD Position at University of Evora (UEVORA), Portugal, for the HYBRIDS project

 

Reference number: HYBRIDS- DC4

PhD research topic: Analysis of political propagation campaigns in social networking platforms

Host institution: University of Evora (UEVORA), Portugal

PhD Enrolment: University of Evora (UEVORA), Portugal

Main Supervisor: Dr. Renata Vieira, University of Evora (UEVORA), renata@uevora.pt

Co-supervisor: Dr. Jesus Baleato, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)

Inter-sectoral Supervisors:

  • Mr. Guglielmo Celata, Fondazione OPENPOLIS.
  • Ms. Vindhya Singh and Ms. Stephanie Öttl, Industrieanlagen- Betriebsgesellschaft (IABG)

Objectives:

  1. To study and analyse how corrupt agents propagate political campaigns in different social networks so that they have effects on political preferences and ideology;
  2. To design strategies to automatically detect the early steps of viral spreading of political disinformation;
  3. To analyse the political discourse of corrupt agents in terms of rhetorical structure and argumentation.

Expected outcomes:

  1. In-depth understanding on how rogue political agents spread toxic campaigns.
  2. Development of a tool to detect and track political abuse in social media.
  3. Application on use cases related to European questions (Brexit and Euroscepticism) and immigration.

Planned secondments:

Eligibility Criteria:

  • Mobility: At the time of recruitment, the researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Portugal for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date. Time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention or compulsory national service are not taken into account.
  • The candidate must be at the date of recruitment a doctoral candidate (i.e. not already in possession of doctoral degree). Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will not be considered eligible.
  • The candidate must agree to work exclusively for the action.

Specific requirements:

  • Degree: Master in Informatics or other fields such as Cognitive Science, Social Science, Linguistics, Digital Humanities (or a related disciplines), with quantitative and computational training.
  • Programming skills: Experience with natural language processing and deep learning libraries, semantic web and usual programming languages applied in these areas. Basic open source programming capacity.
  • Language: Excellent command of English, together with good academic writing and presentation skills.

Desirable skills: Interest in interdisciplinary research. Understanding of texts in some Southern European languages. Interest in methods of political analysis.

Estimated starting date: 1st July 2023

Contract: Full-time contract

Duration: 36 months, including 4 secondments of 2/3 months each, at other consortium members’ premises (see Secondment section)

Salary: The gross salary is 1.874,27€/month, plus 600€/month of mobility allowance and 660€ of family allowance if the researcher is married (or a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country where this relationship was formalised) or has dependent children for the purposes of the MSCA (For more information, click here).

Application Documents:

  • Europass CV (template available in the following link), including the names and contact details of two academic references, in English, highlighting the merits that are established as evaluation criteria;
  • Scans of Bachelor’s and Master’s transcripts, with certified translation in English (if the degree qualification is not in English); If you have not yet completed your master’s, you must submit a provisional academic transcript.
  • A motivation letter in English, highlighting the consistency between your profile and the chosen DC position/s for which you are applying and describing why you wish to be aHYBRIDS Doctoral Candidate to carry out a PhD; (max. 700 words)
  • Scanned copy of your ID card, resident’s card or passport currently in force;
  • Proof of excellent command of English (e.g., IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge or equivalent). This is not required in case you are a native English speaker (i.e., English is your mother tongue).

In addition, you can add any other documents which you find relevant for the applications such as Master thesis, publications or project reports.

Evaluation criteria:

  • Academic background (up to 40 points)
  • Knowledge and specific achievements (up to 35 points)
  • Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview in which the selection committee will assess the applicant’s communication skills, initiative, and motivation to pursue a PhD. (up to 25 points)

Deadline: April 26, 2023, at 23h59 CET (UCT + 01:00)

CLOSED

Candidates are encouraged to contact the HYBRIDS Project Manager (info@hybridsproject.eu) for assistance or for any information related to the application process. When contacting, please indicate the position reference in the subject line.

Enquiries about research content must be sent to the main PhD supervisor via email (see contact details in Supervisors section).