The UWK Department for Migration and Globalisation is looking for a doctoral researcher to undertake qualitative research on refugees’ political agency and perceptions of the state. You will be part of a new European Research Council-funded project entitled ‘RESTATE: Refugees’ Political Participation and State-(Re)Making in Displacement’, led by Dr. Lea Müller-Funk.

RESTATE investigates how refugees perceive and engage with the state throughout their displacement journeys, and how these perceptions shape their roles as political actors. Centring refugees’ political agency, the project aims to: (1) provide a dynamic understanding of refugees’ experiences and interactions with the state; (2) discern which forms of state violence erode trust in state institutions and potentially incite political resistance; (3) theorise the conditions of refugees’ political participation throughout their displacement trajectories; and (4) theorise the implications of refugees’ political participation in both origin and host states for processes of ‘state-making’ – attempts to fulfil key government functions such as protection, justice, and the provision of services. Employing a comparative mixed-methods and multi-sited approach, the project studies displacement from three civil-war states (Afghanistan, South Sudan and Syria) in four major host states (Iran, Turkey, Uganda, and Germany). The project will collect a cross-national survey, life histories, online interviews, and a compilation of humorous representations of the state. The team consists of the Principal Investigator (PI), two postdoctoral researchers, a PhD researcher, a project manager, and local research assistants.

The PhD researcher will focus on the Syrian case study. There is room, within this framework, to shape the PhD project in line with your own interests. You will be conducting qualitative fieldwork in Syria (online), Istanbul (Turkey), and Berlin (Germany) together with the PI and a postdoctoral researcher. You will also draw on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to collect jokes, cartoons and other humorous representations of the state.

We are looking for someone who is excited and motivated to do a PhD project based on qualitative fieldwork in Syria, Turkey and Germany, and in a team context comparing across conflict settings.

Except for the fieldwork periods, the position requires residence in Krems or the surrounding region (e.g. Vienna).

As doctoral researcher, you will be employed by the Department for Migration and Globalisation of the University for Continuing Education Krems, located in the city of Krems. The start of the contract is foreseen for January 2026.

In this role you will learn to synthesize qualitative research and compare across methods and across origin and host contexts, while developing your data collection, writing and teamwork skills. The PhD programme in Migration Studies at our department is a platform for collaboration and exchange between the different disciplines, providing a fertile learning environment and actively supporting PhD candidates in the field of migration studies, thereby contributing to the establishment and consolidation of this interdisciplinary research field. Seen from a European and global perspective, the interdisciplinary PhD program Migration Studies is unique in its way in Austria, complementing the existing PhD programs at Austrian universities. As a PhD candidate in our department, you will benefit from a supervisory team of two internal supervisors and one external supervisor, who will closely follow and support your work. The coursework comprises 30 ECTS points and includes the PhD Colloquia, courses on Research Methods, Selected Research Areas in Migration Studies and Complementary Subjects such as Science Communication and Research Exchange.