Max Planck Institute – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Max Planck Institute for Political & Social Science: Postdoc for 2026 (Germany)

Postdoctoral fellow, Max Planck Institute for Political and Social Science, Göttingen, Germany. Deadline: 3 May 2026.

The Max Planck Institute for Political and Social Science in Göttingen conducts interdisciplinary research into pressing issues of social and political change, with a particular focus on conflict, inequality, the erosion of democracy and processes of social transformation. At the Institute, the Department of Political Institutions and Conflict is inviting applications for the position of Postdoctoral Fellow (m/f/d) in Political Science (full-time for three years, start day September 1, 2026 or earlier).

The newly established department “Political Institutions and Conflict” (led by Ursula Daxecker) studies the relationship between political institutions and conflict, broadly construed. Research in the department centers on three themes, (1) institutions and political violence, (2) democratic politics in transformation, and (3) the political economy of electoral integrity. The department’s empirical focus is on the Global South and combines advanced quantitative methods, such as survey-based and observational causal inference designs, with qualitative approaches, such as fieldwork and interviews. Through this research, the department aims to develop novel insights for important challenges in contemporary society, including the rise of extreme strategies and violence, threats to electoral integrity, and democratic erosion.

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity: Postdocs for 2022 (Germany)

Research fellows at the postdoctoral level, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany. Deadline: 5 December 2021.

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen (Department for SocioCultural Diversity) is seeking to appoint Research fellows (wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter*innen) at the postdoctoral level. The starting date should be 1 June 2022. Contracts will be full-time for 3 years.

Successful applicants will pursue own research interests and cooperate with team members on projects relating to:

ambivalences of diversity assent
contested categories of difference
recognition and equality of disadvantaged populations (following on from Institute projects on urban diversity policies and political organizations

In line with the departmental focus, projects should relate to European or African contexts.

There is a separate call for a postdoc for the Max Planck Research Group Ageing in a Time of Mobility, with a start date of Spring 2022. This is a global and interdisciplinary project that investigates the interconnections between two key phenomena in the twenty-first century: ageing populations and global migration, and the new social transformations that they jointly shape. The group explores how older persons are embedded in global and translocal networks and communities and how inequalities, restrictive border regimes, and processes of displacement shape experiences of ageing and intergenerational relationships. The group focusses on the migration and mobility experiences of older populations in regions of the world that are rapidly ageing, but which have been less visible in research agendas – Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity: Postdocs (Germany)

Research fellows at the postdoctoral level, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany. Deadline: 3 May 2021.

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen (Department for SocioCultural Diversity) is seeking to appoint Research fellows (wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter*innen) at the postdoctoral level. The envisaged starting date should be between 1 July 2021 and 1 October 2021 (full-time, fixed-term).

Position a. The successful applicant will be part of a team conducting the project “Diversity assent in urban Germany” (DivA). The position requires good quantitative skills, and ideally experience in analyzing survey data. It entails work on the DivA project in the form of data analysis and contributing to publications in scientific journals. In addition, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to pursue other themes.

Position b. Successful applicants should work on self-proposed projects related to: the public understanding of diversity, modes of diversity assent; the politics of diversity, equality, or anti-discrimination and anti-racism; (self-) representations of difference. In line with the departmental focus, projects should relate to European or African contexts.