PhD position in the political economy of digital methods at the Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen

The Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites applications for a three-year PhD-scholarship in the political economy of digital methods starting 1 May 2025.
Introduction
As a PhD fellow, you will join the Center for Tracking and Society (CTS) in the Department of Communication. CTS is an interdisciplinary centre that undertakes critical and empirical research into digital tracking and its societal consequences.

Duties and Responsibilities
PhD studies consist of research programmes at the highest international level that qualify students for independent research, knowledge dissemination and teaching. The main emphasis is on PhD students organising and conducting their own research project (under supervision). The programme culminates in the submission of a PhD thesis, which the student must defend in public. The programme is prescribed to 180 ECTS credits, corresponding to three years of full-time study.

A PhD degree opens a range of career opportunities in academia and elsewhere. As well as writing a thesis, PhD students work in active research environments in Denmark and abroad. They contribute to the academic environment, take research training courses, and convey the results of their research in teaching, at academic conferences and to the general public.

The successful candidate’s research activities will contribute to the CTS’s shared efforts to understand and empirically explore the political economy of digital communication systems. By means of digital and computational methods as well as the repurposing of existing data repositories, the candidate will conduct empirical studies on tracking infrastructures and other technological components of the global internet. The PhD candidate will contribute to methodological development and innovation of research methods to qualify the collection, analysis, visualisation, and sharing of otherwise proprietary data on digital technologies.

Qualification requirements
Applicants must have a two-year Master’s degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent and, as a minimum, have submitted a Master’s thesis for which they have received pre-approval at the time of application. The successful candidate will have an MA degree in media and communication studies, computer science, or computational social science.

Applicants must possess skills in written and spoken academic English at a high level and demonstrate an ability to formulate and scope an independent project that responds to the call.

The qualifications of applicants with non-Danish Master’s degrees will be assessed to ascertain whether they correspond to the Danish level. For further information, please refer to the website of the Ministry of Education and Research: www.ufm.dk/en/education/admission-and-guidance.

For further information about the guidelines for PhD studies at UCPH, please refer to: www.phd.ku.dk/english.

For further information about the structure of the PhD programme, please refer to: www.phd.humanities.ku.dk/phd-programme/structure.

Application
All applications must be submitted online via the link “Apply now” at the bottom of this page. The application must be written in English, and include the following enclosures in Adobe PDF or Word format:

• Cover letter (max. one page detailing your motivation and background for applying with the specific PhD project).
• CV
• Project description (recommended no more than 12,000 characters not including bibliography).
• Diploma and transcripts of records (both bachelor’s and master’s degree)
• Other information for consideration, e.g. list of publications, documentation of English language qualifications (if relevant).

Applicants with a degree from a university where documents are not issued in English, or a Scandinavian language must provide a translation of their diploma and transcript of records verified by the issuing university. The documents must be translated into English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. In addition, you must enclose an official description of the grading scale in question (for instance diploma supplement).

Assessment criteria
The following criteria are applied when assessing PhD applications:

• Research qualifications as reflected in the project description.
• Quality and feasibility of the project.
• Qualifications and knowledge in infrastructure research, technical analysis of digital technologies and digital methods.
• Performance (grades obtained) in graduate and post-graduate studies.
• The Department of Communication can offer adequate supervision of the research topic in question.

Please note that only a few scholarships are awarded at each call for applications and that the competition is intense.

The recruitment process
After the deadline for applications, the Head of Department considers advice from the appointment committee and then selects applicants for assessment. All applicants will be notified whether they have been shortlisted. After this, the Head of Department sets up an expert assessment committee to assess the shortlisted applications. The selected applicants will be informed who is serving on the committee. Each shortlisted applicant will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment of their application before the appointment is announced.

For further information about the recruitment process, please refer to the University of Copenhagen website: www.employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process.

Enrolment
It is a prerequisite for employment that successful applicants enrol at the PhD School of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen.

For further information about the structure of the PhD programme, please refer to: www.phd.humanities.ku.dk/phd-programme/structure.

For further information about the guidelines for PhD studies at UCPH, please refer to: www.phd.ku.dk/english.

Salary and terms of employment
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at DKK 30,841.76 (EUR approx. 4,134) + a 17.1 % contribution to the pension scheme.

According to the agreement, the PhD Fellow is required to carry out tasks at the relevant department to an extent corresponding to 840 working hours (6 months) without additional pay. The work obligation can include teaching, for instance.

An equal opportunity workplace
University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the diversity of society, and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their personal backgrounds. For more information on the diverse working place environment at the university and the university’s participation in the HRS4R, please see: www.employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu-charter-for-researchers.

International applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about these services as well as information on entering and working in Denmark here: www.ism.ku.dk.

Contact information
For further information about the structure and rules of the PhD programme, please contact the PhD Administration at South and City Campuses, email: [email protected].

Information about the recruitment process is available from HR South and City Campuses, email: [email protected]. Please refer to case number: 211-2095/25-2H #1.

If you have any questions about the academic content of the PhD programme, please contact The Director of the Center for Tracking & Society, Stine Lomborg, email [email protected] or the Department of Communication PhD Coordinator Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, email [email protected].

The deadline for applications is 3 March 2025 at 23:59 CET.

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered. However, changes may be made to the submitted application right up until the deadline.

Københavns Universitet giver sine knap 10.000 medarbejdere muligheder for at udnytte deres talent fuldt ud i et ambitiøst, uformelt miljø. Vi sikrer traditionsrige og moderne rammer om uddannelser og fri forskning på højt internationalt niveau. Vi søger svar og løsninger på fælles problemer og gør ny viden tilgængelig og nyttig for andre.

Info
Ansøgningsfrist: 03-03-2025

Ansættelsesdato: 01-05-2025

Afdeling/Sted: Department of Communication