The Department of Law at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) invites applications for a fully funded three-year PhD position within the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network MINARET – Islamic Legal Cultures in Post-Imperial Contexts. Employment is expected to begin September 1, 2027, or by agreement.

The successful candidate will be enrolled in the PhD School at SDU Business School and the Faculty of Social Sciences and employed at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark.

About the MINARET Doctoral Network
MINARET is an international doctoral network funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). The network investigates how Islamic legal cultures shape governance, citizenship, institutions and everyday legal practices across post-imperial societies.

The programme brings together universities and non-academic partners across Europe, North Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Doctoral candidates will receive interdisciplinary training, international supervision and extensive mobility opportunities.

Further information about the network is available at MINARET website.

Project Description
This doctoral project examines how constitutional and legal frameworks governing religious education shape citizenship, legal consciousness and social cohesion in Indonesia and Morocco.

The project investigates how constitutional values, religious identities and civic norms are translated into educational practices and everyday experiences of citizenship. Particular attention is paid to how religious education influences democratic participation, social integration and perceptions of rights, duties and belonging.

The project contributes to research on legal consciousness, sociology of law, citizenship studies and comparative constitutionalism. Through comparative empirical research in Indonesia and Morocco, the doctoral candidate will analyse how educational institutions function as sites where legal norms, religious values and civic identities intersect.

The candidate is expected to develop an original research design within the overall framework of the project.

Host Institution
The position is based at the Department of Law, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

The Department of Law is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences and hosts a vibrant interdisciplinary environment within sociology of law, legal anthropology, human rights and comparative legal studies.

The successful candidate will become part of the department’s research environment as well as the international MINARET doctoral network.

More information about our PhD programme is available at the department’s website. On the website, you will also find the department’s qualifications criteria. The programme is provided by the PhD School at SDU Business School and the Faculty of Social Sciences who offer further information on their website.

Supervision
The doctoral candidate will be supervised by:

• Professor Ole Hammerslev (University of Southern Denmark) (principal supervisor)
• Co-supervisor from MINARET consortium

Additional mentoring and supervision will be provided through the MINARET network.

Fieldwork and Mobility
The project includes substantial international mobility.

The doctoral candidate is expected to conduct fieldwork in:

• Indonesia
• Morocco

In addition, the candidate will undertake two secondments within the MINARET network:

• one academic secondment at a partner university;
• one non-academic secondment with a relevant partner organisation.

Participation in network-wide training events, workshops, summer schools and conferences is mandatory.

Tasks and Responsibilities
The successful candidate will:

• conduct independent doctoral research within the project framework;
• participate actively in the MINARET doctoral network;
• undertake international fieldwork and secondments;
• complete PhD courses and training activities;
• contribute to the research environment at the Department of Law;
• participate in teaching and related activities in accordance with Danish PhD regulations.

Eligibility Requirements
Applicants must hold a relevant master’s degree (or equivalent) in law, sociology, political science, anthropology, religious studies, education, or a related social science discipline.

Applicants must meet the admission requirements of the PhD School at SDU Business School and the Faculty of Social Sciences, SDU, which you can learn more about on the PhD School’s website.

Applicants must also meet requirements in accordance with the MSCA Doctoral Network:

• applicants must not already hold a doctoral degree;
• applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Denmark for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately preceding the recruitment date.

Excellent English language skills are required.

Desired Qualifications
Preference will be given to applicants with documented experience or interest in one or more of the following areas:

• sociology of law;
• legal consciousness;
• citizenship studies;
• religion and law;
• Islamic legal cultures;
• qualitative and comparative research methods;
• fieldwork-based research.

Knowledge of Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, French or other relevant languages is an advantage but not a requirement.

Assessment Criteria
Applicants will be assessed on:

• academic qualifications (please consult the guidelines for recognizing merit at the Department of Law);
• quality and feasibility of the proposed research project;
• methodological competencies;
• motivation and suitability for international and interdisciplinary research;
• ability to contribute to the objectives of the MINARET doctoral network.

We Offer
The position offers:

• Three years of full-time employment as a PhD fellow at SDU;
• enrolment in an internationally recognised PhD programme;
• participation in a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network;
• international supervision and training;
• research mobility and secondments;
• competitive salary and employment conditions in accordance with Danish regulations and MSCA provisions.

Contact information
For more information about the department and the position, please contact Head of Department, Ole Hammerslev, [email protected].

Terms of employment
The applicant will be employed in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) for academics in the state sector, including the associated circular on the job structure for academic staff at universities and the regulations for PhD students as described therein.

Employment as a PhD student is subject to the circular of 20 December 2021, on the agreement for academics in the state sector – Appendix 5, protocol on PhD students.

The person employed in the position may, based on a specific individual managerial assessment, be exempted from time registration, also known as a self-organiser.

Salary and employment terms
Salary is determined in accordance with the applicable collective agreement and based on objective and gender-neutral criteria, including the content of the position, responsibilities, and qualification requirements.

As an applicant, you are entitled to information about the starting salary and salary range for the position. This information will be provided during the recruitment process.

SDU does not collect information on applicants’ previous salary.

The assessment and evaluation process
Shortlisting may be used in the assessment process. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will receive an assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU.

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee and the shortlisted applicants will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns them. The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicants to provide the necessary material.

Interviews and tests may be part of the overall evaluation.

Application

The application must include the following:

• Motivated application
  • Detailed Curriculum vitae (educational and work history should be specified by month and year)
  • A certified copy of your master’s degree certificate, including transcripts of all examination results – alternatively, the expected date to finish the master’s degree. Foreign diplomas that are not in Norwegian, Swedish or English must be accompanied by a translation into Danish or English, as well as a translation of the official description of the marking scale used.
  • An application form (is available here)
  • A project description (max 5 pages of 2,400 characters each, including spaces, notes, appendices, bibliography etc.). The guidelines for preparing a PhD project proposal for the Department of Law are available here.
  • An abstract of the project description of no more than 250 words
  • Publications, if any – however, no more than two. If one of the attached publications is a master thesis, only the problem formulation and the conclusion should be attached, not the entire thesis.
  • Information on teaching experience or other forms of academic communication.

About SDU
The University of Southern Denmark was established to create value for and with society. Whether our contributions come in the form of excellent research, innovative solutions, education or learning, we must make a positive difference to society and contribute to a sustainable future. We do this by cultivating talents and creating the best environments for research and learning. It is therefore crucial that SDU retains, develops and recruits talent. At the same time, we need to ensure consistently high quality in all our activities – and we can only do that with the right people. The University’s researchers, lecturers, students, managers and technical/administrative staff are the foundation of our success.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

The application deadline is January 31, 2027, 23.59 CET/CEST.

UPLOAD GUIDE: Motivated application should be uploaded as ‘Cover letter’, Curriculum Vitae should be uploaded as ‘Resume’. All other documents should be uploaded as ‘Miscellaneous documents’.

Applicants are encouraged to read the information "How to apply" before applying. If you experience technical problems when uploading the application, please contact [email protected].

Documents should not contain a CPR number (civil registration number) – in this case, the CPR number must be crossed out.

Documents which are not in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish must be translated into English. SDU may discard applications which are incomplete regarding the above-mentioned criteria without further notice. All documents must be in pdf format, no more than 5 MB per file.

Location
Odense M, Denmark

Apply Before
2027-01-31T22:59:00+00:00