Fully funded PhD position in quantitative text analysis/ NLP
Four-year fully funded PhD position in quantitative text analysis/ NLP
Location: University College Dublin, School of Politics and
International Relations
Start date: 2nd May, 2024
Deadline: 8th April, 2024
I am recruiting a PhD doctoral researcher to work on a project funded by
the Irish Research Council (IRC). The project applies methods from
quantitative text analysis to examine Arabic interviews with participants
in Muslim resistance movements. The main objective related to the
advertised PhD position is to help develop tools to identify and analyse
so-called cognitive maps (Axelrod 1976) from the available interview data.
The cognitive mapping analysis has four main objectives: 1- to show typical
behavioral decisions (e.g. to join a resistance a movement) described by
the interviewees; 2- to identify common reasoning processes related to
these decisions; 3- to trace the role of religious beliefs in these
reasoning processes.
The doctoral researcher will work with me to deliver the research
objectives of the project. You will conduct a specified programme of
doctoral research to contribute to specific work packages of the IRC grant.
You will be given the autonomy to design your own research questions within
the scope of the IRC project. But as part of this, you will be tasked with
text analysis in Arabic and support the development of new tools to convert
Arabic text into cognitive maps; and to subsequently analyse the maps.
Tasks will include but are not limited to POS tagging, sequence analysis,
visualization, and web-scraping.
This is a 4 year (48 month) position. Knowledge of Arabic is a plus but not
required.
Full ad*:*
http://www.dornschneider.net/PhD_position_University_College_Dublin.pdf
The benefits include:
• €25,000 tax-free stipend per year for 4 years
• Full fees paid every year (either EU or
non-EU fees)
• Shared office space
• A multidisciplinary doctoral studies
research panel
• Integration into UCD’s School of Politics
and International Relations (SPIRe) doctoral training programme, or the PhD
programme in Quantitative and Computational Social Science
• Acting as international researcher in a
prestigious IRC consolidator grant.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities:
• Complete the doctoral research training
programme.
• Design your own research thesis question(s)
• Complete a doctoral thesis (monograph-style
or a four paper model) under the supervision of the Principal Investigator
that addresses key research tasks of the IRC project.
• Apply quantitative text analysis to Arabic
text/interviews
• Help generate and analyse cognitive maps
Application materials:
• Cover letter outlining your motivation for
the PhD position (max 2 pages).
• Curriculum Vitae (max 2 pages – focused on
your educational/research credentials).
• Thesis proposal that addresses the above
project (max 2 pages).
• Names and contact details of 2 referees.
• Applications will only be considered if the
full documentation have been emailed to stephanie.dornschneider@ucd.ie by
5pm on April 8th.
Related publications:
Dornschneider-Elkink, S. and Henderson, N., 2023. Repression and Dissent:
How Tit-for-Tat Leads to Violent and Nonviolent Resistance. Journal of
Conflict Resolution, p.00220027231179102.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714540473
Dornschneider, S., 2019. High‐Stakes Decision‐Making Within Complex Social
Environments: A Computational Model of Belief Systems in the Arab
Spring. Cognitive
Science, 43(7), p.e12762. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12762
Dornschneider, S. and Henderson, N., 2016. A computational model of
cognitive maps: Analyzing violent and nonviolent activity in Egypt and
Germany. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60(2), pp.368-399.
--
Dr Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink
Assistant Professor, School of Politics & International Relations (SPIRe)
University College Dublin
Newman Building, F316, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland