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Postdoctoral Opportunities on democratic resilience, resisting autocratization, and culture wars and new cleavages at CenMAS, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Apply with us for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 or the CHARLESTON Programme

The Center for Multidisciplinary Area Studies (CenMAS) at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University invites expressions of interest from outstanding postdoctoral researchers interested in developing an ambitious project on democratic resilience or resisting autocratization in one or more of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. We are open to projects that employ quantitative, qualitative, computational or mixed methods and those that are comparative in nature by using within-case, within-regional, cross-regional or inter-regional comparisons. Projects that bridge insights from various disciplines are also very welcome. We also encourage projects on culture wars and new cleavages that explore how identity-based conflicts reshape political representation, mobilization, and patterns of democratic resilience or autocratization across world regions.

Theme 1: Democratic Resilience

Democracy is under pressure across the globe. The challenges facing democracy come from different directions and at different speeds. From the rise of authoritarian populists to increasing polarization and from the erosion of citizens’ democratic norms to the declining appeal of the liberal model of democracy, there is an increasing doubt whether democracies can remain resilient. Democratic resilience has preventive and curative dimensions. Democratic resilience can be preventive by mitigating the rise of democratic challenges in the first place (e.g., election of an authoritarian populist) or it can be curative by successfully pacifying those challenges once they happen before democratic breakdown (e.g., depolarization of society). However, much less is known about the origins, dynamics and extent of democratic resilience.

Questions that could be examined by the project include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Does the emergence of fewer challenges (and crises) indicate, by default, more democratic resilience, or does it mean that those systems have not yet been tested?
• How does resisting the challenges facing democracy shape the political system’s capacity to withstand future challenges and crises?
• Are democracies that bounce back to democracy (after breakdown) more or less resilient to future challenges
• How to measure the degree of democratic resilience for mixed-record political systems that successfully contain some challenges but not others?
• Is it possible to forecast future democratic resilience by looking at or learning from the past?

Theme 2: Resisting Autocratization

Autocratization is on the rise across the globe. There is a growing line of research that examines how domestic actors (e.g., political parties, civil society, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, among others) and international actors (e.g., regional organizations and international NGOs) respond to the global wave of autocratization that is currently underway. However, there are a number of notable gaps that hinder our understanding of the origins and effects of the multiple strategies used to resist autocratization.

Questions that could be examined by the project include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How do the various actors frame (or justify) their efforts in resisting autocratization, and how does such framing affect their success or failure?
• Do concurrent resistance strategies by multiple actors reinforce or cancel each other’s effects?
• What are the determinants of resistance strategies against autocratization and their particular timing (i.e., early vs. late after autocratization onset)?
• How can we measure the success of resistance strategies beyond stopping or slowing down autocratization?
• What are the negative side effects of the strategies employed to resist autocratization?

Theme 3: Culture Wars and New Cleavages

Politics—whether in fully liberal democratic settings or in other types of regimes—is undergoing a profound change of previously stable cleavages and global realingment. This transformation includes the rebranding of established political actors, emergence of a new set of political representatives, as well as the emergence of new forms of representation and patterns of political mobilization. Too often subsumed under overstretched concepts of populism or personalization, these dynamics—linking societal cleavages and divisive issues on the one hand with new styles and types of representation on the other—should instead be understood as part of a deeper and more enduring transformation. In line with the framework of Lipset and Rokkan, this shift reflects a restructuring of cleavages and their systems of representation, rather than merely the product of manipulative mobilization by ambitious populists or power-hungry autocrats. Since most divisive issues are framed in terms of identity or cultural politics, a widely used term for them is “culture wars.” These have emerged in highly diverse settings such as the United States, India, South Korea, and Western Europe. Approaching them through Lipset and Rokkan’s framework, with its emphasis on enduring societal cleavages, offers a perspective that goes beyond analyses focused on populism or democratic backsliding. From this viewpoint, culture wars appear to interact with—and often reactivate—earlier regional, religious, and class-based divisions.

Questions that could be examined by the project include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How can culture wars be theoretically and empirically defined and conceptualized as a new cleavage within a Rokkanian framework?
• What sets of issues constitute the repertoire of culture wars within specific countries, regions, and across them?
• How do culture wars interact at the global level? To what extent are they driven by transnational or globalized patterns?
• What is the relationship between populism and culture wars? Are culture wars primarily the product of historically rooted societal divisions, or are they strategically mobilized by political actors within contemporary media environments?

Candidates may express interest in pursuing a postdoctoral project at CenMAS / Faculty of Arts, Charles University through one of two funding routes:

1. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships

Researchers interested in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 are invited to contact us with a project idea and explore the possibility of preparing an application with CenMAS as host.

2. CHARLESTON Programme

Researchers may also apply for CHARLESTON, Charles University’s postdoctoral programme co-funded by the European Commission under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND / Horizon Europe. The current second call supports a 24-month fellowship at Charles University combined with a 3 to 6-month secondment in a non-academic institution.

Eligibility

For both schemes:

compliance with the mobility rule: applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity in the Czech Republic for more than 12 months in the 36 months preceding the call deadline
maximum of 8 years from the doctoral degree, subject to the relevant programme exceptions.

For Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship 2026:

• PhD degree awarded by the call deadline

For CHARLESTON:

• not employed by Charles University on the call closing date,
• doctoral thesis successfully defended by the call closing date; the PhD degree does not need to have been formally awarded yet.

Why CenMAS?

CenMAS offers a unique international environment for researchers interested in the consequences and effects of crises in world regions. It brings together expertise on Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and supports innovative research on major political, social, and economic challenges through comparative and multidisciplinary approaches.

Potential supervisors:

• Dr. Mahmoud Farag – Research Group Leader at the Center for Multidisciplinary Area Studies (CenMAS)
• Dr. Radek Buben – Director of the Center for Multidisciplinary Area Studies
• Assoc. Prof. Karel Kouba – Vice Rector, Principal investigator of ERA-AREAS Project

Who are we looking for

We welcome expressions of interest from excellent early-career researchers who meet the following criteria:

• a strong research experience and publication record that is relevant to their academic career
• excellent knowledge of empirical quantitative, qualitative, computational or mixed research methods
• regional specialization in one of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East
• interest in internationally ambitious, high-impact research
• openness for multidisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences

Benefits – please find detailed information here

How to express interest

In view of the upcoming CHARLESTON deadline, we strongly encourage prospective applicants to express their interest as early as possible. Early contact is particularly important for candidates considering the CHARLESTON route, as the time available for consultation and proposal development is limited.

Please send:

• your CV
• a cover letter outlining your interest in the fellowship and your research experience (max. 2 pages)
• a brief project proposal that clearly outlines the research question, proposed research design and potential contribution (max. 3 pages)
• a single-authored work sample that best represents your research (e.g., published article, working paper, dissertation chapter, etc.)
• and an indication of whether you are interested in Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship 2026, CHARLESTON, or both

Deadline: 10th May 2026

Please submit the above documents preferably as a single PDF to this email: marketa.morska@ff.cuni.cz

What happens after you express interest

This call for expressions of interest is intended to identify promising candidates whose profile and project idea are a strong fit with CenMAS and with the relevant funding scheme. It does not constitute direct funding or an offer of employment.

Selected candidates will be invited to further develop their project in consultation with our team before the program deadlines: 1 June 2026 at 2 PM (Prague time) for CHARLESTON and 9 September 2026 at 17:00 CEST for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship.

We will support successful candidates in shaping a competitive proposal and in preparing the application for the relevant funding scheme. However, the formal application must be submitted by the candidate, and funding can only be awarded if the proposal is successful in the official evaluation process of the respective program.

Questions

For substantive, content-related questions, please contact Dr. Mahmoud Farag, CenMAS Research Group Leader, at: mahmoud.farag@ff.cuni.cz.

For administrative questions, please contact Marketa Morska, Grant Consultant, at marketa.morska@ff.cuni.cz.

Personal data processing

In connection with the submission of an expression of interest, the Faculty of Arts, Charles University processes applicants’ personal data in accordance with the applicable legal regulations and the internal regulations of Charles University. Information on the processing of personal data is available here: Personal Data Protection – Charles University.