A PhD Position in Law Working with Mis- and Disinformation of Children

At the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark, a PhD fellowship will be available as of 1 April 2024, or by further agreement. The place of work will be SDU Campus Odense.

Job description
The responsibilities of the PhD fellow at the Department of Law for this call include the following tasks:

• Writing a PhD thesis on Human Rights law, specifically regarding children’s right to democratic agency as described below.
• Being a part of an interdisciplinary research team, actively contributing to discussions and communicating the legal research to other fields of academia.
• Undertaking some teaching within the context of the fellowship.
• Supervising bachelor and master’s students for their theses.
• Taking part in various knowledge exchange activities both inside and outside the university.
• Building relations to and cooperate with external stakeholders.
• Undertaking administrative tasks related to research and teaching.

The PhD position principally involves research obligations. The position is aimed at candidates who will be able to contribute to the research of the department, with emphasis on conducting a PhD thesis in Human Rights Law, as described in the research project.

For the research project, some of the tasks will include preparing, undertaking, and supporting the project’s programme, including coordinating the research project’s activities and contributing to the dissemination of the project and other associated roles. At the Department of Law, we offer the opportunity to be part of a research team that has a significant emphasis on publishing its research in international peer-reviewed journals.

The position is fixed-term and is three years of duration from the date on which the successful candidate takes up his or her position to complete the PhD thesis.

A PhD is a research degree at the highest international level. You will become part of active learning environments in Denmark as well as abroad, and you will obtain an extensive academic knowledge e.g. by participating in relevant PhD courses. Furthermore, you will gain teaching experience since part of the program involves teaching certain courses. You are expected to be able to teach in Danish and/or English.

You will become part of the excellent research environment at our department, and we expect you to show commitment and visibility and to contribute to the department’s positive work environment as well as the continuous operation of the department. Read more about The Department of Law on our website.

Research project
The purpose of the project is to create a safe environment for children's democratic education and agency by protecting children from misinformation on social media.

Today, misinformation is being spread at an alarming rate and pace on social media. Research has shown that lies spread faster than truth on Twitter, that social media supports but only rarely corrects the spread of rumors, and that misleading posts about, for example, health are more popular than truthful and relevant posts. Children and young people in particular are exposed and at risk of receiving and sharing misleading, deceptive, and lying information that can influence their attitudes and damage their faith in, trust in, and participation in democracy. It is therefore necessary to strengthen the children's ability to decode and critically assess the truth value of information on social media.

Initiatives in this area have so far mostly targeted adults and young people. This project starts earlier and focuses on Danish school children aged 5-12. There is only limited research-based knowledge about this age group's experiences with misinformation on social media and YouTube. Nevertheless, it is clear that children can already be exposed to various types of misinformation at an early age – for example via influencers on YouTube – potentially without the parents being aware of it and with the risk of harmful consequences. It is therefore crucial to gain insight into how the children themselves experience the encounter with the misinformation.

The research project contains three parts which together uncover the problem, develop a usable product, and write solution-oriented principles. First, it uncovers how current legislation regulates the problem and which principles the legislation is built around. Next, it uncovers how Danish schoolchildren aged 5-12 experience, react to, and critically relate to misinformation on social media. Based on the results, an online learning game is then developed that trains the children to see through and distinguish misinformation from truthful information. In conclusion, the results from the investigations are used to uncover and point out any gaps in the legislation and draw up a legal code of conduct that can help ensure that social media provides a safer environment for children.

The legal research parts of the project are thus first uncovering current legislation, focusing on international human rights with relevant national and EU legislation, and later developing a code of practice.

Qualification requirements
Applicants should hold a cand.jur (LL.M.), a cand.merc.(jur.), or another form of postgraduate legal education. If candidates have not completed their legal education yet, they should be able to demonstrate proof of being about to complete it. Records of any published research prior to the application may be regarded as an advantage, and experience outside of legal research may be considered relevant for candidates’ applications. However, the combined contents of the application, enthusiasm, and determination of the candidate will be taken into consideration in order to find the best match for the position/team. Being able to teach and do research in Danish will be considered an advantage.

No teaching experience is necessary for the position, as the position principally involves writing a PhD thesis in law. However, given that the position does involve some teaching on the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, which the university offers, candidates must be prepared to teach on a suitable course within their areas of competence.

For further information about the fellowship, please contact:

PhD coordinator, Professor Nina Dietz Legind
E-mail: [email protected]

Project responsible, Associate Professor Ayo Næsborg-Andersen
E-mail: [email protected]

Employment and application
Your employment as a salaried PhD research fellow is governed by the agreement of 10 November 2015 on Graduate Employees in government appendix 5 – protocol on PhD Research Fellows. The scholarship runs for three years.

When you apply for the position, it is mandatory to attach the following:

• Motivated application letter
• Curriculum vitae
• Certificates/diplomas including all results (Master’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, etc.)
• List of publications (if any)
• A research plan, based on the project description
• Up to three academic publications (if any). Please attach a pdf file for each publication. If there are co-authors on a publication, a co-author declaration must be attached in the relevant pdf file, stating the applicant’s contribution to the publication.

When applying for a PhD scholarship, please fill in the application form available on our web page.

Documents which are not in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish must be translated into English. SDU may discard applications which are incomplete regarding this criterion without further notice.

Without warning, SDU may discard applications which are incomplete regarding the above-mentioned criteria.

Application procedure
When the deadline for applications has expired, a number of applications are selected for an academic evaluation (shortlisting), based on an overall assessment of which of the applicants as regards both their qualifications and their project descriptions match the project.

Subsequently, the chosen applicants will be assessed by a committee from the PhD school. The assessment committee evaluates the applications based on the guidelines for recognizing merit at the Department of Law. Once they have submitted their report, each of the applicants in concern will receive the evaluation concerning him/her. A number of applicants will then be invited to a job interview.

Applications that are incomplete with regard to the above requirements will not be assessed.

Once the assessment committee have completed their assessment, each of the applicants concerned will receive the evaluation concerning him/her. The appointments committee will manage and complete the job interviews, should such be conducted. Additionally, the appointments committee determine which candidate will be offered the position.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

Applications must be submitted electronically using the link "Apply now" on our website. Uploaded files must be in Adobe PDF (unlocked) or Word format.

Read the guideline for applicants.

Each field can only contain a single file of a maximum of 10 MB.

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The Department of Law is part of the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, which is comprised of six departments. The department currently has more than 60 employees divided into four research groups (Private Law, Public Law, International Law, and Law in Society) and a secretariat. Furthermore, the department has a research centre, Centre for Law, Sustainability & Justice. The department works to ensure high quality and social relevance as regards both jurisprudent research, education, and knowledge exchange.

The Department of Law offers the traditional law degree alongside a combined HA (jur)/MSc (Econ) course. In addition, the department is responsible for the teaching of other legal subjects offered at SDU, e.g., on the MSc in Business Economics and Auditing and the diploma program.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk