The Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Radboud University seeks to hire two postdoctoral researchers for the ERC project ‘Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Christians in Europe between 1970 and 2020’. The project runs from October 2019 to October 2024.

Over the last fifty years, Oriental Orthodox Christians (Armenians, Copts, Syriacs/Arameans, Ethiopians and Eritreans) from the Middle East and Africa have settled in Europe, fleeing war-related violence and societal pressures. One of the prominent aspects of religious practice of these transnational Oriental communities is their strong emphasis on the writing and publishing of texts. These include traditional religious texts (from liturgy to history), re-translated and re-contextualised texts, and completely new texts. The project takes these textual practices as its main source to understand how these Oriental Christians inscribe themselves in European societies and so contribute not only to the transformation of their own transnational churches but also to that of Orthodoxy worldwide. It hypothesises that diachronic and synchronic comparison among Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches will show that this rewriting includes the actualisation of their religious heritage vis-à-vis ethnic and national self-definitions, vis-à-vis European society, and vis-à-vis other churches, particularly Orthodox ones.

The project consists of several subprojects, including a database of books, pamphlets and magazines produced by Oriental Christians in Europe over the past fifty years and three case studies of the textual practices of Oriental Christian churches in Europe on the Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian/Eritrean Tawahedo churches which have been taken on by three PhD candidates. The two postdoctoral researchers will each take up a comparative and interpretative study, which may take into account textual materials from Orthodox traditions from the Middle East and Africa as currently present in Europe (such as the Assyrian, Chaldean, Antiochian and Armenian churches) which are not included in the case studies:
     (i) ‘What You See’: textual practices as visualised practice (Postdoc).
     (ii) ‘European Orthodoxy’: Oriental Churches inscribing themselves in European societies (Postdoc).

These two projects, together with the database (to which all project members are expected to contribute) and the three basic case studies, feed into the overarching comparative project ‘Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Churches contributing to new forms of ‘global Orthodoxy' as taken up by the PI.

The full research proposal is available upon request.

• PhD in Semitic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, African Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Art History or Theology/Religious Studies.
• Basic knowledge of the language(s) and literature of one of the churches that fall within the scope of the project, such as Armenian, Syriac/Aramaic, Coptic, Arabic, Ge’ez, Tigre, Tigrinya or Amharic.
• Familiarity with relevant theories and methods in sociology, anthropology and religious studies, especially regarding migration studies.
• Familiarity with data management, databases and other tools of digital humanities.
• Good analytical and conceptual skills.
• Willingness and ability to work in an interdisciplinary team.
• Ability to present ideas clearly in writing and speaking, also to people from other disciplinary backgrounds.
• Good command of written and spoken English.

Fixed-term contract: Fixed tenure for three to four years (depending on hours per week; max. three years full time), after positive evaluation of first twelve months.

• Employment: 32 - 40 hours per week.
• A maximum gross monthly salary of € 4.978 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11).
• The exact salary depends on the candidate's qualifications and amount of relevant professional experience.
• In addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• Duration of the contract: fixed tenure for three to four years (depending on hours per week; max. three years full-time or four years part-time (32 hours)), after positive evaluation of the first twelve months.
• Preferred start date of the postdoctoral positions is between 1 October 2020 and 1 October 2021.
• You will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service: our Dual Career Officer will assist with family-related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation.
• Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Radboud University

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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen

The Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies has approximately 160 staff and 8 chair groups and provides courses to approximately 750 students. The project is part of the chair group of Comparative Religious Studies, which closely cooperates with the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies. The faculty has an inspiring academic climate. We continuously seek to innovate our socially relevant domain-specific and interdisciplinary education and research programmes. Responsibility, solidarity, care and commitment are values which characterise the faculty’s culture.