Postdoctoral Fellow in Law

Last application date: March 15, 2026 (23:59 CET)
Department: RE22 – Department of European, Public and International Law
Degree: MA, MSc or LLM in law, social sciences, anthropology or another relevant field, preferably with a focus on human rights and/or transitional justice
Occupancy rate: 100%
Vacancy type: Research staff

About Ghent University

Ghent University is a top 100 university and one of the major universities in Belgium. Our 11 faculties offer a wide range of courses and conduct in-depth research within a wide range of scientific domains. Ghent University occupies a specific position among the Flemish universities. We are a socially committed and pluralistic university that is open to all students, regardless of their ideological, political, cultural or social background.

In its mission statement, Ghent University identifies itself as a socially committed university. This implies that the institution reflects about the positive impact that its activities can have upon society, and that it attempts to optimize that impact. It also implies the reflection about the potential negative impact of activities upon society, and the attempt of minimizing such impact.

Over the course of its 200 year history Ghent University has built up a strong scientific reputation. Ghent University invests both in fundamental, high risk science as in applied research. The university is known for its scientific expertise in life sciences and medicine, materials and agricultural science, veterinary medicine, psychology and history, and many more.

Faculty of Law and Criminology

The Faculty provides academic teaching and services based on innovative scientific research. The education within these programmes is supported by the innovative scientific research performed within the 3 faculty departments encompassing all possible disciplines within the fields of law and criminological sciences.

Human Rights Centre

The Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law and Criminology at Ghent University is an academic centre specialized in human rights law. Its members include senior experts as well as many young researchers, covering a broad research and teaching expertise, which includes international, regional, national and comparative law of human rights. Human Rights Centre members work on a range of thematic issues, including legal pluralism, freedom of expression, gender, indigenous peoples’ rights, and the European Court of Human Rights. Members also actively engage with human rights practice by supervising clinical projects and submitting third-party interventions to the European Court of Human Rights.

Diversity

We ensure equal opportunities, equal treatment and equal access to the vacancies for all who apply. We ensure an objective and non-biased assessment procedure. Origin, ethnicity, gender, age, employment disability, sexual orientation and other identity factors will not be a factor in assessing the competences. Candidates who self-identify as belonging to vulnerable or minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Additional Information

For more information about the project, please click here.

For more information about the position, please contact us at justicevisions@ugent.be.

Your Tasks

We are seeking to hire one fully funded PhD researcher as part of a project that studies “Innovation and documentation in transitional justice”. This specific PhD project will focus on initiatives documenting violations of IHRL and IHL in the Philippines.

The ideal candidate has an interdisciplinary profile, covering at least social & legal studies related to human rights and transitional justice. They are open to using or have experience with various relevant empirical research methods (quantitative or qualitative), and have sound working knowledge of the context and the various topics studied as part of this research project.

The researcher will be based at the Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University. On site presence is crucial given the highly collaborative nature of the project.

The selected candidate will be offered a position of limited duration as PhD researcher (12 months initially, with 36 months extension upon passing the first year PhD requirements).

We encourage candidates who self-identify as belonging to a minority group to apply and our recruitment process is aimed at ensuring inclusion and diversity.

Description of the Broader Research Project

The candidate will be part of a broader research project on the role of documentation in contemporary transitional justice processes – including ones that are developed in contexts that do not easily fit the parameters of a ‘classic’ transitional justice context, like the extra-judicial killings under the Duterte administration in the Philippines.

The overall research project is a multi-disciplinary and multi-method study that seeks to theorize the role documentation processes play in the design of transitional justice initiatives. Documentation is crucial to almost every (institutional or grassroots) transitional justice initiative, but it is rarely the focus of transitional justice scholarship. Moreover, in contemporary transitional justice cases, where there may be no formal or institutional drive for transitional justice, it’s often grassroots justice actors who are the engine behind these documentation efforts.

This project seeks to better understand how and why grassroots justice actors document harm and violence, what their objectives are, and how this shapes the multitude of transitional justice responses that may shape up in response to it.

The ambition is to move away from a pillar-based understanding of transitional justice, and to consciously start from the practices of those most affected by violence to rethink transitional justice as an eco-system in which documentation connects most of the initiatives.

Our overarching research question is: How can recentering the everyday justice efforts of grassroots actors help us rethink the transitional justice paradigm in ways that are more reflective of and responsive to realities on the ground, more future oriented, and that navigate some of the most pressing problems identified by critical transitional justice scholars and practitioners.

We will use a mixed-method actor-oriented approach to analyze the practices and ambitions of grassroots justice actors working across various contexts. This requires close collaboration between the new PhD researcher, other PhD researchers and the three senior researchers already working on the project.

Description of Your Specific Research

There is substantial room for PhD researchers to bring in their own topical and methodological expertise, provided their work centres on grassroots documentation efforts that can be meaningfully connected to the notion of transitional justice. While the PhD researcher may develop their own project, the case must fit within the broader research logic to allow for cross-case analysis.

The PhD researcher will take the lead in carrying out their case study while working closely with the project PI to ensure alignment with the overall agenda. While the project’s overarching framework has been defined, there is room for finetuning the research design, questions, methods, and deliverables in conversation with the project PI and other project researchers.

This is not an individual PhD project. There is a set research agenda and pre-established research focus. Please consider whether such a collective approach is the right fit for you before applying.

The selected candidate will be co-supervised by prof. dr. Tine Destrooper (Ghent University) and Prof. Dr. Bono Olgado (HURIDOCS and University of the Philippines), and will work closely with the Justice Visions team, the Human Rights Centre, and the Human Rights Research Network at UGent.

Within the first year of the PhD, the candidate will be expected to finetune the final research design, develop ethics and data management plans, participate in team meetings, complete doctoral training, and contribute to research outputs. In subsequent years, the candidate will carry out empirical research, write a PhD by articles, present at conferences, and assist with limited teaching and outreach activities.

What We Are Looking For

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

• Hold a MA, MSc or LLM degree in social and political sciences, law, anthropology or a related discipline;

• Have obtained their degree at the time of application or demonstrate that they will have completed it by September 1, 2026;

• Be fluent in English as their primary working and publication language, and fluent in the language spoken by actors in the chosen case study.

Additional Selection Criteria

Applicants who meet multiple of the following criteria will be ranked higher:

• Familiarity with transitional justice practice and/or interdisciplinary research;

• In-depth knowledge of the Philippines’ transitional justice context and relevant networks;

• Multidisciplinary training or proven experience in multidisciplinary research;

• Experience with legal, quantitative, or qualitative socio-legal research methods;

• Expertise in or familiarity with actor-oriented or user-focused perspectives on transitional justice.

General Expectations

Candidates are expected to:

• Work independently and proactively within a multidisciplinary and international team;

• Collaborate effectively in complex research projects;

• Demonstrate strong academic writing and presentation skills;

• Contribute to the general functioning of the team and project;

• Have some social media experience or interest;

• Work meticulously and manage deadlines effectively;

• Be willing to move to Belgium.

What We Can Offer You

• A full-time position as a doctoral fellow, initially for 12 months, extendable to a maximum of 48 months after positive evaluation;

• Contract start date from 09/01/2026 at the earliest;

• A fellowship amount equivalent to 100% of the net salary of an AAP member in equal family circumstances, determined based on family status and seniority, and exempt from personal income tax;

• A wide range of staff benefits including training opportunities, 36 days of annual leave for a full-time position, bicycle allowance and eco vouchers.

Interested?

Apply by submitting all required documents as one single PDF by email to justicevisions@ugent.be before March 15, 2026 (23:59 CET).

Required Documents

• Cover letter outlining your motivation (maximum 500 words);

• Detailed CV (including publications and presentations, if applicable);

• Research statement (maximum 1,000 words) addressing:

  • The documentation initiatives you wish to focus on;

  • Their relevance to innovative documentation of injustice;

  • Their relevance to transitional justice;

  • Your relationship to the Philippines’ transitional justice context;

  • The methodological skills you would leverage;

  • Possible alternative cases;

• Transcript of the required degree (with translations if applicable);

• One academic letter of recommendation specific to this role;

• A writing sample on a related topic (maximum 10,000 words, in English).

Please combine all documents into one PDF file named LASTNAME_FirstName_Philippines.

Late applications, applications sent to other addresses, or applications with more than one PDF attachment will not be accepted.

The foreseen starting date is September 1, 2026.

For inquiries, please contact justicevisions@ugent.be.

Evaluation Procedure

• Longlisted candidates will be invited to complete a home-based written assignment.

• Longlisted candidates will be informed by April 3, 2026; the written assignment will take place between April 3 and April 19, 2026.

• Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview in Ghent or via video conference, likely on May 4 or 5, 2026.

• An offer is expected to be made in the second half of May 2026, for an envisioned start date of September 1, 2026 (negotiable).

In your application, please refer to Professorpositions.com