MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2023 at Masaryk University, Brno
Masaryk University (MUNI), a leading Czech university in H2020 and HEU programs welcomes researchers who would like to apply for the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships in the field of Humanities. MSCA PF allows researchers to implement their own research projects whilst developing their transferable skills and competencies. This leads to improving employment opportunities and further career progress. The Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, holds the HR Award and offers a stimulating modern scientific environment including courses in research and transferable skills. This will enable you to develop a scientific career in our modern research facilities.
Funding
MSCA-PF not only covers postdoctoral salary but also includes family and mobility allowance, as well as contributing to research, training, and networking for the whole project duration, usually two years. In the Czech Republic, you have a triple chance for funding with only one application as shown below:
- MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship
- ERA Fellowship for widening countries
- Structural Funds financing MSCA OP J.A.C. – achieved by 80% of applicants (scoring 70% or higher in MSCA PF)
Our supervisors
Experienced supervisors from the Faculty of Arts are interested in working with talented researchers.
Martin Lang
Dr. Lang’s work lies at the intersection between the humanities and the cognitive and behavioral sciences, combining laboratory experiments with field studies to investigate how the human mind creates cultural niches and functions in them. He pursues a combination of state-of-the-art theories on the human mind with cutting-edge wearable technology to answer long-standing questions in the study of human culture. For example, Dr. Lang led a team systematically investigating a hypothesis that religious ritual helps alleviate anxiety. He also led several studies investigating the effects of dance and music on coordination, cooperation, and social bonding. Dr. Lang’s latest theoretical work focused on the evolution of ritual behavior as a platform for communicating a commitment to joint action using costly signals. Adding experimental evidence to this theoretical model, he led a registered report on the effectiveness of costly signaling, showing that such signals help reliably assort cooperators and that this function intensifies with pressures on cooperation such as intergroup conflict. Dr. Lang is currently a PI on a project that investigates cognitive computations facilitating such cooperative communication.
Dr. Lang is looking for postdocs with an interest in human cooperation and, specifically, the role religious beliefs and behaviors play in facilitating cooperation. He is open to tackling this question from various disciplinary angles, including behavioral sciences, cognitive science and neuroscience, economics, and evolutionary sciences. He offers access to facilities for experimental research, including portable devices such as fNIRS or eye-tracking at HUME Lab and interdisciplinary teamwork at LEVYNA.
Publications
- Lang, M., Bahna, V., Shaver, J. H., Reddish, P., & Xygalatas, D. (2017). Sync to link: Endorphin-mediated synchrony effects on cooperation. Biological Psychology, 127, 191–197. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684302211016961
- Lang, M., Chvaja, R., Purzycki, B. G., Václavík, D., & Staněk, R. (2022). Advertising cooperative phenotype through costly signals facilitates collective action. Royal Society Open Science, 9, 202202. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.202202
- Lang, M., Krátký, J., Shaver, J. H., Jerotijević, D., & Xygalatas, D. (2015). Effects of anxiety on spontaneous ritualized behavior. Current Biology, 25(14), 1892–1897. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215006521?via%3Dihub
- Lang, M., Krátký, J., & Xygalatas, D. (2022). Effects of predictable behavioral patterns on anxiety dynamics. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 19240. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23885-4
- Lang, M., & Kundt, R. (2023). The evolution of human ritual behavior as a cooperative signaling platform. Religion, Brain & Behavior, e-print before press. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2197977
- Lang, M., Purzycki, B. G., Apicella, C. L., Atkinson, Q. D., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Klocová, E. K., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R. A., Moya, C., Placek, C. D., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J. L., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A., & Henrich, J. (2019). Moralizing gods, impartiality, and religious parochialism across 15 societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1898), 1–10. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0202
- Lang, M., Xygalatas, D., Kavanagh, C. M., Boccardi, N., Halberstadt, J., Jackson, C., Martínez, M., Reddish, P., Tong, E. M. W., Vázquez, A., Whitehouse, H., Yamamoto, M. E., Yuki, M., & Gomez, A. (2022). Outgroup threat and the emergence of cohesive groups: A cross-cultural examination. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 25(7), 1739–1759. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684302211016961
Tomáš Glomb
Tomáš Glomb is the director of the Centre for the Digital Research of Religion at the Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He obtained his Ph.D. in the Study of Religions at MUNI in 2018. In 2020-2022, he worked as a postdoctoral Marie-Sklodowska Fellow at the University of Bergen in Norway on the project “Favorable Conditions of the Spread of the Cult of Asclepius across the Transportation Network of the Roman Mediterranean: A Quantitative Evaluation”. Dr. Glomb focuses on analyzing the factors involved in the spatio-temporal transmission of ancient religions across the Mediterranean by formal methods such as network and spatial analysis. His main interest in this research domain is the dynamics of the spread of Egyptian cults under the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the cultural transmission of Roman worship.
Dr. Glomb invites postdocs interested in quantitative approaches to religious phenomena of the past on varying scales of analysis (site, regional, or macro level). Together with other experts from the Centre for the Digital Research of Religion, he is able to provide supervision and guidance to the postdoc in the context of Digital Humanities methods, especially GIS analytical tools, quantitative textual analysis, or network analysis.
Publications
- Glomb, Tomáš. 2022. Connecting the Isiac Cults: Formal Modeling in the Hellenistic Mediterranean. London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350210721
- Glomb, Tomáš. 2021. “The Spread of the Cult of Asclepius in the Context of the Roman Army Benefited from the Presence of Physicians: A Spatial Proximity Analysis.” PLOS ONE 16 (8): e0256356. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256356
- Glomb, Tomáš, Vojtěch Kaše, and Petra Heřmánková. 2022. “Popularity of the Cult of Asclepius in the Times of the Antonine Plague: Temporal Modeling of Epigraphic Evidence.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 43 (June): 103466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103466
Ivan Foletti
Ivan Foletti is a Full Professor of Art History with international scholarly background (PhD title from the University of Lausanne, numerous fellowships and collaborations across Europe and in the US) and the head of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, an interdisciplinary research group with very dynamic development over the past 10 years. His broad research interests cover the history and historiography of art history and the visual and material cultures spreading across Central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the South Caucasus. Using art historical methods as well as state-of-the-art and experimental technologies, his research team challenges established narratives in the field, refocusing the experience of pre-modern art on the body in interaction with man-made, natural, and performative environments. The historiographical axis of his research focuses especially on deconstructing imperialistic, nationalistic, and colonial perspectives to reveal the manipulative uses of the medieval past in modern and contemporary societies. Professor Foletti is the editor-in-chief of the internationally renowned journal Convivium, indexed in WoS and Scopus, and director of several book series. He was awarded with numerous national and international projects, currently coordinating a H2020 MSCA-RISE project (www.conques.eu) and supervising a MSCA-IF project.
Professor Foletti invites post-doc fellows whose research tackles any aspects of the reception of pre-modern cultures and their role in shaping the present. MSCA candidates may benefit from his rich experience with supervision and coordination of interdisciplinary research, a broad network of international cooperations, and his extensive knowledge of the current trends in the field.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants should be ambitious postdoctoral researchers who meet the following criteria:
- to have defended their Ph.D. thesis at the call deadline at the latest
- max 8 years from the date of award of their first doctoral degree
- must not have resided in the Czech Republic for more than 12 months during the last 3 years at the time of the deadline (13th September 2023)
Support to applicants
The Office for Research and Development at the Faculty of Arts, together with the central Grant office, offers support to suitable applicants. This includes the proposal preparation process in the form of personal consultations and proposal reviews.
If you are interested in applying, with Masaryk University as the host institution, please send your CV with your experience, chosen topic, and a project abstract.