VACANCY – call for applications - Doctoral Researcher (100%) in Political Science 4 years

Project “Why do people run as candidates?” (Whycan)

The Department of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is hiring a doctoral researcher with a specialization in qualitative research (in depth interviews) and interest in quantitative research for the project “Why do people run as candidates?” (Whycan) funded via research project (PDR) from the FRS-FNRS (2025-2028).

JOB DESCRIPTION

This is a call for applications for a full-time doctoral position for four years.
The doctoral researcher will become an active member of the research project “Why do people run as candidates?” (Whycan). The project offers a stimulating working environment in a dynamic research team. The project involves two research teams from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain – CESPOL – under the leadership of Prof. Pierre Baudewyns) and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB – CEVIPOL).
The researcher will be based at the CEVIPOL (ULB). She or he will have a shared office (at CEVIPOL, in ULB Sociology Institute located at Avenue Jeanne 44 in Ixelles) and relevant administrative support at ULB. She or he will have no teaching obligations. She or he will be expected to contribute to collective work on the WHYCAN project, and to present and publish individual or collective research outputs. She or he will also be involved in the scientific activities organized within CEVIPOL (research seminars, collective projects, conferences).
With 87 members, CEVIPOL is the largest political science research center in Belgium. Located within the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, its members conduct cutting-edge research in the fields of political sociology, comparative politics, European studies, and area studies (Russia and the Caucasus, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia). The selected candidate will be fully integrated in CEVIPOL’s intellectual and social activities.
Within the project WHYCAN, the selected candidate will work on Work Package 2 (Why do you (not) run (anymore)?) that focuses on the triggers and the barriers of candidates’ political ambition. The candidate’s dissertation will focus on understanding how the interplay between the structure of opportunities, personal characteristics and personal motivations of candidates for legislative elections in Belgium supports the decision to either run for office or to decide not to run anymore. As politics remains a non-representative world for some segments of the population, the work package intends to understand which factors may help explain why some candidates have an easier, respectively harder, time deciding to jump into politics and to exit it. Sexism, agism, racism are expected to play their part in the decision-making processes of candidates, and the doctoral researcher may decide to focus on some of these aspects. The dissertation will mainly be articulated around in-depth interviews conducted by the doctoral researcher with political elites, and may also make use of data collected in the framework of the project (Belgian Candidate Surveys, and general population surveys).


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