Two PhD positions SNSF project “Governing the Party: How the Chinese Communist Party Holds Itself Together”

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (IAOS), Chair of Modern Chinese Studies

Two PhD positions SNSF project “Governing the Party: How the Chinese Communist Party Holds Itself Together” 80 %

Start of employment 1 March 2027, temporary

The Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (IAOS) at the University of Zurich is the largest centre for research and teaching on Asia in Switzerland. Within the IAOS, the Chair of Modern Chinese Studies (Prof. Dr. Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt) works on the ideological and institutional foundations of Chinese Communist Party governance. The Chair invites applications for two doctoral positions in the research project “Governing the Party: How the Chinese Communist Party Holds Itself Together”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The project “Governing the Party” (SNSF, 2027–2031) takes the Chinese Communist Party seriously as an organisation. The CCP holds that the Party “leads everything” (党是领导一切的), yet how an organisation of more than 100 million members governs itself remains poorly understood. The project uses the Party's institutions as its main analytical lens without setting its ideas aside: organisational routines and ideological work are studied together, as parts of the same form of governance. It belongs to the Chair's wider research on Party governance, which concentrates on the Party below the centre, from provincial Party committees to village branches and the institutions in which the Party is present. We welcome contemporary and historical projects on the Party since 1949, using archival, documentary, ethnographic or computational methods.

The research is organised around four broad areas

• Forming its people: how the Party recruits, trains, evaluates and promotes its members and cadres, and what organisational life means for them.
• Making and enforcing its rules: how the Party regulates itself, supervises its members and handles misconduct.
• Producing shared meaning: how ideology is produced, recombined and put into practice across institutions and levels.
• Extending its organisation: how the Party builds and runs its organisations in state organs, enterprises, universities, social organisations and other institutions. These areas are an orientation, not a list of predefined topics; what matters most is an original and feasible proposal. The Chair already hosts projects on Party organisations in private and technology firms, on the regulation of cadres' work style, and on the Party's promotion of an “autonomous knowledge system”. Proposals should address distinct questions. The SNSF project funds two doctoral candidates and one postdoctoral researcher. Several team members may work in the same area, provided their questions are distinct.

Your responsibilities

• Develop and complete an independent doctoral dissertation within one of the project's four areas of research, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt
• Develop, with guidance, large datasets from published Chinese-language sources for the dissertation, and contribute to the project's shared analytical framework
• Publish findings from the dissertation in peer-reviewed journals and contribute to co-authored outputs of the project
• Conduct fieldwork, archival or interview research where the dissertation requires it and conditions allow
• Take part in the research activities of the team and present work at conferences
• Enrol in a doctoral programme of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Zurich
• Assist with the organisation of workshops and with limited administrative tasks of the project

Your profile

• An excellent MA degree (or equivalent) in political science, sociology, Chinese studies, history or a related discipline, completed by the start of employment
• Proficiency in modern Chinese sufficient to work independently with Chinese-language primary sources
• A serious interest in political institutions and organisations, and the ability to engage with theory in comparative politics, political sociology, organisation studies or the study of ideology
• Training in at least one of the following: qualitative or interpretive methods, quantitative methods, computational text analysis. We do not expect candidates to arrive with all of these: the willingness to acquire new methods matters more than a complete toolkit at the outset
• Excellent written and spoken English; German is an asset but not required
• The ability to work independently as well as in a team, and a commitment to a shared project over four years The University of Zurich is committed to equal opportunity and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of gender, origin or background.

Information on your

What we offer

• Salary in accordance with SNSF guidelines
• Temporary employment, 48 months
• The possibility of applying for an SNSF mobility grant for a research stay abroad of six to twelve months during the project
• Regular supervision within a small team working on a shared analytical framework
• Funding for fieldwork, archival research, conference travel and workshops
• Eligibility for SNSF supplementary measures, including flexibility grants for researchers with children
• Employment under the policies of the University of Zurich, with its benefits for staff (continuing education, the UZH and ETH Language Center, childcare through the kihz foundation, and others)

Information on your Please submit your application as a single PDF file through the UZH job portal. It should contain:

• Cover letter (max. 2 pages), stating which area of research your proposal addresses, your motivation and relevant skills, and your earliest possible start date
• CV
• Copies of your diplomas, including transcripts of records for your BA and MA degrees
• Research proposal (max. 3 pages, excluding bibliography) outlining how you propose to study your topic: the research question and its place within the chosen area, the sources you would use, your methods, and how the project could be completed within four years
• Two writing samples of max. 2,000 words each, one of them drawn from your MA thesis
• Names and contact details of two academic referees. Referees will be contacted only for shortlisted candidates

Application deadline: 22 November 2026 Review of applications will begin after the closing date. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online in the first half of December 2026, and we aim to make offers before Christmas.

Location

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (IAOS), Chair of Modern Chinese Studies

Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

Further information

Please apply via our job portal www.jobs.uzh.ch.

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