SOUNDS

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS) is looking to fill a W2 Professorship position (W3 tenure track, m/f/x) in Political, Social or Communication Science.

This professorial appointment is open regarding the candidate's specific research focus within the field of political, social or communication science. The successful candidate will define their own research agenda, provided that it demonstrates excellence in the field, addresses current societal questions, makes use of novel digital data sources and establishes clear links with computer science.

SOUNDS is a research project at Saarland University funded through the Saarland state government’s Transformation Fund. It investigates societally relevant questions through novel digital data sources, digital behavioural traces, social media data and Al-based methods. Based in the department of European Social Research, the person appointed to this position will work at the intersection of political science, sociology and communication science. They will pursue theory-driven, comparative research on public communication and societal change with data-driven methods, addressing questions such as political and social opinion formation, the mediated public sphere, or processes of social change. The professorship will also contribute to the development of joint research questions, methods and publications with the wider SOUNDS project and computer science.

We expect you to develop and lead externally funded research, including third-party funding applications at national and European level and to participate actively in coordinated funding initiatives such as Collaborative Research Centres. Your teaching duties will include courses on empirical social research, digital communication research and computational methods, which will also be offered as part of related degree programmes in neighbouring disciplines. The role also includes the supervision of student theses and the mentoring of early-career researchers.

We are looking for a researcher with excellent academic standing in political science, sociology and/or communication science, with an empirical and quantitative focus, and a strong record of working with novel digital data sources to address societally relevant questions. You should also be open to formal affiliation with the Department of Computer Science. You will have an established international research network and an excellent track record of relevant publication and of third-party funding, including grants awarded, applications submitted or applications being prepared. A willingness to teach in English is expected, as is the willingness to teach in German in the medium term. The tenure evaluation follows the criteria of the university's tenure-track regulations.

This professorial position is a fixed-term public sector appointment ('Beamtenverhältnis auf Zeit') for a maximum period of five years. If the tenure evaluation procedure (teaching appraisal and external assessment of research work) is positive, the appointee will be promoted to a permanent professorship (lifetime tenure) at the German academic salary scale W3.

Deadline for applications: October 15th, 2026

Full call for applications: https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/verwaltung/stellen/Wissenschaftler/W2905_W2TTW3_SOUNDS_PolSocComScien_EN.pdf