Two PhD positions in Anthropology researching asylum procedures in Belgium

The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven University is a vibrant community of 8 lecturers, 12 postdoctoral scholars, and 40 PhD students. The research at the department is clustered around three axes: "making", "living" and "moving". Its faculty are committed to long-term ethnographic research in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how individuals and groups organize their lives, relate to pasts and prefigure futures. The department has a long-standing tradition in research on migration and mobility.
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Project

‘Unpacking the asylum procedure in its intersecting linguistic, sociocultural, psychological and legal dimensions’ (hereafter UNPACK) is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity iBOF project investigating fairness in asylum procedures. Asylum procedures are challenging, partly due to the diverse socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds of all actors involved (such as applicants, officials, interpreters, and lawyers) and the interactions between them.
The UNPACK project integrates insights from four disciplines – linguistics, anthropology, psychology and law – to examine the lived experiences of those involved. Through in-depth ethnographic research of specific case studies and the broader organizational context, UNPACK seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the asylum procedure, in order to develop a new, comprehensive and evidence-based framework of fairness.
With iBOF funding, the Flemish universities pool resources from their research funds to support frontier research. UNPACK is coordinated by Karel Arnaut (anthropology, KU Leuven), Ilse Derluyn (social work, UGent), Katrijn Maryns (applied linguistics, UGent) and Ellen Desmet (law, UGent). The project is embedded in a unique collaboration – the first of its kind in Europe – with the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS), the Belgian authority responsible for deciding on applications for international protection.

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Your tasks:

• You will conduct ethnographic research from an anthropological perspective. The two PhD positions, respectively focus more on the front-office and on the back-office dimension of the asylum procedure, eliciting the lived experiences, contributions and viewpoints of the different participants.
• You will develop the specific research focus in dialogue with the supervisors, the co-researchers and the asylum administration.
• As a member of the UNPACK team, you will be intensively working together in a team of 8 researchers and 4 professors. You will share your data and analyses with your co-researchers and supervisors, and engage in extensive collaborative (interdisciplinary) research, next to individual (disciplinary-specific) research.
• You will report on your research both academically and to a broader audience.
• You contribute to collective responsibilities of the research group (such as educational services, team meetings, research proposals, supervision of bachelor and master students, invigilating exams, student recruitment activities, etc.).

General requirements for UNPACK research positions:

• You are a team player, as this project is distinctive by the degree of collaboration required.
• You have a demonstrated affinity with the topic of refugees and/or asylum procedures.
• You have excellent analytical, writing and presentation skills
• You possess high proficiency (C2) in Dutch or French, and considerable fluency (B1) in the other language
• You are fluent in written and spoken academic English.
• You have a diversity-sensitive attitude and good intercultural communication skills, and you feel motivated to work in a multilingual environment.
• You are empathetic, work with precision, and have a critical mindset.
• You are open to giving and receiving constructive feedback, you value continuous learning.
• You are capable of managing deadlines effectively.
• You help foster a pleasant working environment.

Specific requirements for this position:

• You hold an internationally recognised Master’s or an equivalent degree in anthropology

Assets:

• You have a pronouncedaffinity with the anthropological study of the state, bureaucracies, governmentality, and migration regimes.
• You have experience with ethnographic fieldwork within state institutions, organisations and administrations related to asylum or migration
• You have knowledge of languages relevant to refugee communities.
• You have an affinity with and/or experience with working with people in vulnerable situations.
• You have experience with academic research, particularly from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Offer

• You will join an interdisciplinary team within a dynamic and stimulating work environment.
• We offer a full-time salaried position as a doctoral fellow, consisting of an initial period of 12 months, which – after a positive evaluation, will be extended to a total maximum of 48 months.
• You will be employed in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
• Your contract will ideally start on 1/09/2026.
• The individual fellowship amount isdetermined by the Human Resources department based on family status and seniority. A grant that meets the conditions and criteria of the regulations for doctoral fellowships is considered free of personal income tax.
• All KU Leuven University staff members enjoy a number of benefits, financial and otherwise – end-of-year and holiday bonuses, eco vouchers, reimbursement of public transport commuting costs and/or a bicycle allowance, etc.
• See here for more information about salary scales as well as the staff benefits: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/en/phd/phd-information.

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Karel Arnaut, mail: [emailprotected].

KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.