*Two-year fully funded postdoctoral position in quantitative text analysis/ NLP*

*Location:* University College Dublin, School of Politics and International Relations

*Start date:* 1st September, 2024

*Deadline:* 12th May, noon, 2024

University College Dublin is currently recruiting a post-doctoral researcher to implement natural language processing (NLP) tools to analyse interview data.

The main objective of this position is to develop tools to identify and analyse so-called cognitive maps (Axelrod 1976) from interview data. Dornschneider and Henderson (2016, 2023) and Dornschneider (2019) have developed tools for the computational analysis of cognitive maps. What is needed is a set of tools to infer cognitive maps from natural language.

This Irish Research Council funded project investigates the role of women in Muslim resistance movements, based on Arabic interviews conducted by the Principal Investigator. The cognitive mapping analysis has several main objectives: 1- to show typical behavioral decisions (e.g. to join a resistance movement) described by the interviewees; 2- to identify common reasoning processes related to these decisions; and 3- to trace the role of religious beliefs in these reasoning processes.

You will work with the PI, Dr. Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink, to deliver the research objectives of the project. You will support the development and subsequent publication of new tools to convert text into cognitive maps. Tasks will include but are not limited to POS tagging, sequence analysis, word embeddings, and visualization. You will have the chance to give substantial input to the analysis and to co-author papers with the PI.

Full ad*:* https://my.corehr.com/pls/coreportal_ucdp/apply?id=017201

*References*

Axelrod, R. (ed.). 1976. *Structure of decision: The cognitive maps of political elites*. Princeton: Princeton university press.

Dornschneider-Elkink, S. and Henderson, N., 2023. Repression and Dissent: How Tit-for-Tat Leads to Violent and Nonviolent Resistance. *Journal of Conflict Resolution*, p.00220027231179102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714540473

Dornschneider, S., 2019. High‐Stakes Decision‐Making Within Complex Social Environments: A Computational Model of Belief Systems in the Arab Spring. *Cognitive Science*, *43*(7), p.e12762. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12762

Dornschneider, S. and Henderson, N., 2016. A computational model of cognitive maps: Analyzing violent and nonviolent activity in Egypt and Germany. *Journal of Conflict Resolution*, *60*(2), pp.368-399.