Welcome!

Tobias Widmann

Tobias Widmann

Postdoc in Political Science

Aarhus University

Research

Hi, and welcome to my site. I am a Postdoc at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark. I am currently working on a project on moralizing political rhetoric and its consequences for mobilization and societal polarization.

Before that, I was a PhD Researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, researching the communication of political parties and their strategic use of emotional language. To trace emotional appeals, I applied a series of computational text analysis tools including machine learning, word embeddings, and dictionaries.

For my research visit at the Political Science Department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I was awarded with the Fulbright Schuman Scholarship. Furthermore, the first paper of my dissertation was awarded with the annual Rudolf Wildenmann Prize, given to an outstanding paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops. Learn more about my research below, under ‘Publications’. You can download my CV here.

Interests

  • Political Behavior
  • Elite Rhetoric
  • Political Communication
  • Political Psychology
  • Emotions & Morality
  • Computational Text Analysis

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2017 - 2021

    European University Institute

  • Master Degree in Political Communication and Journalism, 2015

    University of Amsterdam & Aarhus University

  • Bachelor Degree in East Asian Studies, 2013

    Heidelberg University

Tools

3x8emotions

Measuring discrete emotional appeals in German political text

Teaching

 
 
 
 
 

Aarhus University

Feb 2022 – Jun 2022 Aarhus, Denmark
 
 
 
 
 

Düsseldorf University

Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 Düsseldorf, Germany
Course: Emotions in Politics (Undergrad Seminar)
 
 
 
 
 

European University Institute

Nov 2020 – Jan 2021 Florence, Italy
Course: Computational Text Analysis (Teaching Assistant)