Call for Applications: for 2 PhD candidates within Peace and Conflict Research (DIViNE), Last application date:9 November 2026

Call for Applications: for 2 PhD candidates within Peace and Conflict Research (DIViNE), Last application date:9 November 2026

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research was established in 1971 to conduct peace research and offer courses in peace and conflict studies. The department hosts a dynamic research milieu and is internationally oriented. Currently approx. 90 persons are employed at the Department and some 1000 students from around the world are enrolled every academic year. For more information, visit our website at www.pcr.uu.se.

The Department of Peace and Conflict Research is looking to recruit two PhD candidates to join the Doctoral Network: Democratic Institutions and Violence Network in Europe (DIViNE), funded by the EU HORIZON MSCA action. Democracies are commonly seen as able to channel contestation through institutionalized processes and nonviolent action. Yet, democratic polities frequently experience a broad range of political violence — from riots and organized electoral intimidation to extremist mobilization and criminal violence — and violence can test and, at times, erode democratic norms and institutions. Moreover, democracies themselves may respond to perceived threats with measures (e.g., militarized policing, emergency legislation, selective repression) that threaten to undermine core features of liberal democracy such as the rule of law, civil liberties and institutional impartiality.

To explore these challenges, the DIViNE Doctoral Network brings together leading European research environments – UvA (Amsterdam), UESSEX (Essex), UMIL (Milan), UC3M (Carlos III de Madrid) and UU (Uppsala) to combine the institutions’ complementary strengths in quantitative conflict research, behavioral and experimental methods, historical and archival inquiry, institutional and normative theory, and applied policy engagement.

The two PhD candidates at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University (UU) will be part of a network of 10 PhD candidates across these five universities.

We are seeking to fill:

• One PhD position in peace and conflict research with a focus on institutional reform, violence, and democratic consolidation.
• One PhD position in peace and conflict research with a focus on public support for political violence in advanced democracies.

Work Description:

PhD position with a focus on institutional reform, violence, and democratic consolidation: This PhD position (DC 5 in the DIViNE network) will examine how reforms enacted during democratic transitions (e.g., transitional justice mechanisms, decentralization, land and territorial reform, constitutional redesign, power sharing) influence incentives for violence and reconciliation. The PhD student is to pursue research on this theme, but is free to define and develop their project idea within the parameters of the project. They should submit a project plan on this topic as part of the application. Empirical work can combine quantitative analysis of cross-national and event-level data, with case-based qualitative research. The project will contribute to theory on reform sequencing, violent legacies, and institutional consolidation. The doctoral trajectory includes a research stay at the University of Essex. In addition, a non-academic secondment at CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) will provide opportunities for policy-oriented research and experience in policy engagement and strategic communication. The doctoral candidate will be part of working group 2 in DIViNE.