Professors Chagai Weiss (University of Toronto), Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford), and Elias Dinas (EUI) are seeking to hire a research assistant to support several projects examining the evolution of minority culture and social norms. The project will use vast historical corpora of Jewish texts from Europe, the Middle East, and North America and employ LLMs, computational methods, and econometrics to examine how social norms and culture evolve in response to institutional and social change. Candidates with strong technical skills, a deep interest in political economy, political psychology, and/or economic history are encouraged to apply.
The ideal candidate will have:
1)
Strong coding skills (R, Python) and experience using agentic AI (e.g., Claude Code) for social science research.
2)
A strong foundation in econometrics, with a specific focus on design-based inference.
3)
Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to implement complex tasks in a self-directed fashion.
4)
Fluency in Hebrew is a plus.
5)
Familiarity with Jewish history and/or religious law is a plus.
This position will require a weekly commitment of 10-20 hours and would be carried out over the 2026-2027 academic year.
To apply, please send your CV as well as a brief paragraph explaining how your experience, qualifications, and professional aspirations align with the project. A brief endorsement/reference from an academic mentor or employer is encouraged but not necessary.
Chagai Weiss chagai.weiss@utoronto.ca
Vasiliki Fouka vfouka@stanford.edu
Elias Dinas Elias.Dinas@eui.eu