– Call for Applications –

ECREA’s Political Communication Section announces the second round of its mentoring program for young scholars in political communication research. The program aims to promote young scholars in the field and increase the integration of young and senior scholars in the Political Communication Section. The section management team plans to start a new round every two years. After the success of the first round with 12 young scholars from 7 countries and 12 mentors from 8 countries (2018-20), the second round starts in winter 2021.

Benefits of the program for mentees and mentors

This program seeks to benefit young scholars (mentees; mainly PhD students and post docs) as well as senior scholars (mentors) through new opportunities for low-threshold international networking, contacts for possible research co-operations, or meetings and visits abroad. Mentees will have the opportunity to discuss career issues and research plans or interests with an independent mentor (not in competition or interference with, but rather as an added value for existing PhD supervision) and be able to expand their network. Mentors will be able to share their own experience and expertise and have the opportunity to acquire knowledge about new research areas and methods in political communication research. They will stay closely ainformed about emerging research trends and developments. The relationship between mentee and mentor is based on confidentiality. Additionally, the mentees have the opportunity to get to know each other and engage in an exchange about research interests and career issues among themselves (peer-to-peer mentoring).

Organization of the program

After the deadline for applications, the section management team, together with the YECREA representative in the Political Communication Section, will screen the applications, search for suitable mentors, contact them and – if mentors agree – bring them in contact with their mentees. Additionally, the CVs of all mentees will be circulated between mentees as an additional networking opportunity. Afterwards, mentors and mentees, but also mentees among themselves are suggested to coordinate and bilaterally agree on personal meetings, for example at international conferences (e.g., ECC, ECREA Interim Conferences, ICA, IAMCR). Besides, exchanges can be organized via email, phone or Skype. Another possibility are individually organized mutual visits. It is up to the mentee and mentor to agree on how exactly their mutual relationship will look like and how frequently they have contact and/or meet. The section management team will provide a document with some non-binding suggestions on how to structure the mentorship/contact.

We will organize meetings of all participants in the mentoring program at international conferences where many of the participants are present. Moreover, the section management team will, together with the YECREA representative, organize digital workshops on career strategic issues for the mentees twice a year. The mentees are encouraged to organize similar workshops themselves in addition to that.

Application procedure

Young scholars who are members of ECREA’s political communication section can apply as mentees.
To apply, please send the following documents to melanie.magin@ntnu.no by 10 November 2021:
● Letter of motivation (approx. 1 page)
● Academic CV (including contact details, information on current status and position, 3-5 specific research interests)
● Optional: list of suggested mentors (1-3)

The section management team will recruit mentors afterwards, but cannot promise that every applicant will be included and every mentee will in fact be matched with one of the suggested mentors.
Senior scholars who want to become mentors are very welcome to express their interest.

In case of any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the section management team:
Melanie Magin (NTNT, Trondheim; melanie.magin@ntnu.no)
Agnieszka Stępińska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań; agnieszka.stepinska@amu.edu.pl)
Jakob Ohme (Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin; j.ohme@fu-berlin.de)
We are looking forward to your applications!