PpWe are looking for you! /p pAre you fascinated by the legal and social history of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period? Do you want to be an active player in a truly international and interdisciplinary environment, within a prestigious MSCA Doctoral Network, funded by the European Commission? Do you want to know more about how earlier generations regulated the post-mortal transfer of patrimony, through last wills and related legal mechanisms? Are you interested in the interplay between societal dynamics, “learned law” and testamentary freedom? Are you willing to leave your home country and to start working as a Doctoral Candidate in history at a foreign university? Are you looking forward to getting the chance of a six-months research stay in yet another country, at yet another high-level university, and a three-month internship in a museum? Then, you might be the candidate we are looking for! /p pFor this position, KU Leuven Kulak in Kortrijk will be your home base. This campus combines the strength of KU Leuven with the proximity of a close-knit academic community and an educational concept that puts the human dimension at the center of its programs. KU Leuven Kulak has a strong interdisciplinary research profile and focuses on both regional and international collaboration. At KU Leuven Kulak, you will have the opportunity to develop innovative ideas and make a real impact in both research and education. At the same time, you will be part of the Research Unit of Medieval History in the department of History at KU Leuven. Next to a research axis on the history of social, gender and political history, the research unit has a strong focus on power dynamics within families and communities in late medieval Europe. /p pThe Doctoral Candidate (DC) will be supervised by prof. dr. Chanelle Delameillieure (social history, KU Leuven) and co-supervised by prof. dr. Marek Starý (Law, Charles University). In the course of this fellowship, the DC will work six months in Prague, and three months at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp. /p pThis DC will focus on generational dynamics within families in the urban Southern Low Countries. For this research, a variety of judicial sources will be used. The DC will study generational dynamics and age inequality in late medieval Brabant, with a focus on acts of last will or on all sort of arrangements with respect to property and inheritance. /p h3Project /h3 pThe MSCA Doctoral Network “TESTAMENT” (Testamentary Practices in the Periphery of the Ius Commune Tradition: Freedom and Oppression (c. )) is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No.. 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. /p pTESTAMENT, 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. ), 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. /p pTo 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). /p pThis 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, blogposts, (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. /p h3Profiel /h3 pIn the framework of the MSCA Doctoral Network “TESTAMENT”, the Doctoral Candidate will have the following responsibilities: /p ul liresearching generational dynamics and property transfers in urban families in late medieval Brabant (15th‑16th centuries), and preparing a doctoral dissertation on this topic; /li liactively participating in the activities of the TESTAMENT‑network (summer and winter schools, monthly online meetings, concluding conference); /li lipresenting the research at at least one international conference; /li liwriting at least one peer‑reviewed scientific article; /li liactively participating in the activities of the Research Unit and of the Doctoral School of KU Leuven; /li liconducting a six‑month research stay at the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (which can be divided in several shorter terms); /li liconducting a three‑month internship at the Museum Plantin‑Moretus, where the DC will be involved inter alia in collaborating with the museum’s volunteers and performing outreach activities related to the museum’s archival collection /li /ul h3Profile /h3 pWe are looking for a candidate who meets the following requirements: /p ul liYou are creative and ambitious, hard‑working, and persistent. /li liYou have a master's degree in law or history or you will have it by August 2026. /li liYou have good communicative skills, and the attitude to partake successfully in the work of a research team. /li liYou have a good command of the English language (spoken and written). /li liYou 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. /li liYou have a passive command of Latin. /li /ul h3Eligibility criteria /h3 ul liSupported researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment. /li liRecruited 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. /li /ul h3Aaanbod /h3 pA Meaningful Job In a Dynamic And Ambitious University, In An Interdisciplinary Setting And Within An International Network. In Addition, We Offer You: /p ul liFull‑time employment for three years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no‑go) after 1 year. /li liThe gross amount of the doctoral scholarship (tax‑fee) 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. /li liAdditional benefits are in accordance to KU Leuven regulations. /li liHigh‑quality training programs and other support to grow into a self‑aware, autonomous scientific researcher. /li /ul h3Interesse /h3 pDo you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact prof. dr. Chanelle Delameillieure, mail: or prof. dr. Wouter Druwé, mail: /p pWe 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. /p pThe 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). /p pPromising 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 organized a few weeks later. The successful Doctoral Candidate will be employed from 1 September 2026. /p pThere 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 Do not hesitate to apply for all TESTAMENT's vacancies you are eligible for! /p pSolliciteren voor deze vacature kan tot en met 20/04/2026 via onze online sollicitatietoepassing /p pKU Leuven wil een inclusieve, respectvolle en sociaal veilige gemeenschap zijn. Wij omarmen diversiteit tussen individuen en groepen als een meerwaarde. Open dialoog en verschillen in perspectief zijn noodzakelijk in een ambitieuze onderzoeks‑ en onderwijsomgeving. In ons streven naar gelijke kansen erkennen wij de gevolgen van historische ongelijkheden. Wij aanvaarden geen enkele vorm van discriminatie op basis van, onder meer, geslacht, genderidentiteit en -expressie, seksuele oriëntatie, leeftijd, etnische of nationale afkomst, huidskleur, levensbeschouwelijke overtuiging, neurodivergentie, arbeidshandicap, gezondheid, of socio‑economische status. Bij vragen over toegankelijkheid of aangeboden ondersteuning helpen we je graag op dit e-mailadres. /p ul liSollicitatieprocedure /li liArbeidsvoorwaarden /li liLoopbaanmogelijkheden /li /ul pHeb je een vraag over de online sollicitatieprocedure? Raadpleeg onze veelgestelde vragen of stuur een e‑mail naar /p pSolliciteer voor deze functie /p /p #J-18808-Ljbffr