In the framework of the MSCA Doctoral Network “TESTAMENT”, the Doctoral Candidate will have the following responsibilities:
1. researching generational dynamics and property transfers in urban families in late medieval Brabant (15th-16th centuries), and preparing a doctoral dissertation on this topic;
2. actively participating in the activities of the TESTAMENT-network (summer and winter schools, monthly online meetings, concluding conference);
3. presenting the research at at least one international conference;
4. writing at least one peer-reviewed scientific article;
5. actively participating in the activities of the Research Unit and of the Doctoral School of KU Leuven;
6. conducting a six-month research stay at the Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic [which can be divided in several shorter terms];
7. conducting 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
ProfileWe are looking for a candidate who meets the following requirements:
8. You are creative and ambitious, hard-working, and persistent.
9. You have a master's degree in law or history or you will have it by August 2026.
10. You have good communicative skills, and the attitude to partake successfully in the work of a research team.
11. You have a good command of the English language (spoken and written).
12. 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.
13. You have a passive command of Latin.
Eligibility criteria
14. Supported researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment.
15. 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.
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, 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.
We are looking for you! Are 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! For 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. The 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. This 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.A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. In addition, we offer you:
16. Full-time employment for three years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after 1 year.
17. The 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.
18. Additional benefits are in accordance to KU Leuven regulations.
19. High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher.