We are looking for a highly motivated and talented researcher. As a candidate, you will meet the following criteria:
• a master's degree (or equivalent) in Theology, Religious Studies and/or Slavic Studies, or a related field.
• meet the entrance requirements for a PhD at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies or the Faculty of Arts. Further information can be obtained on: https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/doctorate and https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/english/research/becoming-researcher/becoming-researcher.
•an excellent command of English (project language) and proficiency in French and Russian (the main languages of the sources); knowledge of additional languages (e.g. modern Greek or Italian) are an asset. •a strong academic interest in church history, the history of ecumenism, the Russian emigration, and textual and network analysis.•experience with historical and/or theological research.•willingness to engage with interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical frameworks.•work independently, possess organisational skills and a cooperative attitude•openness to international mobility and academic exchange.Project summary: Amay-Chevetogne as ‘trait d’union’ between Catholicism and Orthodoxy: The Stimulating Contacts of an ecumenically engaged Catholic Monastery with Eastern Christians and Louvain Theologians (1925-1965)On the eve of the centenary of the foundation of the first Catholic ‘monastère de l’union’ in Amay-Chevetogne (1925) historians and theologians will study the contacts of the Benedictine monks of Chevetogne and their Louvain friends with Eastern Christians – mainly emigrated Russian Orthodox intellectuals –, and the impact of these encounters on their theological, ecclesiological and ecumenical views during four decades. The network-text corpus will focus on Orthodox theologians of Saint-Serge – a.o. Nicholas Arseniev, Cyprian Kern, Léon Zander and Basile Zenkovsky –, on community members who became Orthodox – a.o. Lev Gillet and David Balfour –, on the Benedictine monks Lambert Beauduin, Clément Lialine, Olivier Rousseau and Emmanuel Lanne, and on the Louvain theologians René Aubert, Charles Moeller, Gérard Philips and Gustave Thils. The project also includes the digitalization of the enormous treasure of letters of Chevetogne fathers with their Orthodox contacts as well as the diary of the Russian Orthodox historian Pierre Kovalevsky (1918-1953).The successful candidate will:• comply with all the requirements of KU Leuven for doctoral studies.• produce a complete and acceptable doctoral thesis proposal.• conduct this study autonomously under the guidance of the supervisors, and in collaboration with a postdoctoral researcher working on the same project.• research, complete, and successfully defend a doctoral thesis within 4 years of full-time work.• contribute to the organisation of events, activities and other tasks related to the project and its research (colloquia, team events, editorial tasks, visits from external experts etc.).• present research results at international and national conferences and colloquia.• become a member of one of the Research Units of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies by participating in its regular programme of academic activities and undertaking administrative activities.The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of KU Leuven invites applications for a fully funded PhD position within the framework of a research project about the (intellectual) contacts of the Benedictine monastery of Amay/Chevetogne with Eastern Christians (mainly Russian Orthodox) and the development of Catholic ecumenism from the foundation of the Priory (1925) until the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council (1965). The successful candidate will contribute to a multidisciplinary team investigating the networks around Amay/Chevetogne and the development of ecumenical thinking in the period under scrutiny. Using existing literature and accessing (new) archival sources the PhD candidate will identify and map the relations of Amay-Chevetogne with Orthodox Christians and draw a extensive and coherent picture of Amay-Chevetogne as a hyphen between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. As a junior researcher, you will be added to one of the Research units of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven (Belgium), and participate in its activities.We offer: •a full time PhD position for a period of four years (subject to positive intermediate evaluations). You will first be offered a PhD scholarship for 1 year, extendable up to a maximum of 48 months, subject to a positive evaluation.•supervision by leading scholars in the field.•a stimulating and supportive research environment with access to training, conferences, and publication opportunities, academic or otherwise.