Organisation/Company KU LEUVEN Department Roman Law and Legal History Research Field History » Church history History » Medieval history History » Social history Juridical sciences » Canon law Juridical sciences » Roman law Juridical sciences » Other History » History of law Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Application Deadline 20 Apr 2026 - 23:59 (UTC) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA Reference Number BAP-2026-145 Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101226689 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
The MSCA Doctoral Network “TESTAMENT” (Testamentary Practices in the Periphery of the Ius Commune Tradition: Freedom and Oppression (c. 1420-1620)) is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101226689. It groups 5 hiring universities: KU Leuven (Belgium, co‑ordinating institution), Jagiellonian University Cracow (Poland), University of Warsaw (Poland), Charles University Prague (Czech Republic), and Friedrich‑Schiller‑University Jena (Germany). The network also comprises several Associated Partners, museums and archives, which will host Doctoral Candidates for internships, allowing them to gain practical experience as well.
TESTAMENT, an interdisciplinary consortium of social and legal historians from the universities of Leuven, Kraków, Jena, Prague and Warsaw, will study dynamics of freedom and ‘unfreedom’, of power and oppression, through the lens of testamentary law and practice in Western and Central Europe (c. 1420-1620), with a particular focus on the regions in the ‘periphery’ of the late medieval and early modern academic tradition. The project members will develop a language to transcend the traditional dichotomy between ‘freedom’ and ‘unfreedom’ and will single out criteria that can be used to situate specific cases on this continuum. On the basis of thorough archival and doctrinal‑historical research, the project will single out the family, policy, jurisdictional and jurisprudential dynamics that determined the extent to which people could dispose of their goods post‑mortally.
To this end, the consortium will train promising junior scholars into professional, critically‑minded, communicative, cooperative and digitally competent social and legal historians. The Ph.D. students will be integrated in a unique international network of scholars from both law and social history. They will be trained in both disciplinary and transferable skills at summer and winter schools, at monthly online seminars, through a secondment at another academic partner abroad and also through meaningful experiences in collaboration with non‑academic actors (especially archives and musea).
This project will open new scientific perspectives for research by using digital methods (especially HTR‑tools) and will add new unedited material to existing open access databases for further research. Through social media, blog posts, (online) exhibitions, course materials for secondary school teachers, interdisciplinary university seminars and presentations at alumni events, the consortium explicitly aims to introduce new approaches to the past through lesser‑known historical documents to a wide range of audiences.
Responsibilities
researching the regulatory framework and societal context concerning joint last wills of spouses in Leuven (15th‑16th centuries), and preparing a doctoral dissertation on this topic;
actively participating in the activities of the TESTAMENT‑network (summer and winter schools, monthly online meetings, concluding conference);
presenting the research at at least one international conference;
writing at least one peer‑reviewed scientific article;
actively participating in the activities of the Research Unit and of the Doctoral School of KU Leuven;
conducting a six‑month research stay at the University of Warsaw (which can be divided in several shorter terms);
conducting a three‑month internship at the City Archives of Leuven, where the DC will be involved inter alia in a citizen science project on the transcription of relevant documentation from the Leuven court of aldermen.
Profile / Qualifications
you are creative and ambitious, hard‑working, and persistent;
you have a master’s degree in law or history or you will have it by August 2026;
you have good communicative skills and the attitude to partake successfully in the work of a research team;
you have a good command of the English language (spoken and written);
you have a good passive command of Dutch (or its early modern variant) and/or French (or its early modern variant). Active command of Dutch is an advantage;
you have a good passive command of Latin.
Eligibility Criteria
supported researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment;
recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary (Belgium) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent by the researcher as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not considered.
Benefits
full‑time position for three years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no‑go) after 1 year;
the gross amount of the doctoral scholarship (tax‑free) will be approximately 3.055,61 EUR per month if you are single with no dependent family members. It will be higher if you have a registered partner without income and/or dependent child(ren); it will be lower if you have a registered partner with income;
additional benefits are in accordance to KU Leuven regulations;
high‑quality training programs and other support to grow into a self‑aware, autonomous scientific researcher.
Do you recognise yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact prof. dr. Wouter Druwé (wouter.druwe@kuleuven.be) or prof. dr. Chanelle Delameillieure (chanelle.delameillieure@kuleuven.be).
We invite you to submit a complete application by using the online application tool. Only applications that are submitted in this way are taken into account.
The application should include a motivation letter (including the topic of your master thesis project), a curriculum vitae (including contact details of at least two references) and a list of your bachelor and master courses and grades (and ranking, if available).
Promising candidates will be contacted by email. Deadline for applications is Monday 20 April 2026. After a first selection, candidates will be invited for a first round of interviews (online) on Wednesday 6 May 2026. A second round at the location of employment (KU Leuven) will be organised a few weeks later. The successful Doctoral Candidate will be employed from 1 September 2026.
There are also vacancies for Doctoral Candidates at other faculties and institutions within the TESTAMENT‑Consortium (in Prague, Warsaw, Jena and Kraków), each with its own eligibility criteria. For more information on those other DC‑positions, please consult our project's website https://testament.project.uj.edu.pl. Do not hesitate to apply for all TESTAMENT’s vacancies you are eligible for!
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