Research Fellow in Anti-Autocratic Messaging

About the role

NEWREPUBLIC is a research project funded by the European Research Council. It will investigate two urgent questions of our times: what ideas animate anti-autocratic movements, and how effective are these ideas as messages for persuading and mobilising against autocracy? As the Research Fellow in Anti-Autocratic Messaging, you will play a central role in that project alongside the principal investigator, two PhD students and a project officer. The project will involve placing three nationally-representative surveys in three African countries, each with a built-in survey experiment. You will work closely with the principal investigator to design, place and analyse the results of those surveys and experiments. You will co-author papers stemming from this research, for publication in the most highly-regarded political science journals. More widely, you will be pivotal to the success of NEWREPUBLIC. You will have opportunities to shape the project’s direction. You will play a key role in the core project activity of translating academic findings into impact. You will present at conferences, co-lead policy seminars, co-convene workshops and co-design follow-on research agendas. We hope to build an agenda beyond this project, and extend your role in it. You will contribute to that agenda by co-developing follow-on funding applications.

You, and NEWREPUBLIC, will be located in the Politics Department, which also houses the world-leading Centre for the Study of Corruption. NEWREPUBLIC has close ties to this centre, alongside Sussex’s Institute for Development Studies, which is consistently ranked first in the world in the QS World Rankings, and the School for Progressive Futures. You will also receive proactive support oriented towards early-career researchers through the Sussex Researcher School.

About you

The ideal candidate will want to put the animating ideas of anti-autocratic movements, and the effectiveness of those ideas as messages, at the heart of their research agenda, for the duration of the project, and for years to come.

• You will have a PhD in political science or a closely related subject.
• You will have a track record of publications in highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals, commensurate with career-stage, which utilise advanced quantitative research methods.
• You will have expertise in survey experiments and public opinion analysis.
• You will have expertise in political messaging, political behaviour, discourse studies, and/or ideology studies.
• It would be advantageous if you had experience of submitting funding applications, presenting at academic conferences and generating content for public engagement
• It would be advantageous if you had expertise in African politics, US politics, autocratic politics, democratic resilience, and/or anti-autocratic movements.
• It would be advantageous if you had experience in research coordination, supervision, and/or mentorship.

About our School

Please find further information regarding the School of Law, Politics and Sociology on our website.

Why work here

Find out more about our reward and benefits package.

Find out about our equality, diversity and inclusion.

Further Key Information

Please contact NEWREPUBLIC principal investigator, Dr. Dan Paget, at d.paget@sussex.ac.uk for informal enquiries.

Please submit a cover letter of no more than two pages, a CV, and a writing sample of no more than 10,000 words.

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