College | Management Unit: UCD College of Social Sciences and Law

School | Unit: UCD School of Politics and International Relations

Post Title & Subject Area (if relevant) Research Assistant
Project: Women in organized resistance (WARRIOR) --- Work Package on
Quantitative Text Analysis / NLP
Post Duration: Temporary 12 Months (Full-Time)
Line Manager Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink
Competition Ref. N⁰ 017399
HR Administrator Nicki Manley

Position Summary:
University College Dublin is currently recruiting a researcher to implement natural language processing (NLP) tools to
interview data.

The research assistant will support the development of tools to identify and analyse so-called cognitive maps (Axelrod
1976) from interview data. Dornschneider and Henderson (2016, 2023) and Dornschneider (2019) have developed
tools for the computational analysis of cognitive maps. What is needed is a set of tools to infer cognitive maps from
natural language.

This Irish Research Council funded project investigates the role of women in Muslim resistance movements. The
cognitive mapping analysis has several main objectives: 1- to show typical behavioral decisions (e.g. to join a
resistance a movement) described by the interviewees; 2- to identify common reasoning processes related to these
decisions; and 3- to trace the role of religious beliefs in these reasoning processes.

The research assistant will work with the Principal Investigator, Dr. Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink, to deliver the
research objectives of the project. Tasks will include but are not limited to POS tagging, sequence analysis, word
embeddings, and visualization. Knowledge of Arabic is not necessary, but a plus.

References
Axelrod, R. (ed.). 1976. Structure of decision: The cognitive maps of political elites. Princeton: Princeton university
press.

Dornschneider-Elkink, S. and Henderson, N., 2023. Repression and Dissent: How Tit-for-Tat Leads to Violent and
Nonviolent Resistance. Journal of Conflict Resolution, p.00220027231179102.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002714540473

Dornschneider, S., 2019. High‐Stakes Decision‐Making Within Complex Social Environments: A Computational
Model of Belief Systems in the Arab Spring. Cognitive Science, 43(7), p.e12762. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12762

Dornschneider, S. and Henderson, N., 2016. A computational model of cognitive maps: Analyzing violent and
nonviolent activity in Egypt and Germany. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 60(2), pp.368-399.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

© UCD Human Resources Job Description 017399

 • Work under the supervision of the Principal Investigator to implement the objectives of the IRC project
• Apply quantitative text analysis to Arabic text/interviews
• Help generate and analyse cognitive maps
• Web scraping

Fixed Salary: €31,462 Per annum

Details on eligibility to compete and pension information is available at

https://www.ucd.ie/hr/resourcing/eligibilitytocompete/

UCD is committed to creating an inclusive environment where diversity is celebrated and everyone is afforded
equality of opportunity. We welcome applications from everyone, including those who identify with any of the
protected characteristics that are set out in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy. Learn more about Diversity
at
https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/diversity/
Reasonable accommodations will be provided to any applicant during the interview process who discloses they have
a disability or are neurodiverse.

Selection Criteria
Selection criteria outline the qualifications, skills, knowledge and/or experience that the successful candidate would
need to demonstrate for successful discharge of the responsibilities of the post. Applications will be assessed on the
basis of how well candidates satisfy these criteria.

Mandatory:

• Some undergraduate or graduate-level training in quantitative research methods, data science, or

quantitative text analysis/NLP
• Preferably a political science, data science, and/ or computer science background
• Experience with programming in R and/ or Python
• Ability to work independently and take the initiative to implement the outlined tasks
• Report to the team and PI on a regular basis
• Candidates must demonstrate an awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.

Desirable:

• Arabic language skills are a plus but not required

Supplementary information:

The University: https://www.ucd.ie/

UCD Strategy 2020-2024: Rising to the https://strategy.ucd.ie/
Future
The College/Management Unit: https://www.ucd.ie/socscilaw/
The School/Programme Office/Unit: https://www.ucd.ie/politics/

© UCD Human Resources Job Description 017399

Equality Diversity and Inclusion at UCD https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/diversity/

Informal Enquiries ONLY to:

Name: Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink

Title: Assistant Professor
Email address: stephanie.dornschneider@ucd.ie

© UCD Human Resources Job Description 017399