Research assistant

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research was established in 1971 to conduct peace research and offer courses in peace and conflict studies. Currently approx. 90 persons are employed at the Department and approximately 1000 students are enrolled every academic year. Courses offered include undergraduate and post-graduate courses, as well as a Ph. D. programme. For more information, visit www.pcr.uu.se.

The project Opting Out? Explaining the Effectiveness of Election Boycotts aims to contribute new knowledge on the characteristics, dynamics, and consequences of election boycotts. Election boycotts are a common opposition strategy in authoritarian regimes. By building on insights from research on nonviolent campaigns, the project aims to build new theory about how mobilization, resilience, and leverage shape concessions to boycott campaigns. The project builds on both qualitative and quantitative data, and as part of the project, we develop the new global Election Boycott Campaigns and Outcomes (EBCO) dataset, which covers all election boycotts between 1945 and 2025. The project is led by project leader Sebastian van Baalen, and also includes the researchers Gulla Olafsdottir (Stockholm University) and Jesper Bjarnesen (The Nordic Africa Institute).

The department and the project is now looking for a research assistant for a full-time employment during six months, starting 2 June 2025.

Duties
The research assistant’s main duty will be to collect and code data to be used in quantitative analysis. The research assistant will report to project leader Sebastian van Baalen and project member Gulla Olafsdottir, and work close to other project members and research assistants in the project.

Tasks include:

• Collecting and coding information for a global dataset on election boycotts (1945–2025)
• Data management
• Assisting in developing theoretical definitions and coding routines
• Writing reports that analyse particular election boycotts or the collected data
• Other tasks may be added based on the needs of the project, such as administrative/project management tasks, workshop assistance, and miscellaneous writing tasks.

Requirements
The applicant must have:

• A Bachelor degree in peace and conflict studies, international relations, political science, or a related field
• Documented knowledge about theories from peace and conflict or democracy research
• Excellent English language skills (reading and writing)
• Ability to work independently and in teams
• Attention to detail and exactness, analytical and problem-solving skills, and good interpersonal abilities.

Additional qualifications

• Previous experience with data collection and coding, particularly conflict-related data
• Strong qualitative research methods skills, especially comparative case studies
• Proficiency in using software for statistical analysis, especially R
• Proficiency in French (reading)
• Proficiency in Spanish (reading)
• Proficiency in Arabic (reading).

Individual suitability will be considered.

Application
In this recruitment we have replaced the cover letter with questions that you are asked to answer when making your application. The answers will be used as a part of the selection process.
Besides answering the questions, the application should also include:

• a CV
• copies of degree certificate, including grades
• 1-2 relevant samples demonstrating writing and research skills in your application, such as an academic paper or thesis.

About the employment
The employment is a: temporary position, 6 months (June-November). Scope of employment: 100 %. Starting date: 2 June 2025, or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala.

For further information about the position, please contact: Project leader Sebastian van Baalen, sebastian.van-baalen@pcr.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 22 April 2025, UFV-PA 2025/825.

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