(full-time, E 13 TV-L)
Reference No.: 2025/064. The team German Politics at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, one of Germany’s leading political science departments is hiring a post-doctoral researcher for two years, starting October 1st, 2025. In principle, this position can be divided into two part-time positions.
The University of Konstanz is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. Since 2007 it has been successful in the German Excellence Initiative and its follow-up programme, the Excellence Strategy.
The project “Nationalist Persuasion, Legacies of Transition, and Democratic Backsliding in Europe” (funded by the German Research Foundation) is seeking a Polish-speaking post-doctoral researcher with excellent qualitative methods skills. The project studies how illiberal elites use nationalist appeal to gain and maintain electoral support in post-fascist compared to post-communist European societies. A module on all European democracies is combined with qualitative case studies on Spain and Poland, East and West Germany and Croatia. The working language is English.

Your Responsibilities

• Coordinate and oversee all activities in the project’s qualitative module
• Conduct research on memory politics and nationalism in Poland
• Conduct focus groups in Poland and support the team’s research on Croatia, Spain and Germany
• Participate in dissemination and publication of project results
• Contribute to administrative tasks in the context of the project

Your Competencies

• Excellent PhD in Political Science, Sociology or a related social science
• Enthusiasm for democracy research
• Excellent knowledge of qualitative methods of social science research
• Experience with conducting focus groups (ideally)
• Native speaker of Polish (or comparable Polish skills)
• Strong command of English

We Offer

• A vibrant working group with enthusiasm for research in the field of comparative politics
• Funding for participation in conferences and support from student research assistants
• Affiliation with one of Germany’s leading political science departments
• Access to the university’s excellent academic staff development
• The beautiful environment of a University next to Lake Constance

• Coordinate and oversee all activities in the project’s qualitative module
• Conduct research on memory politics and nationalism in Poland
• Conduct focus groups in Poland and support the team’s research on Croatia, Spain and Germany
• Participate in dissemination and publication of project results
• Contribute to administrative tasks in the context of the projec