Dear reader,

It would be great if you could post these vacancies via the EPSA mailing list!

Thanks and best wishes,
Barbara Vis

Utrecht University has vacancies for 2 PhDs candidates (4-years each) and for 1 postdoc (3 years) in the ERC-funded project ‘Politicians under Radical Uncertainty: How Uncertain Phenomena Influence Political Elites’ Behavior’ (RadiUncehttp://www.radiunce.org/), for which Prof. Barbara Vis has been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant.

What is the project about? RadiUnce starts from the observation that politicians face numerous phenomena that are characterized by uncertainty. Examples include climate change, digitalization, or the Covid-19 pandemic. Conceptually, the project distinguishes ‘radical’ from ‘resolvable’ uncertainty. While resolvable uncertainty can be removed with more or better information, radical uncertainty cannot. Remarkably little is known about how resolvable and radically uncertain phenomena influence politicians’ behavior. Do politicians, for instance, ‘avoid’ the uncertain phenomenon, as some political leaders did with the coronavirus? Do they use rules of thumb, ‘heuristics’, like comparing Covid-19 to the flu or to Ebola? Or do they display another behavioral response? Answering this question is urgent because politicians’ responses influence their effectiveness at solving problems. For example, avoidance of a virus may cost lives, while heuristics may result in faulty courses of action. The project’s overall aim is to develop a theory to answer this question.

Both PhD candidates as well as the postdoc will contribute to the project’s groundwork: compiling a dataset of radically and resolvably uncertain phenomena. PhD1, co-supervised by dr. Sjors Overman, will furthermore identify and map politicians’ perceived uncertainty to examine its relationship with ‘objective’ uncertainty. PhD2, co-supervised by dr. Lisanne de Blok, will examine and explain the mechanisms linking uncertainty to politicians’ behavior. The postdoc will among other things extract politicians’ responses to uncertainty by means of automated text analysis based on their communication.

The vacancy and job descriptions of the PhD positions are available here:
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-positions-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena and that of the postdoc position here: https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/postdoc-position-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena. The project is embedded at the Utrecht University School of Governance and runs from 2023 to 2028.

More information about the project is available at the project website: www.radiunce.orghttp://www.radiunce.org. Please do not hesitate to contact prof. Barbara Vis (b.vis[at]uu.nlmailto:b.vis@uu.nl) with any questions about the positions or the project.

Please apply by May 15.

Prof. dr. B. [Barbara] Vis |  Professor of Politics & Governance | Programme director of the master Research in Public Administration and Organisational Science | Utrecht University | Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance | Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) | Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC Utrecht | +31(0)30-2534935 | b.vis@uu.nl |https://solismail.uu.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=NayEpxEQ3CU_4q6zs7WvnccYYdG_lqLWY9Kwk3emPSfcrxrevfPUCA..&URL=mailto%3ab.vis%40uu.nl%257C www.barbaravis.nlhttps://solismail.uu.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=rp4pTW2wpLBVpJbJQEfMbwxIpZ0PxZIoaUJRrJwjMqzcrxrevfPUCA..&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.barbaravis.nl%2f | ERC-project: www.radiunce.orghttp://www.radiunce.org/

We’re hiring! Vacancies for 2 PhDs and 1 postdoc in the project ‘Politicians under Radical Uncertainty: How Uncertain Phenomena Influence Political Elites’ Behavior’ (RadiUnce), for which I received an ERC Consolidator grant:

• https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-positions-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena (2 PhDs)
• https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/postdoc-position-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena (postdoc).
  Closing date: 15 May 2023.

Dear reader,

It would be great if you could post these vacancies via the EPSA mailing list!

(Please note that I’m resending this request, because I – apparently – wasn’t on the mailing list before).

Thanks and best wishes,
Barbara Vis

Utrecht University has vacancies for 2 PhDs candidates (4-years each) and for 1 postdoc (3 years) in the ERC-funded project ‘Politicians under Radical Uncertainty: How Uncertain Phenomena Influence Political Elites’ Behavior’ (RadiUncehttp://www.radiunce.org/), for which Prof. Barbara Vis has been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant.

What is the project about? RadiUnce starts from the observation that politicians face numerous phenomena that are characterized by uncertainty. Examples include climate change, digitalization, or the Covid-19 pandemic. Conceptually, the project distinguishes ‘radical’ from ‘resolvable’ uncertainty. While resolvable uncertainty can be removed with more or better information, radical uncertainty cannot. Remarkably little is known about how resolvable and radically uncertain phenomena influence politicians’ behavior. Do politicians, for instance, ‘avoid’ the uncertain phenomenon, as some political leaders did with the coronavirus? Do they use rules of thumb, ‘heuristics’, like comparing Covid-19 to the flu or to Ebola? Or do they display another behavioral response? Answering this question is urgent because politicians’ responses influence their effectiveness at solving problems. For example, avoidance of a virus may cost lives, while heuristics may result in faulty courses of action. The project’s overall aim is to develop a theory to answer this question.

Both PhD candidates as well as the postdoc will contribute to the project’s groundwork: compiling a dataset of radically and resolvably uncertain phenomena. PhD1, co-supervised by dr. Sjors Overman, will furthermore identify and map politicians’ perceived uncertainty to examine its relationship with ‘objective’ uncertainty. PhD2, co-supervised by dr. Lisanne de Blok, will examine and explain the mechanisms linking uncertainty to politicians’ behavior. The postdoc will among other things extract politicians’ responses to uncertainty by means of automated text analysis based on their communication.

The vacancy and job descriptions of the PhD positions are available here:
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-positions-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena and that of the postdoc position here: https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/postdoc-position-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena. The project is embedded at the Utrecht University School of Governance and runs from 2023 to 2028.

More information about the project is available at the project website: www.radiunce.orghttp://www.radiunce.org. Please do not hesitate to contact prof. Barbara Vis (b.vis[at]uu.nl) with any questions about the positions or the project.

Please apply by May 15.

Prof. dr. B. [Barbara] Vis |  Professor of Politics & Governance | Programme director of the master Research in Public Administration and Organisational Science | Utrecht University | Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance | Utrecht University School of Governance (USG) | Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC Utrecht | +31(0)30-2534935 | b.vis@uu.nl |https://solismail.uu.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=NayEpxEQ3CU_4q6zs7WvnccYYdG_lqLWY9Kwk3emPSfcrxrevfPUCA..&URL=mailto%3ab.vis%40uu.nl%257C www.barbaravis.nlhttps://solismail.uu.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=rp4pTW2wpLBVpJbJQEfMbwxIpZ0PxZIoaUJRrJwjMqzcrxrevfPUCA..&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.barbaravis.nl%2f | ERC-project: www.radiunce.orghttp://www.radiunce.org/

We’re hiring! Vacancies for 2 PhDs and 1 postdoc in the project ‘Politicians under Radical Uncertainty: How Uncertain Phenomena Influence Political Elites’ Behavior’ (RadiUnce), for which I received an ERC Consolidator grant:

• https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-positions-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena (2 PhDs)
• https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/postdoc-position-on-erc-funded-project-politicians-under-radical-uncertainty-how-uncertain-phenomena (postdoc).
  Closing date: 15 May 2023.