The Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script” (SCRIPTS) is recruiting two Doctoral Researchers (f/m/div) on full-time (40 hours/week) basis for the project “Leader Types and (Liberal?) Narratives of the COVID-19 Pandemic”. One Doctoral Researcher will be recruited in the field of political economy and one Doctoral Researcher in the field of natural language processing (NLP). The contract shall start 1 September 2021 and is limited for three years. The successful candidates will be part of the Cluster of Excellence “Contestations of the Liberal Script” and the Berlin Graduate School for Global and Transregional Studies (BGTS) and will be based at the Hertie School. This is a joint project of Prof. Mark Hallerberg, PhD (Hertie School), Prof. Slava Jankin, PhD (Hertie School), and Prof. Dr. Amrita Narlikar (GIGA). We consider leader types and pandemic performance through the lenses of varying narratives that policymakers use to describe the pandemic and to justify their policy decisions. Here we focus on the structure of policy-makers’ arguments and apparent strength of rhetorical persuasion of their narratives. We investigate both the causal arguments that leaders appealed to as they structured their pandemic narratives, and the emotive appeal of the arguments. We further investigate how priorities were presented to the public: e.g., saving health and economy or saving health versus economy. All applications received until 7 June 2021 will be considered for the positions. Applications received afterwards will be considered until the position is filled. For further information and to apply for the above positions, please visit https://bit.ly/SCRIPTS_PHD For questions about the position, please contact Prof. Mark Hallerberg or Prof. Slava Jankin. -- Slava Jankin Professor of Data Science and Public Policy Director, Data Science Lab Hertie School The University of Governance in Berlin Friedrichstraße 180 10117 Berlin ∙ Germany Phone +49 (0)30 / 259 219 156 jankin@hertie-school.org<mailto:jankin@hertie-school.org> ∙ www.hertie-school.org<http://www.hertie-school.org>