3 Postdoctoral Research Positions for ERC Advanced Grant RECUR

How does coloniality continue to shape contemporary Europe – and what role do theological imaginaries and institutions play in sustaining or contesting it? Would you like to investigate these questions as part of an ambitious, interdisciplinary ERC Advanced Grant project? Then we invite you to apply for one of three postdoctoral research positions in RECUR: Towards a Critical Political Theology.

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven hosts RECUR: Towards a Critical Political Theology of Coloniality, an ERC Advanced Grant project led by Prof. Judith Gruber (2027–2031). RECUR investigates how colonial power continues to operate in contemporary Europe through political‑theological discourses across religious, secular, and academic domains. Focusing on Belgium, Germany, and Ireland, the project combines qualitative discourse analysis, discourse network analysis, and critical theological reflection to develop a new framework for understanding the relationship between theology, coloniality, and contemporary forms of power.

The three postdoctoral researchers will join an interdisciplinary and internationally oriented research team and contribute to a shared research agenda combining empirical investigation, theoretical development, and conceptual reflection. Researchers will be based in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and participate in its wider intellectual and research community.

More information about RECUR: https://research.kuleuven.be/EU/p/he/p1/erc/recur

The project seeks intellectually ambitious researchers who are interested in crossing disciplinary boundaries and contributing to both empirical research and theological reflection. Postdoctoral researchers will contribute from different disciplinary perspectives to a shared research agenda: rather than working in isolation on separate subprojects, team members will collaborate closely across all project domains and contribute jointly, from different disciplinary entry points, to the development of RECUR’s central concepts and methods.

Area A: Systematic, Constructive, and Political Theology

Candidates with expertise in systematic theology, constructive theology, political theology, or related theological fields. Applicants should have an interest in critical theological reflection on coloniality, power, authority, and the political dimensions of theological concepts and imaginaries. Relevant areas of expertise may include, among others, critical, historical, feminist, liberation, or postcolonial approaches to theology, as well as theological reflection on institutions, traditions, and practices of power. Applicants with expertise in this area should demonstrate an openness to conducting qualitative empirical research (Discourse Network Analysis).

Area B: Empirical Research on Religion, Institutions, and Public Discourse

Candidates with expertise in empirical research on religion, institutions, discourse, or public debates. Relevant approaches may include qualitative methods, discourse analysis, discourse network analysis, empirical theology, or related approaches. Applicants should be interested in investigating how theological and political concepts circulate within contemporary institutions and public debates, particularly in relation to coloniality, memory, authority, and structures of power.

Area C: Post-/Secularity Studies, Political Theory, and Cultural Anthropology

Candidates working in critical secularism studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, political philosophy, anthropology, or related fields. Applicants should have an interest in the theological dimensions of modern political formations and in the entanglements of religion, secularity, coloniality, and social imaginaries, and demonstrate an openness to conducting qualitative empirical research (Discourse Network Analysis).

Applicants are not expected to have expertise in all areas of the project. Rather, they should demonstrate openness to engaging substantially with RECUR’s core concepts, empirical questions, and interdisciplinary methods, in order to contribute collaboratively to the central question of RECUR: the relationship between theology, coloniality, and contemporary forms of power. The final configuration of positions will be determined on the basis of the successful candidates' qualifications, experience, and eligibility under university and funding regulations.

Responsibilities

As a postdoctoral researcher in RECUR, you will contribute to the development of a Critical Political Theology of Coloniality through a combination of empirical research, conceptual reflection, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Each researcher will take primary responsibility for leading empirical research in one of the project's three national contexts (Belgium, Germany, or Ireland). Within their national context, researchers will build and analyse empirical c