The University of Copenhagen hereby announces one fully funded PhD position (3 years) to start 1 September 2023.
The position is part of the research project CIRCLE the aim of which is to examine how and to what extent populist ideas of law and justice are circulated across European languages and communities and disseminated across media, political, and legal text genres. CIRCLE rests on the normative assumption that it is a legitimate scholarly aim to contribute to the defense of the liberal democratic order based on the rule of law and asks:
To answer those questions, CIRCLE will apply an interdisciplinary research methodology, which draws on insights from Critical Discourse Analysis, corpus linguistics, rhetoric, and translation theory in order to inform socio-legal and political science research on the legitimacy of international law and courts and social science research on populism.
The overall research project and research questions
The overarching methodology of CIRCLE is empirical and combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Research will be conducted in four overlapping steps, each representing a work package. The PhD student is expected to contribute to Work package 1 and will be responsible for Work package 3:
Work package 1: The Rhetoric of Populist Ideas. In a first step, the PI and PhD - supported by a student assistant and supported by data specialists at iCourts - will collect and code Danish media and political texts on human rights. Denmark is selected as the country of primary investigation due to the widespread populist sentiment across the political spectrum.
Work package 2: The Circulation of Populist Ideas. In a second step, not part of the PhD thesis, the PI with international collaborators will compare populist phrases across languages and trace their circulation and dissemination. The selected countries represent nation states in which European law is criticized publicly to varying degrees reflecting their different geo-political situation (Poland, the UK, Italy, Spain, and Germany).
Work package 3: The Impact of Populist Ideas. In a third step, the PhD will turn to legislative and judicial discourse to ascertain whether and how legal texts of the human rights system at national and European levels have been affected by populist ideas. Does the human rights system react to the populist surge, and if so, what is the rhetoric of its reaction? Are populist ideas recontextualized from genres of politics and the media into legal genres – legislation and judgments? If so, how?
Work package 4: The Response to Populist Ideas. In a final conclusive step, the PI, in cooperation with international collaborators, will draft a grammar of a non-populist, plain and simple language of human rights that may be used in defense of the international legal order based on liberal democracy and the rule of law.
CIRCLE is embedded in iCourts - Centre of Excellence for International Courts. In accordance with iCourts’ research agenda, CIRCLE focuses on international law and courts, and especially the European Court of Human Rights and the authority of its decisions in the domestic legal systems, https://jura.ku.dk/icourts/research/.
The PhD Programme
The PhD will be part of the wider PhD Programme offered by the Faculty of Law. The goal of the PhD Programme is threefold: to prepare candidates for a continuing career in teaching and research; to educate a new generation of scholars to produce high-quality independent research; and to equip them with the analytical and problem-solving skills required for a successful career in both the public and private sectors.
The Faculty of Law offers supervision by highly qualified academics and provides an excellent opportunity to research contemporary legal issues in an intellectually stimulating environment.
Successful PhD candidates are required to:
Qualifications
Application procedure
Click ’Apply now’ below to be taken to the online application form.
We advise you to have the following documents ready before you begin your online application:
Submit your application electronically in English.
University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding society and therefore encourages all interested parties regardless of personal background to apply for the position.
Recruitment process
Following the application deadline, the Associate Dean of Research will pre-select PhD applications that will proceed to the assessment stage upon the recommendation of the Selection Committee. Applicants are pre-selected for further assessment in line with the Faculty’s recruitment needs as described in this job advertisement. This is carried out based on the overall assessment of the applicant’s educational qualifications, the quality of the submitted research proposal and its relevance to the Faculty’s research agenda, and other relevant qualifications (e.g. relevant professional experience, any previous academic publications etc.). All applicants are then notified by the HR Centre as to whether their application has proceeded to the assessment stage. The assessment is carried out by an expert assessment committee. Selected applicants will be notified of the composition of the assessment committee. When the committee has completed its assessment, each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the assessment. A number of qualified applicants will be invited for an interview.
Terms of employment
Successful candidates will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations and the Ministry of Finance concerning the salary of PhD students. If you are offered a PhD position, you will receive a regular monthly salary in accordance with Danish law and you will be entitled to an annual research budget. The Faculty does not provide accommodation.
Additional Information
For questions regarding the research project, please contact Anne Lise Kjær, PI of CIRCLE, email: alk@jur.ku.dk
Contact information
Information about the recruitment process is available from Dorthea Andersen, HR, e-mail: hrsc@hrsc.ku.dk, please refer to ID number: 211-1328/23-2I #1.
Closing date for applications
The closing date for applications 17 April 2023, 23:59 GMT+1.
Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. Likewise incomplete applications (i.e. without all required documents) will be rejected.
Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.
In your application, please refer to Professorpositions.com