The LSE ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership is pleased to offer the following Collaborative Studentship, commencing in September 2026:
Project Title: New Ways to Think Political Persuasion
Collaborative Partner: Campaign Lab
LSE Department: Department of Government
Studentship Lead: Dr. Florian Foos (F.Foos@lse.ac.uk)
Project Description: Election campaigns today face a conundrum. Election studies reliably document that citizens' voting trajectories are more volatile than ever before in post-WW2 history (Fieldhouse et al. 2019), and more voters report making up their mind during campaign periods today than a few decades ago (Dassonneville 2023). In Britain, this volatility has included a declining combined vote share of the Labour and Conservative parties and the rise of challenger parties, on the radical right and left, who have disrupted political communication in offline and online spaces. Despite this increase in vote switching, rigorous studies of attempts at political persuasion by campaigns have shown that the effects of traditional electoral persuasion strategies—e.g. via door-to-door canvassing or via the distribution of leaflets—are often small or non-existent (Kalla and Broockman 2018).
This collaborative PhD studentship tries to make sense of these apparently contradictory findings, focusing on new ways to conceptualise and test democratic persuasive processes in an ever-changing political environment using experimental and/or computational methodologies. Some topics that could be researched include persuasion as a multi-stage process, specific mechanisms of interpersonal persuasion, the effects of AI-voter interactions, or other persuasion-related topics. There is space to define your own research questions within the persuasion and campaign nexus.
This is an exciting opportunity for a candidate interested in political campaigns, democratic engagement, randomized field experiments and big data. The successful applicant will be supported by a dynamic supervisory team and benefit from access to both academic and applied research environments.
Length of studentship:The studentship will commence in September 2026, with a duration of 3.5 years.
Value of studentship: LSE ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership Collaborative Studentships cover full fees and an annual stipend. The stipend per year for 2025/26 entry was £22,780
Candidate Requirements: Candidates must have already completed a MRes, MPhil, or in exceptional cases, a MSc with a pronounced methods training component, in Political Science or a related subject (e.g. Sociology, Economics, Social Data Science). Knowledge of the UK political landscape and some experience of electoral or non-electoral campaign environments are desirable.
Application process: Suitably qualified candidates should make an application via MRes/PhD Political Science.
Instead of submitting a research proposal, you should clearly cite the Collaborative Studentship project title and outline your suitability for the Studentship within the 'statement of academic purpose' section of your application, directly addressing the project description above. Please note this will only constitute an application for admission for the Collaborative Studentship. The successful candidate will enrol directly into the PhD element of the programme.
If you would also like to be considered for general admission to this programme, please include a separate research proposal with your application, which meets the criteria for this programme as set out on the programme page.
Deadline for applications: 10 December 2025
Enquiries regarding the application process should directed to Pam Rolfe, Deputy Head of Scholarships and Financial Support (p.rolfe@lse.ac.uk)