PhD Researcher in Adolescent Well-Being, Inequalities, Digital Media and Computational Social Sciences

PhD Position: 

The Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) and Department of Sociology from Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) are looking for an outstanding PhD researcher to join the ERC Consolidator Grant project DIGINEQ – “Digital Time Use, Adolescent Well-Being, and Social Inequalities” (PI: Prof. Pablo Gracia). 

You will write a cutting-edge PhD thesis in the social sciences. Working together with the PI, postdocs, and other PhDs from DIGINEQ, you will contribute to at least one of these key areas: 

1. The role of digital media engagement and mobile phone use in shaping inequalities in youth outcomes (e.g., mental well-being, physical health, academic outcomes) in society, using advanced social science methodologies (i.e., advanced computational methods, digital social research).
2. The role of digital interventions targeting schools, families and adolescents to promote healthy digital behaviours linked to youth positive well-being outcomes (e.g., mental health, affect, school performance) across demographic and socioeconomic groups, using advanced statistical computational methods and/or mixed-method designs combining in-depth qualitative and quantitative data.
3. The impact of societal digital transformations on adolescent well-being and opportunities, employing advanced statistical modelling (e.g., longitudinal causal modelling, multilevel methods, difference-in-difference designs) and/or computational methods (e.g., machine learning, mobile-app methods, computational tracking data). 

You will join a leading research team in social sciences, and an excellent hub of population research (CED) and applied social science research (Sociology UAB). You will integrate within a vibrant international network of top interdisciplinary collaborators and partners on areas like youth well-being and mental health, inequalities and social stratification, population and demography, digital media, computational methods, digital social sciences, social psychology, and education. 

On top of an annual gross salary of €27,000 (~ €1,800 net monthly salary), you will get generous travel, conference and training support (€2,500 per year).

Person Specification

Essential:

• BA or MA/MSc in relevant discipline/s for the call (e.g., sociology, population sciences, psychology, computational social sciences; HCI; media and communication; economics; education; social policy).
• Excellent academic record according to experience to date.
• Exceptional methodological skills in social science research design.
• Interest and strong potential to contribute to (at least one of) the key project areas.
• Strong expertise in analysing complex quantitative and computational data and/or rich qualitative data.
• Proficiency or skills to learn a statistical software (e.g., R, Stata, Python).
• Interest in contributing to primary data collection with families, educators, and adolescents.
• Willingness to keep learning and innovating theoretically and empirically.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ambition and ability to produce and publish top research in social sciences.
• Ability to effectively conduct research independently.
• Ability to work proactively as part of a team.

Desirable:

• Experience in leading primary data collection (e.g., with families, youth, schools).
• Leadership skills to arrange focus groups and data collection.
• Willingness to pursue future projects/grants in this field.
• Interest in narrative data with relevant software (e.g., Nvivo).
• Some knowledge of (or interest in learning) Spanish or Catalan. 

Application Procedure 

See the official call via the 'Apply' button. 

Applicants must send the following documents (in PDF) by email to digineq@ced.uab.es adding pgracia@ced.uab.es as cc, writing “PhD Position DIGINEQ” in the subject line:

• Motivation letter (2 pages max).
• CV in English (free format).
• Two written research samples, expected in English (e.g., scientific papers).
• Contact details of 2 referees.
• Copy of ID/Passport.
• Copy of degree certificates.

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