Junior Professorship (W1, non tenured) in Social Computing

## Reference No. 2026/058. The Department of Politics and Public Administration in the Faculty of Politics – Law – Economics seeks to fill this position by the 1st of July 2026.

The University of Konstanz is a dynamic and internationally successful research university with approximately 10,000 students. The campus university’s architecture promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and a sense of community among researchers, lecturers and students. The University of Konstanz has been continuously funded by the German Excellence Strategy since 2006.

The Department of Politics and Public Administration conducts research and teaching at the highest level in the areas of (i) democracy and public policy, (ii) international politics, (iii) management and public administration, and (iv) data and methods.

The successful candidate utilizes, evaluates and develops text-as-data methods to tackle policy-relevant problems, such as online harm and misinformation. A focus on the application of Large Language Models (LLMs) to the analysis of textual resources such as legal texts and (social) media content, as well as a research agenda to build LLM interventions for mental health will be particularly welcome. The successful candidate brings interdisciplinary methodological expertise spanning political science, psychology, and natural language processing.

The professorship will offer courses in text-as-data methods including LLMs, their applications in social science research, and their mathematical foundations. It will thus contribute to the undergraduate and graduate programs at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, the interdisciplinary Master’s program in Social and Economic Data Science (SEDS), and the Advanced Data and Information Literacy Track (ADILT). Involvement in the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” is welcome.

The position requires an excellent doctoral degree in one of the social sciences, computer science, or statistics with an evident interdisciplinary inclination. Applicants should have a promising research record, substantiated through publications in high-ranking journals, as well as relevant teaching experience in the above-mentioned field. We place great emphasis on gender and diversity competence, reflected in teaching and research. The ability to teach in German is an advantage but not a requirement. In addition, the candidate must have secured funding for their own position for the next six years (e.g., Emmy Noether or “Sonderprogramm für internationale Wissenschaftsfreiheit”).

In all other respects, the hiring requirements for junior professorships follow from § 51 paragraph 2,3 of the Landeshochschulgesetz.

Concerning the application procedure, please contact Ms Stina Büntge, . Questions regarding the academic profile of the position can be directed to Prof. Dr. Anke Hoeffler, .

The University of Konstanz strives to increase the number of women working in research and teaching. The University commits itself to gender equality and family-friendliness as well as to creating an inclusive diversity culture in all areas and on all levels. Measures reach from childcare in the university’s own Kinderhaus (childcare centre) to support for working couples through a dual career program ().

Persons with disabilities are explicitly encouraged to apply and will be given preference if appropriately qualified. Please contact our representative for employees with disabilities, Tobias Neumann, (+ 49 7531 88-4016).

Applications with the usual documents (curriculum vitae, publication list, a list of grants and awards, details of teaching experience, statements on current research topics, future research directions and interests) can be submitted until 05.03.2026, via our .