Postdoctoral researcher (m/f/d) at the Chair of Digital Governance

Munich School of Politics and Public Policy

The Munich School of Politics and Public Policy (HfP) combines excellence in political science with a commitment to dialogue between politics, society, business, and technology. As an institution affiliated with and supported by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), we address pressing political issues and explore the societal opportunities and challenges presented by emerging technologies.

The Content Moderation Lab is a joint research initiative of the Technical University of Munich and the University of Oxford, housed at the TUM Think Tank, and co-directed by Yannis Theocharis (TUM) and Spyros Kosmidis (University of Oxford). The Lab is dedicated to the empirical study of platform governance, online speech regulation, and content moderation, and works in partnership with civil society organizations and major state institutions like the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. Its work sits at the intersection of political science, communication, law, and computer science, and is guided by the conviction that the regulation of online speech is one of the defining political challenges of our time.

Your responsibilities:

• Develop and pursue an independent, high-quality research agenda within the Chair’s and the Lab's intellectual scope.
• Publish original research in leading peer-reviewed journals independently and collaboratively.
• Participate actively in the intellectual life of the Chair and the Content Moderation Lab, including working on ongoing research projects, contributing to the drafting and submission of grant applications for external funding submitted by the Chair and the Lab (DFG, ERC, etc.), organizing and participating in workshops, and attending and leading Lab meetings.
• Contribute to and help develop the Lab's research infrastructure (datasets, experimental platforms, computational pipelines).
• Teach courses relevant to the Chair's and the Lab's research areas at the Bachelor's and/or Master's level (5 SWS – typically 2 courses per semester).
• Engage with the broader academic and policy community through conferences, policy briefs, and public-facing outputs where relevant.

Research topics of particular interest:

• Content moderation: How citizens evaluate the fairness, accountability, and democratic authorization of platform governance decisions; the role of transparency and appeals mechanisms.
• Freedom of speech in the algorithmic age: The empirical study of speech norms and their variation; public attitudes toward platform authority over speech; partisan and ideological dimensions of free speech commitments.
• AI governance and automated moderation: The deployment of large language models (LLMs) and machine learning classifiers in content moderation; human-AI interaction in moderation workflows and its implications for political behavior.
• Platform regulation: Compliance behavior, implementation, and the political and behavioral consequences of the EU's Digital Services Act and related regulatory frameworks including Section 230 in the US; regulatory legitimacy; cross-national comparative analysis across regulatory regimes.
• Behavioral consequences of moderation: Effects of content removal, demotion, and labelling on user behavior; platform migration; radicalization and disengagement.

Your qualifications:

• A PhD (or very close to completion) in political science, communication, computational social science, or a closely related discipline.
• Strong computational skills: proficiency in text-as-data methods, NLP, and/or machine learning approaches to large-scale text. Experience with LLMs and transformer-based models is a plus.
• Experience with experimental research design and/or causal inference methods (survey experiments, conjoint analysis, natural experiments, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, etc.).
• A record of, or clear potential for, high-quality research output in top internationally visible venues.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within an active research team.
• Substantive interest in at least one of the core research areas outlined above.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English. Knowledge of German is an asset but not required.

Methodological Background:

• Computational social science: Text-as-data methods, machine learning and LLMs applied to social science questions, platform API data collection and analysis, large-scale digital data collection and analysis.
• Survey and experimental methods: Design and analysis of survey experiments, conjoint experiments, and online or field experiments; sampling and questionnaire design.
• Causal inference: Quasi-experimental designs, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, or related approaches.

Our offer:

• A postdoctoral research and teaching position for 3 years, with the possibility of a 2-year extension (3+2), subject to performance review.
• Remuneration in accordance with the German public service pay scale (TV-L) at the E-13 level (100%).
• Full integration into the Content Moderation Lab and the Chair of Digital Governance, with access to ongoing funded research projects, original large-scale datasets, and experimental infrastructure at the TUM level.
• A stimulating and collaborative research environment with active connections to leading researchers in political science, computational social science, and communication across Europe and North America.
• Support for conference attendance, training, and open-access publication costs.
• Location in central Munich, one of Europe's most livable cities and a major hub for AI and technology research.

The Munich School of Politics and Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich strives to increase the proportion of women in its workforce and explicitly encourages applications from qualified female candidates. This position is also suitable for individuals with disabilities. In cases of equivalent suitability, aptitude, and professional performance, preference will be given to disabled applicants.

Your application: If you are interested in joining our team, please submit your application via Heyrecruit by October 16, 2026. Your application should include:

• a cover letter/motivation letter (max. 2 pages)
• a current CV including a full list of publications and works in progress
• a research proposal (max. 2 pages)
• academic transcripts or equivalent documentation of your academic training, particularly in research methods
• one writing sample (published article, accepted manuscript, or working paper; please indicate your contribution in the case of co-authored work)
• and the names and contact details of three academic referees

The expected starting date is January 1, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter. For informal inquiries, please contact Prof. Dr. Yannis Theocharis at [email protected].