Vacancy
Post-doctoral Researcher on Sovereignty and Aesthetics Politics
→ Apply before 14/08/2026 (DD/MM/YYYY) 23:59 (Brussels Time)
→ Faculty of Political and Social Sciences
→ Department: PS05 – Conflict- en Ontwikkelingsstudies
→ Occupancy rate: 100%
→ Number of positions: 1
→ Type of employment: Contract of unlimited duration with clause
→ Term of assignment: 28 months
→ Wage scale: PD1 to PD4 (doctoral degree)
→ Required diploma: PhD
Ghent University is a world of its own. Employing more than 15,000 people, it is actively involved in education and research, management and administration, as well as technical and social service provision on a daily basis. It is one of the largest, most exciting employers in the area and offers great career opportunities. With its 11 faculties and more than 80 departments offering state-of-the-art study programmes grounded in research in a wide range of academic fields, Ghent University is a logical choice for its staff and students.
The Conflict Research Group (CRG) – the institutional home of this vacancy – is a multidisciplinary research unit within the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University’s Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. The CRG constitutes a thriving and colleagial research environment with diverse academics who converge around their interest in studying micro-level dynamics of civil conflict and political violence. The group’s research is structured around four main clusters: Interventions, Contested Resources, Armed Politics and Conflict and Space.
YOUR TASKS
You will join the SovereignPerformance project, which is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant. The project will grow into a team of five post-docs and is coordinated by Bart Klem. More details can be found on this page.
The successful candidate will contribute to the project’s second work package, which focuses on the aesthetics dimensions of the political repertoires of three entities/movements: 1) the Catalan independence movement; 2) the autonomous region in Northeast Syria known as Rojava (and Kurdistan more widely); and 3) the Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist movement.
You will:
- spend at least 70% of your assignment on academic research.
- gather data on the political and aesthetic repertoires of the three independence movements through a combination of fieldwork and online research.
- collaboratively analyse data that was gathered by project colleagues working on Catalonia, Kurdistan and the Sri Lankan Tamil society.
- attend regular in-person team discussions.
- publish academic publications on the aesthetic politics in relation to the substance focus of the overall project.
- develop public outreach on the subject matter of the project.
- present insights at academic workshops and conferences.
- help organise project-related events.
- make minor contributions to the broader activities of the department.
INTERESTED?
Apply online through the e-recruitment system before the application deadline (see above). We do not accept late applications or applications that are not submitted through the online system.