Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Quantitative Political Science; TRUST-D Project

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The Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) is one of Oxford’s largest and most internationally recognised departments, home to around 90 academic staff and a thriving community of researchers and visitors. Ranked the Number One University in the UK for Politics by The Guardian in 2024, the department delivers world‑class teaching and research supported by experienced Professional Services teams working across Courses, Research, Finance, HR and Communications.

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Working at the University of Oxford offers several exclusive benefits, such as:

• 38 days of annual leave (pro rata if part time and inclusive of public holidays) to support your wellbeing andadditionalleave after long service.
• One of the most generous family leave schemes in UK higher education, offering up to 26 weeks of full-pay maternity and adoption leave, plus 12 weeks of full-pay paternity/partner leave.
• A commitment to hybrid and flexible working to suit your lifestyle.
• Affordable and sustainable commuting options, including a cycle loan scheme, discounted bus travel, and season ticket loans.
• Access to a vibrant community through our social, cultural, and sports clubs.

The Postdoctoral Research Fellow will work with Prof Petra Schleiter on the externally funded Trust, Participation, and Democratic Resilience (TRUST-D) project, which examines whether participatory innovations such as participatory budgeting, citizens' assemblies, and mini-publics strengthen long-term political trust.

The Fellow will lead quantitative analyses using advanced causal inference methods, including regression discontinuity designs, difference-in-differences, event study, instrumental variable, and related approaches. The role involves working with large-scale administrative, electoral, and survey datasets, including Polish participatory budgeting and local government data; and linking European comparative datasets such as the OECD Deliberative Democracy Database.

European Social Survey data; and regional (NUTS-3 level) administrative data and indicators of political trust and participation.

The Fellow will work closely with the PI and project collaborators on publications, conference presentations, policy briefs, and stakeholder engagement activities.

They will be part of a vibrant community of researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students based at the Centre for Democratic Resilience (CeDR) in the Department of Politics and International Relations.

You will lead, develop and implement rigorous quantitative research designs to identify the causal effects of participatory innovations on political trust and democratic resilience. You will assemble, merge, manage and analyse complex administrative, electoral and survey datasets, and estimate and evaluate advanced statistical models using methods including difference-in-differences, event studies, regression discontinuity designs, instrumental variables and panel-data approaches. You will also conduct robustness, placebo, sensitivity and pre-trend analyses.

You will contribute to the development of the project's theoretical framework and hypotheses concerning participatory innovations and political trust. Working closely with the PI and project collaborators, you will contribute to research dissemination through conference presentations, publications, policy briefs, and the preparation of replication datasets and code.

The successful candidate will support engagement with…