Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Salary Details
The starting salary will be from £43,482 on Grade F, depending on qualifications and experience.

Package Details
Generous holiday allowances, flexible working, pension scheme and relocation package (if applicable).

The above full-time (1.0 FTE) post is available from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 on a fixed-term basis within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

The post
The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to participate in the Natural Freedom Project investigating online counter-narratives in the UK. This ESRC funded post is available from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The successful applicant will be responsible for data scraping and quantitative data analysis.

The post will include data scraping of online content related to counter-narratives.

About you
Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority in computational social science/(social) data science and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the study of online subcultures, their dynamics, and conspiratorial narratives to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively. Applicants will be able to develop web scraping scripts in the Python programming language and implement Natural Language Processing (NLP) models and other forms of quantitative/computational data analysis of the collected online content, build website, write and publish academic articles.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role by clicking the 'Apply' button.

What we can offer you

• Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research.
• Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly.
• An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development.
• Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career.
• A multitude of staff benefits including sector leading benefits around maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (up to 26 weeks full pay), Paternity leave (up to 6 weeks full pay), and a Fertility Treatment Policy.
• A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment
We are committed to ensuring reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.

Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented within our working community.

With over 30,000 students and 7,000 staff from 150 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a major strength. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where all members of our community are supported to thrive; where diverse voices are heard through our engagement with evidence-based charter frameworks for gender (Athena SWAN and Project Juno for Physics), race equality (Race Equality Charter Mark), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Stonewall Diversity Champion) and as a Disability Confident employer.

We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and welcome applications from service people.

Further information
For further information please contact Susannah Crockford, e-mail s.crockford@exeter.ac.uk.

The closing date for completed applications is 12 February 2026 at midnight. Interviews are expected to take place on 26 February 2026.

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