((with apologies for cross-posting))
CALL FOR CANDIDATES FOR THE PHD PROJECTS 2026
https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programme-media-and-communication-studies/call-candidates-2026-phd-positions
The Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague calls for candidates for the following PhD projects (each supported by a scholarship), for its English-language PhD programme in Media and Communication Studies:
1. Post-structuralist Communication Studies
Post-structuralism has slowly entered the field of Communication and Media Studies, offering a series of relevant theoretical frameworks for the theoretical and empirical study of communication. This PhD position is for PhD students who focus on one of the many post-structuralist frameworks, e.g., Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory or Foucauldian discourse theory, to support the research into a particular communication assemblage or into particular representational practices. While in this PhD position the theoretical framework needs to be post-structuralism, the object of study can be freely chosen.
Proposed supervisor: Nico Carpentier, nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz
2. Analyzing the Impact of Strategic Communication on Public Health in the Czech Republic: A Mixed-Methods Approach
This PhD position aims to investigate the effectiveness of strategic communication in influencing public health behavior in the Czech Republic. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the research will examine contemporary communication strategies used in public health campaigns. The project will include a comprehensive survey to quantify public awareness and behavioral changes in response to these campaigns. In-depth interviews and focus groups will qualitatively explore individual perceptions and attitudes towards these communications. Special attention will be given to the role of digital media in disseminating health information. This project, requiring prior consultation with the proposed PhD supervisor, seeks to provide valuable insights into how strategic communication can be optimized for public health promotion in the Czech context.
Proposed supervisor: Denisa Hejlová, denisa.hejlova@fsv.cuni.cz
3. Marketing communication and tobacco control
This PhD position focuses on primary research in tobacco control from the standpoint of marketing and strategic communication (e.g. research of new strategies and tactics employed by tobacco companies, targeting customers, online and social media marketing, stealth marketing, lobbying, public affairs, influencer marketing, etc.). This project’s goal is to analyze and present marketing and communication strategies and tactics by the tobacco industry which prevent consumers from tobacco or nicotine cessation and undermine public health. The project will especially focus on campaigns or tools aimed at adolescents and youth, incl. new forms of tobacco or nicotine products (HTP, pouches, vapes, etc.). Close cooperation with the Addictology Dept. of 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University, is needed.
Proposed supervisor: Denisa Hejlová, denisa.hejlova@fsv.cuni.cz
4. Politainment as a part of strategic communication
This PhD position welcomes Czech or international scholars focusing on primary research in politainment from the standpoint of marketing and strategic communication (e.g., personalization of political messages, image building through entertainment formats, hybrid media strategies, (emotional) branding in politics, viral political content, influencer involvement in political campaigns, etc.). The goal is to analyze and present how political actors and institutions use entertainment-based communication strategies to attract attention, shape public opinion, and influence political behavior. The project will especially focus on the implications of politainment for democratic discourse, political engagement, and the polarization of society, including its impact on young audiences and first-time voters. Close cooperation with media studies or political science departments is encouraged, as is the use of interdisciplinary methods combining communication and media analysis, and political marketing analytical approaches.
Proposed supervisor: Marcela Konrádová, marcela.konradova@fsv.cuni.cz
5. Concepts of National Identity in Europe and the World
Interest in national issues has increased noticeably in recent years. It seems that the numerous crises in Europe and the world are causing many people to focus more on their own nation, national culture and collective identity. This call is aimed at doctoral students who want to analyze and describe concepts of national identity in a specific country or region of their choice – also from a cultural-historical or comparative perspective. The theoretical framework of the thesis should be based on the paradigm of new realism. With regard to the topic of national identity as a culture-specific concept it should draw on comparative cultural theory. The research should be based on text material from the media, literature,education, etc. Possible methods of text analysis: content analysis, linguistic discourse analysis, semiotic text analysis. Students are welcome to write their dissertation in English or German.
Proposed supervisor: Ulrike Notarp, ulrike.notarp@fsv.cuni.cz
6. Sustainability in Intercultural Communication
Today's working environment is international and globalized. So-called soft skills, such as intercultural competence, are therefore increasingly important. Especially for young professionals, intercultural communication skills are taken for granted. The call is aimed at doctoral students who would like to deal with the content, mediation, practical implementation, and measurement of intercultural communication skills. The topic covers the following key areas: (1) Review of the international state of research on sustainability in intercultural communication, in relation to (a) the central concepts and theories of sustainable communication, interculturality and communication, and (b) the practice of teaching intercultural communication skills; (2) Development and implementation of a training program to acquire intercultural communication skills; (3) Development, application and evaluation of methods for measuring intercultural competencies. Students can write their dissertation in English or German.
Proposed supervisor: Ulrike Notarp, ulrike.notarp@fsv.cuni.cz
7. Experience of a Marginalised Group with a Contemporary Media Phenomenon
The proposed project should focus on the lived and holistic media experience of a selected marginalised group (e.g. children, ethnic minorities, people with obesity, parents or other socially disadvantaged groups) in a particular domain of contemporary media culture. For example, it may investigate questions such as; “How do children or adolescents perceive and experience artificial-intelligence technologies?” or “How do they perceive and experience so-called ‘brain-rot’ / online ‘junk’ content?”. The aim is to gain a deep understanding of the role that the chosen media phenomenon plays in the everyday life of someone facing marginalisation; how they perceive it; how they experience and live through it; and how they interpret and evaluate it in relation to their identity, social relationships, and position in society.
Potential supervisor: Markéta Supa, marketa.supa@fsv.cuni.cz
8. AI Experience of University Students
The proposed project aims to explore the lived and holistic media experience of university students in relation to contemporary AI technologies. The project questions how university students experience and make sense of AI tools, systems, and environments in their everyday and academic lives. The goal is to gain a deep understanding of how and why students engage with, perceive, and evaluate AI; how AI becomes entangled with their identity as students, their study and research practices, social relations, sense of autonomy or dependence, and existential questions in a rapidly changing educational and digital environment.
Potential supervisor: Markéta Supa, marketa.supa@fsv.cuni.cz
9. The Para-Social Relationships and Experiences of Youth with the Online Engagement in these: Post-Humanist Perspective
Traditional human relationships in the experiences of children and young people during their childhoods, such as youth-adult relationships, have been complemented by Para-Social Relationships with media figures. Traditionally, public figures from the media environment (TV, film, newspapers, …) or imaginary figures from books, cartoons and films fulfilled developmental functions for children and young people, such as role-modelling. Recently, the rise of new technologies (AI, with, e.g., ChatGPT) and social media that allow for the active participation of media users, created a space for a new form of relationships, namely digital relationships in the online environment, mediated, e.g., via 'digital empathy' (Unay-Gerhard et al., 2022). Participation in digital interactions, dynamics and functions of digital relationships and types of these being formed with humans as well as with machines (e.g., AI-driven chatbots) with a focus on current young people (11-18 years) will be the subject of this PhD study, contributing to the emergent line of media research deploying a post-humanist perspective.
Proposed supervisor: Tereza Javornícky Brumovská, tereza.javornicky.brumovska@fsv.cuni.cz
10. Communication, democracy and struggle
This PhD position involves research that explores how democracy is socially constructed, through its representations, contestations and reconfigurations, and how the struggles pertaining to democracy may intersect with claims to freedom, equality and social justice, but also with conflict, violence and war. Projects in this thematic area are expected to be grounded in social constructionist/poststructuralist paradigmatic approaches; embedded in the broad fields of discourse studies, cultural studies or related fields; and, supported by feminist, intersectional, postcolonial, or other relevant, theories. The research can be located in a variety of societal fields, such as media, culture and politics, but the proposals should clearly demarcate the area of research.
Proposed supervisor: Vaia Doudaki, vaia.doudaki@fsv.cuni.cz
++++
Application
Interested candidates should submit their applications using the online application system, which will be open from 1st January to 30th April 2026. Interest in a particular PhD project should be mentioned in the motivation letter, together with a more developed proposal on the PhD project.
All relevant information, including the link to the online application system, can be found at:
https://fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programmes/media-and-communication-studies
&
https://is.cuni.cz/studium/eng/prijimacky/index.php
Please download the form to fill out your dissertation project proposal from this webpage: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programme-media-and-communication-studies/how-apply
For general questions, please contact the Centre of PhD Studies at cds.iksz@fsv.cuni.cz. For questions about particular projects, please contact the proposed supervisors.
The Open Doors Day for the PhD in Media and Communication Studies will take place on February 18, 2026 at 12:30 CET. It will be organised online. If you wish to participate, please email the Centre of PhD Studies at cds.iksz@fsv.cuni.cz without delay.
- Se connecter ou s'inscrire pour poster un commentaire
- 2 vues