SNSF-funded PhD position – SPECTRE project (Lausanne)
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The University of Lausanne is recruiting a PhD candidate funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the SPECTRE project, which is developing a multi-scalar visual ethnography of protest crowds. Index Investigation is the project’s partner for analysing and producing spatial and visual reconstructions. Applications close on 30 May 2026.
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The Institute of Political Studies of the University of Lausanne (CRAPUL research centre) is opening a position for a PhD candidate funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, Division I) as part of the SPECTRE project – Spatialized Ethnography of Crowds Through Reconstructed Ecologies – led by Prof. Olivier Fillieule, in collaboration with Sélim Smaoui (Senior Researcher).
The project proposes to make the protest crowd a fully fledged object of knowledge for the social sciences of politics. It develops a multi-level approach linking situated interactions (micro), collective arrangements (meso), and institutional frameworks (macro), to analyse both the dynamics specific to crowds and the mechanisms that shape their visibility, forms, and legitimacy.
To implement this approach, the project will develop the Spectre-Tool, a visualisation set-up designed for ethnography. Inspired by the visual methods developed by Forensic Architecture, it will adapt spatial visualisation techniques to the production of ethnographic evidence, drawing on the abundance of contemporary imagery (citizen videos, drones, CCTV footage, media) to reconstruct the multi-scalar dynamics of crowds.
Index Investigation is the project’s partner for analysing and producing spatial and visual reconstructions. The successful candidate will work directly with the Index team to draw up requests for technical input and to follow up on and process the reconstructions.
Application deadline: 30 May 2026.