About this role
The Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark, invites applications for two three-year full-time postdoctoral researchers to join the research project “The Politics of Shaming and Shamelessness: How Elite Rhetoric Fuels Hostility and Tolerance for Political Violence”, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation (Semper Ardens: Accelerate) and headed by Associate Professor Tobias Widmann. The starting date is flexible and subject to mutual agreement but expected to be between December 2026 and February 2027. The project Healthy political discourse is the lifeblood of democracy. Yet across Western democracies, discourse has grown markedly more hostile, and physical assaults on politicians, attacks on minorities, and mobs storming legislatures show how hostility increasingly spills over into political violence. The project examines how elites, through their rhetoric, contribute to this development. It focuses on the emotion of shame and two connected rhetorical practices that have been on the rise over the last decades: shaming, where elites publicly brand opponents as norm violators and threats to the moral fabric of society, and shamelessness, where elites reassure their supporters that stigmatized beliefs or behaviors are normal or even honorable. These practices do not merely express disagreement – they recalibrate what counts as legitimate behavior and instruct citizens on which actions should be punished or excused. The project is organized around three work packages. Work package I develops computational tools to detect and quantify shaming and shamelessness in elite political discourse across advanced democracies. Work package II examines the causal consequences of elite shaming and shamelessness for citizens’ discursive norms, hostility in debate, and tolerance of political violence. Work package III develops and tests remedies against the harmful effects of this rhetoric, using generative agent-based simulations and AI-chatbot-based dialogue experiments. The two postdocs advertised in this call will take on leading roles in the empirical work of the project, with different but complementary profiles. Both postdocs are expected to have an affinity to computational methods and tools. The project is funded by a Carlsberg Foundation Semper Ardens: Accelerate grant, an ambitious funding instrument supporting research of high international standing led by mid-career researchers. The project runs for four years from August 2026 to July 2030 and is carried out by a team of two postdocs and student assistants led by Associate Professor Tobias Widmann. The positions Postdoc 1 will focus on the development and application of computational tools in the project. This includes, first and foremost, computational text analysis to detect shaming and shamelessness in parliamentary debates, party manifestos, press releases, and elite social-media content. It also includes other forms of computational tools used in the project, such as generative agent-based simulations with LLM-powered agents and AI-chatbot-based dialogue interventions. The postdoc will lead the empirical work on work package I and contribute to the computational components of work packages II and III. Postdoc 2 will focus on the experimental and quasi-experimental work of the project. This includes designing and implementing online and mock social-media experiments, developing causal identification strategies in observational data, and conducting human experiments with AI chatbots as adaptive dialogue interventions. The postdoc will lead the empirical work on work packages II and III, with a strong emphasis on research design and causal inference. Both postdocs are expected to combine their respective methodological profiles with an active interest in computational tools. They will be part of a collaborative team including the PI and student assistants. Research will primarily be carried out in collaboration with other project members. In addition, the positions involve opportunities to pursue independent work within the overall focus of the project. The successful applicant will become part of an exciting and ambitious research project and a supportive research team with a collegial and respectful atmosphere. There will be excellent opportunities for intellectual development and mentoring, with a focus on how the candidate can make use of the postdoctoral position to develop their career. In addition to the outlined research tasks, the position implies modest teaching obligations equivalent to one course per year. Qualifications Applicants must hold a PhD in political science or a closely related discipline (e.g., communication, sociology, computational social science, psychology) by the starting date of the position. We are looking for outstanding candidates who can demonstrate: A strong record (relative to career stage) of research on political communication, political behavior, political psychology, or a closely related area. An affinity to computational tools and methods, and strong programming skills (e.g., Python and/or R). Familiarity with research on emotions, social norms, incivility, or political violence. High level of professional English proficiency, both written and oral. Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in an international team. Experience with or interest in comparative research across multiple democracies. For Postdoc 1 , we particularly look for: Documented experience with computational text analysis, including natural language processing and the use of (multilingual) large language models / transformer-based models. Experience with large-scale data collection (e.g., parliamentary speeches, manifestos, press releases, social-media data). Interest in or experience with other computational tools relevant to the project, such as generative agent-based simulations or LLM-based conversational interventions. For Postdoc 2 , we particularly look for: Documented experience with experiment