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Location: Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK
(Full-Time/Indefinite with End Date)
Interview date: Wednesday 15th July 2026
We are looking to appoint a highly motivated and resilient individual, with excellent communication skills, the capacity to work collaboratively as part of a team and the ability to solve problems creatively to join us as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) within the group of Dr Isobelle Clarke in the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science in Linguistics and English Language.
This position is funded by the UKRI Future Leader’s Fellowship scheme. The successful applicant will join a team of researchers based in Lancaster University working on the project ‘A Multi-Dimensional Understanding of the Digital Far Right’.
The project has three core aims:
- To systematically identify how the language and behaviours of far right groups vary (what linguistic features and repertoires they share and how the most high risk content compares).
- To develop an innovative methodology to allow for (1).
- To provide training of (1) and (2) to law enforcement.
You should hold a PhD in computational linguistics or a relevant field (or have submitted with a scheduled viva date). You should also have a background in data science, especially natural language processing, expertise in how to scrape data from the web, and a critical, academic interest in studying the far right. Some background with machine learning, automatic feature recognition, multivariate statistical techniques, sparse data, and zero-inflation methods would be an advantage.
This is a fixed term position at 1.0 FTE for a period of 48 months.
Lancaster University is highly ranked and research-led and situated near the historic city of Lancaster. The North West of England offers high standards of living, beautiful countryside, including the Lake District, and excellent national and international transport connectivity. See Jobs – Lancaster University.
For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Isobelle Clarke, Lecturer in Security and Protection Science; UKRI Future Leaders Fellow i.clarke@lancaster.ac.uk
Please note: unless specified otherwise in the advert, all advertised roles are UK based.
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