A postdoctoral researcher (H/F/X) in comparative politics, on ERC funded project POLSTYLE

Missions

The project POLSTYLE is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant and coordinated by Prof. Jeremy Dodeigne (UNamur).

Website: http://www.unamur.be/en/transitions/pole-democratic-transformations/erc-stg-polstyle

POLSTYLE project (ERC starting grant 101078226)

New trends or old habits?

Stability and changes of political styles since 1960

Hardly a week goes by without reports of political officials using inflammatory language and viciously attacking their opponents. The mainstreaming of toxic rhetoric has been deeply restructuring politics over the past years. Amid a broader restyling of politics, various scholars have argued that such communication styles directly undermine the democratic functioning of our societies. The central claim of the POLSTYLE project is that not all forms of hostility are equal. Political conflicts are the lifeblood of democracy: they allow – and even require – heated disagreements, including at times uncivil exchanges between partisan rivals. By contrast, elected officials relying on discourses promoting violence and intolerance are fundamentally incompatible with pluralistic democracy. In other words, the danger for modern democracy lies not in the rise of polarization per se, but in its shifting nature over the past years. Following the seminal distinction from agonist political theory: partisan rivals cease to be ‘adversaries to oppose’ and become ‘enemies to be eliminated’.

To test this thesis, the POLSTYLE project makes ambitious empirical, methodological, and theoretical breakthroughs. Empirically, we analyze the evolution of political styles in European democracies since the 1960s. The project has collected unique datasets across television debates, parliamentary discourses, and social media posts. Conceptually, the project relies on the innovative framework of the Political Hostility Scale (PHOS) that covers multiple indicators from an interdisciplinary scholarship (including political psychology, cognitive linguistics, and political communication). PHOS was developed jointly with internationally leading scholars to track democratic erosion using 16 fine-grained indicators. Methodologically, our team implements cutting-edge deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to study long-term transformations in political communication. Finally, the project adopts a theory building approach to explain how political styles have unfolded differently depending on institutional, political, and media-system factors, while investigating its effects on democratic erosion (including experiments with voters).

Postdoctoral position in comparative politics

The successful candidate will join a team of four postdoctoral researchers and one PhD candidate with expertise in legislative politics, social media communication, intolerant rhetoric and computational linguistics, with strong expertise in NLP.

At this stage of the project, all data collection processes are completed or in the final stages of completion (Parliamentary debates in 12 countries, TV archives and distinct X/Twitter datasets). Our research team has developed multiple deep learning models for data analysis - including Natural Language Inference (NLI) for detection of group appeals, political hostility communication, and morality threats. Prior experience with computational text analysis and NLP is welcome but not required, as the project provides extensive computational support and existing analytical infrastructures.

Research tasks

The postdoctoral researcher will be expected to develop an ambitious and internationally visible research agenda within the broader objectives of the POLSTYLE project. The successful candidate will have opportunities to lead first-authored publications and contribute to collaborative publications in top-tier journals.

The successful candidate is expected to contribute to one or several of the following research areas while being encouraged to propose complementary research questions that fit within the broader objectives of the POLSTYLE project:

• The mainstreaming of hostile rhetoric from radical and extreme-right parties towards established conservative parties, in parliamentary debates and/or social media communication;

• Spill-over effects of hostile rhetoric across political arenas, including the diffusion of communication styles between social media, parliamentary debates, and television debates;

• The effects of hostile rhetoric on citizens’ attitudes towards democratic and undemocratic norms, including the acceptance of intolerance and violence, social distancing, and affective polarization;

• Evolution of party communication as a response to strategic electoral positioning and structural socio-demo changes in industrialized democracies;

• Large-N quantitative approaches will be conducted as well as comparative case studies of some of the following countries: United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Hungary.

Research responsibilities

In collaboration with the research team and under the supervision of the Principal Investigator, the postdoctoral researcher will:

• Formulate theoretical expectations and research hypotheses related to the project’s core research questions;

• Design and implement empirical strategies to test these hypotheses using comparative and longitudinal data;

• Assess the availability of external datasets and integrate project data with relevant comparative resources (e.g., ESS, CSES, V-Dem, WhoGov);

• Participate actively in the intellectual life of the research team and contribute to international research collaborations associated with the project.

Profil

Requirements

The candidate must hold a PhD in comparative politics or a closely related field. Applicants should demonstrate expertise in political communication and/or democratic erosion, with a strong research profile in one or more of the following areas: elites’ behaviour, radical right politics, populism, and party system change.

Applicants must have submitted their PhD by the time they take up the post. Excellent academic track record required.

Candidates must have a strong command of English while mastery of additional languages from the project will be a strong asset (German, Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, Czech and Hungarian).

Renseignements complémentaires

Working conditions

Join an ERC-funded international research hub and develop your own internationally visible research profile using unique datasets and state-of-the-art computational tools. The Research Institute Transitions is a rapidly growing institute, funded by two ERC grants and multiple excellence grants from F.R.S.-FNRS and other third-party organizations. The team offers a stimulating working environment in a dynamic and internationally oriented research team. Located in the heart of Belgium, the University of Namur offers a high quality of life and excellent connections to European cities.

The postdoctoral researcher will receive active mentoring and support for future academic funding applications, including postdoctoral fellowships for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Belgian National Fund for Research (F.R.S.-FNRS). The candidate will also be offered opportunities to take up limited teaching experience (not mandatory). Funding support for international conferences is extensive.

The position offers a competitive salary according to Belgian university salary scales (approximately €3,200 net per month, depending on personal circumstances), together with full social security coverage, pension contributions, and health insurance. The University of Namur provides administrative support for international recruitment, including visa and relocation procedures.

Remarques

Selection process

The application deadline is August 15, 2026.

Any inquiries about the project and the position may be sent to: polstyle@unamur.be

Candidates apply by submitting their application, in the form of a single PDF document, to polstyle@unamur.be which must includea cover letter (1 page):

• a report on past research (2 pages),

• a detailed CV,

• the name of three referees.

Interviews for selected applicants will be scheduled early/mid-September 2026 in Namur (Belgium) or remotely via MS Teams.

Expected starting date of contract: 1st or 15 October 2026.