4-year Ph.D. Stipend in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin

Applications are sought for a fully funded four-year Provost’s Ph.D. Project stipend to start a Ph.D. in September 2021 on a subject connected to the research project 'Prime-Ministerial Power and the Contextual Dynamics of Voters' Responsibility Attribution in Coalition Governments' led by Dr Jan Berz. Trinity’s Provost’s Ph.D. Project Awards are generously funded through alumni donations and Trinity's Commercial Revenue Unit. Applicants with a background in econometrics or quantitative methods are encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities
This award provides a unique opportunity for a doctoral student to engage in frontier research within the Political Science community at Trinity. The successful applicant will be working on the research project directed by Dr Jan Berz and will be enrolled in the structured Ph.D. Programme at the Department of Political Science.

The award comprises the student’s Ph.D. EU tuition fee and an annual stipend of €17,316. Coverage of non-EU tuition fees may be an option, applicants should inquire with the PI (berzj@tcd.ie). It is expected that the successful applicant will also engage in teaching and tutoring on the Department's undergraduate courses for additional enumeration on top of the annual stipend.

Project Information: The ability of voters to assign responsibility for government outcomes in coalition governments is of high relevance for the democratic function of parliamentary elections but remains poorly understood. The project pursues four main objectives: First, to analyse voters' decision-making in their assignment of responsibility for government outcomes among coalition parties. Second, to examine the role of prime ministers as a heuristic for responsibility attribution under varying conditions. Third, to conceptualize the influence of formal prime ministerial powers, and their historical and contemporary use, on responsibility attribution. Fourth, to assess the consequence of technocratic government for electoral accountability. The successful applicant will work on the collection and statistical analysis of cross-national observational data and will be closely involved in the design and implementation of survey experiments.

Application
Applications for the award must include a cover letter, a 2-3 page research proposal, a detailed curriculum vitae, a copy of degree certificates (please consult the FAQ page for requirements), a copy of full and official academic transcripts, and two academic references. Prospective candidates will need to send these documents in one PDF file to berzj@tcd.ie as soon as possible or at the latest by 1 April 2021.

All applicants must also apply to the doctoral programme at the Department of Political Science via the online applications system. The deadline for applications to the doctoral programme is 1 April 2021. For details concerning the doctoral programme application process, please see our FAQ page. General enquiries may be directed to the Ph.D. Director, Jesse Dillon Savage (dillonsj@tcd.ie). Further details of the Ph.D. programme can be found here.

Our four-year doctoral programme is designed to give students the highest level of training to become scholars at the forefront of the discipline. Most of our Ph.D. graduates have gone on to careers in research and teaching at established universities, while others have gone on to careers in government and business. Recently completed dissertations and job placement of graduates can be found here.

The Department of Political Science at Trinity is one of Europe’s leading centres for political research. It is invariably ranked the number 1 Politics department in Ireland in QS and THE evaluations, and in QS in particular it is characteristically in the top 20 in Europe and often in the top 50 worldwide. Since 2015, current members of its academic staff have published in a wide range of leading journals, including (to name only a few) American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Comparative Political Studies. Members of the Department have also published prize-winning monographs in leading academic presses (e.g., Oxford University Press) and several members hold substantial external grants from the European Commission and other European research councils. In addition, the Department is involved in the Dublin School of Social Sciences, which provides graduate training in collaboration with University College Dublin. The doctoral programme is designed to impart substantive knowledge about politics, and to train students in the techniques, including quantitative methods, necessary to recognize, design and implement cutting-edge research. The writing of a dissertation of original research follows a rigorous training in how to design and conduct research.

Contact details:
Jan Berz
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2 Ireland
berzj@tcd.ie