Postdoctoral Researcher in Law, Political Science or Sociology

Organisation/Company Université de Strasbourg Department Direction des ressources humaines Research Field Ethics in social sciences » Other Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Postdoc Positions Application Deadline 10 Oct 2026
- 23:59 (Europe/Paris) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 10 Sep 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Context

The ReligiS project (Religions and Societies Facing Contemporary Challenges) is a large-scale, structuring research initiative in the Social Sciences and Humanities, funded by the French State under the France 2030 investment program. The project runs for six years (April 2025 – March 2031) with a total budget of €9 million and is coordinated by Université de Strasbourg. ReligiS relies on a consortium of twelve French academic partners, including CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, École pratique des Hautes Études, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, École normale supérieure de Lyon, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales, Sciences Po Paris, Université de Lorraine, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, École française d’Athènes, and Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg, as well as numerous institutional and societal stakeholders. The project focuses on the long-term transformation of interactions between religions and societies in the contemporary world. The project pursues two main objectives. First, within the French academic context, it aims to develop a new, open, interdisciplinary and international scientific framework for rethinking the processes shaping relations between religions and societies. Second, it seeks to foster large-scale institutional change in the mechanisms for transferring academic knowledge on religions to policymakers and civil society. This dual ambition will be supported by the creation of the International College for the Study of Religions and Society (CI-ReligiS), hosted by the Université de Strasbourg and serving as a shared platform for all partner research centers engaged in the study of religion. The project also receives support from the Central Office for Religious Affairs, which helps fund the postdoctoral fellowship. This contribution is part of an effort to promote interdisciplinary research on the relationship between religions and societies and to support the dissemination of research findings to relevant stakeholders.

Research Project

Media Coverage of Religion and Secularism

This research project examines the evolution of media portrayals of religion in France, with a particular focus on media representations of Islam and the coverage of issues related to secularism. It aims to analyze how this coverage has evolved since the late 1980s, examining in particular how the media constructs religious issues, journalistic stance, the influence of editorial policies, and the role of the legal framework in the coverage of these issues. The project adopts a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, combining an analysis of print and broadcast media with a survey of journalists and an analysis of professional and institutional networks. It is structured around four main areas: the evolution of media coverage of religious issues and secularism in the national press; journalists’ approach to religion; audiovisual coverage of these issues; and an analysis of the relationships between journalists, media outlets, and religious institutions. The postdoctoral fellowship is part of this research program and contributes to the collection, processing, and analysis of data.

Main activities

Research activities:

• Contributing to the compilation, processing, and analysis of a press corpus on secularism and religious issues, using the Europresse database;
• Participating in the comparative analysis of media coverage of secularism in Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Libération, particularly for the selected periods around 1989, 2004, and 2021;
• Contribute to the preparation, conduct, and analysis of semi-structured interviews with journalists from various media sectors representing diverse editorial perspectives;
• Participate in the analysis of how religious issues and secularism are covered in audiovisual media on the selected news channels, particularly through the collection and analysis of data derived from audiovisual content;
• Contribute to the collection and analysis of data related to networks of journalists, media outlets, and religious institutions, particularly using the Gephi mapping tool;&l