Call for applications: Post-doctoral fellow in Political Philosophy (F/M/X)

1. General information

- Place of work: Université catholique de Louvain – Campus Saint-Louis Brussels 

- Attachment: Centre Prospéro (https://www.centreprospero.be)

- Type of contract: 2-year contract in political philosophy/political theory, full-time post-doctoral fellowship within the framework of the ERC-Consolidator BildungLearning project no 101043433

- Start date: from 1st of October, 2024

2. Short description of the general research project 

The main objective of this project is to compare the modern philosophy of Bildung and the contemporary paradigm of the Learning Society (LS) by systematically analyzing their homological structures. Through this comparison, we aim to expose the important conceptual mutations of the ideal of educational autonomy occurring from the first paradigm to the latter.

This research combines history of philosophy and political philosophy and will follow a plan in four axes:

1. Historical reconstruction of the texts formed around the concept of Bildung in classical German philosophy, through an original typology of the various and contrasting positions of the main authors of this period (Herder, Mendelssohn, Kant, Fichte, Schiller, Goethe, Schelling, Hegel, Humboldt), according to how they conceptualize the dialectics of educational autonomy and, in particular, how they theorize the political and cultural missions of the University in their conceptions of the emancipating project of the Bildung. 

2. Identification and analysis of the most significant critical transformations of the Bildung concept by Marx (allseitige Verwirklichung), Mill (self-development), Nietzsche (Zucht) and Dewey (growth), in order to bring to light the main theoretical divergences concerning the conditions of a partial reactivation and actualization of the modern emancipating project of the Bildung.

3. Establishing a corpus of scientific and political texts and discourses on the LS, in order to provide a theoretical reconstruction of the underlying political philosophy of these discourses and to compare the paradigm of LS to the modern philosophy of Bildung following an analytical grid pointing out the conceptual and normative homologies and mutations between them

4. Testing the concrete relevance of this systematic comparison and of the heuristic potential of the Bildung philosophy in the context of the current mutations of the Idea of University, by mapping the most important philosophical critiques of these mutations and by proposing a philosophical reconstruction of the concept of academic freedom in the light of the Bildung constellation first, and then from the various normative points of view underlying the critiques of Bildung and LS.

Through an analysis of political-educational narratives, we want to examine if the great narratives of the philosophical modernity – such as emancipation through self-cultivation – have become totally obsolete or ineffective, or if and how far they continue to be operating in current discourses under critical and fragmented forms.

3. Eligibility 

- The candidate must hold a PhD in philosophy, political sciences or equivalent delivered before the start date of the mandate.

- The candidate must be in a situation of international mobility for Belgium, i.e. not have resided or carried out their main activity in Belgium for more than 24 months during the 36 months prior to their engagement.

4. Mission and activities

- The candidate will contribute to the advancement of the ERC research project in the second and/or fourth axis presented above, with a special focus on a theoretical and philosophical approach of academic freedom, in collaboration with the project leader, Quentin Landenne (FNRS/UCL). This may involve, in addition to the writing of scientific articles related to the project, editing collective volumes and journal issues, and translating texts on the idea of the university and academic freedom, the realization of a literature review on the axis in charge and the co-organization of scientific events. 

- She or he will have the opportunity to participate in the research activities of the Centre Prospéro. For this reason, the ability to communicate actively in French is an important asset. The successful candidate will also be asked to live in Belgium for the duration of the contract.

5. Application procedures

Composition of an application file in French or English (in a single file in PDF format) containing

- Curriculum vitae.

- Letter of motivation developing the postdoctoral research project and suggesting ways to contribute to the advancement of the BildungLearning ERC research project (4 pages maximum).

Applications must be sent by August 1, 2024 at 11:59 pm (CET) to the following addresses: quentin.landenne@uclouvain.be (main recipient) and anne-sophie.declercq@uclouvain.be (cc)

Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held online.

The hiring process will follow the guidelines defined in the Gender Equality Plan carried out by the university: https://uclouvain.be/en/discover/equality/gender-equality-plan.html.

Research funded by the European Union (BildungLearning, ERC project No. 101043433). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.