VACANCY – call for applications - Postdoctoral Researcher (100%) in Political Science - CDD – 1 year contract

The Department of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is hiring a post-doctoral researcher with a specialization in quantitative data analysis for the project “Perception of Differentness, Affective Polarization and Vote Choice” (NOTLIKEUS) funded via an Excellence of Science (EoS) programme from the FRS-FNRS and the FWO.

Context of the project

The NOTLIKEUS project aims at digging deeper into three questions: (1) what the contemporary scope of polarization within Belgian society is, (2) which factors foster polarization within society, and (3) what are the consequences of polarization on citizens’ political behaviours, and in particular in their support or opposition to the democratic system.

The project is primarily based on a panel study that surveys a representative sample of the Belgian population throughout 2024, year of the federal, regional and European elections; The goal is to study the dynamics of polarization over time (electoral campaign, election results and the formation of new coalition governments). The project is also based on experiments and focus group data.

Job description

This is a call for applications for a full-time post-doctoral position for one year.

The post-doctoral researcher will become an active member of the research project “NOTE LIKE US”. The project offers a stimulating working environment in a dynamic and international research team. The project involves 7 research teams from the Universiteit Antwerpen (UA), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), KULeuven, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), University of Ghent, University of Namur and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

The researchers will be based at the Cevipol (ULB). They will have an office and relevant administrative support at ULB. They will have no teaching obligations but will be allowed to engage in a limited amount of teaching if this is judged appropriate for their academic development. They will be expected to contribute to collective work on the project, and to present and publish individual or collective research outputs.

Within the project, the selected candidate will:

• Analyze data collected via the panel survey organized within the project in 2024 (in relation to the 2024 federal, regional and European elections in Belgium)
• Conduct reseach on vote choice, affective polarization, democratic attitudes
• Assist the ULB PIs Emilie van Haute, Caroline Close and Jean-Benoit Pilet in their work

Profile

The candidate will hold a PhD in political or social sciences.

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