PhD positions for the ERC project “VIRTUTRIALS”

Duties

The PhD students are employed through the project VIRTUTRIALS, financed by the ERC. The project addresses concerns about the legitimacy and fairness of courtroom trials conducted via video links, challenging the assumption that the lack of physical interaction undermines justice. It aims to explore how the absence of physical presence affects trial participation, credibility displays, and justice rituals. Using a multi-methods approach, including ethnography, interviews, text analyses and quantitative analysis, VIRTUTRIALS seeks to provide new insights into the evolving nature of trials and virtual participation in a digitalized world. For more info on the project see: https://www.soc.lu.se/en/article/prestigious-grant-sociological-research-virtual-trials.

At least one of the positions requires skills in qualitative methods, and one of the requires skills in quantitative methods as well as text analysis.

The PhD candidates are expected to:

At least one doctoral student is expected to:

Conduct ethnographic fieldwork and collect high-quality data focusing on prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, courts, witnesses, defendants, victims, and other actors involved in the project. The organization of the fieldwork and reporting should be done in close collaboration with the project team.

One doctoral student is expected to:

Perform text analyses and quantitative analyses of written judgments.

All doctoral students are expected to:

• Develop their own research questions and analyses based on the project's overall theme and shared materials
• Participate in regularly scheduled project meetings
• Collaborate closely with the research leader and other team members in all aspects of the project
• Write single-authored and/or co-authored articles for publication during the employment period present their research at national and international conferences
• Write and defend a doctoral dissertation

Excellent knowledge of Swedish and English is required. Proficiency in Dutch is also desirable for one of the positions requiring qualitative research skills. The project tasks include ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in contexts where Swedish is the dominant language, while data work is conducted in both Swedish and English.

The working language in the doctoral program is primarily English. The doctoral student is expected to be present at the department and actively participate in the project group’s meetings as well as the department’s research and teaching environment.

The PhD program consists of 240 credits (equivalent to four years of full-time studies) and is concluded with the public defense of a doctoral thesis. The position may involve departmental duties, mainly in the form of teaching, up to 20 per cent of full time working hours, in which case the appointment will be extended by the equivalent number of hours.

The terms of employment for doctoral students are regulated in the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance (HF), Chapter 5, Sections 1– 7.

The doctoral studentship will commence on 1 April 2025.