2 Fully-Funded Junior Research Fellowships (Doctoral positions)

You will be employed as a junior research fellow with student status at the University of Tartu Department of Philosophy.

• https://filsem.ut.ee/en/content/department-philosophy

This makes you eligible for mobility grants as a student, but as a junior research fellow you will receive the salary of a junior research fellow. This salary is pegged to the minimum salary for junior research fellows at the University of Tartu, which is itself tied to the average Estonian salary -- and therefore automatically goes up with inflation. In 2025, the minimum salary for a junior researcher is 1950 euros per month. Your contract is performance-based. During the first 4 months of your postion, you will write a research plan for the 4 years of your position, along with milestones to be met each year. Your contract will be continued for each year, provided you reach the planned milestone by the planned time. The curriculum for the PhD at the University of Tartu includes professional development courses and courses that develop transferable skills i.e. that have application beyond a purely academic career. But the vast majority of the curriculum will be dedicated to your research.

Qualifications

• Applicants must have a Master's degree. Although most of our PhD students have a Master's degree in Philosophy, several do not. Those who don't, typically pursue a PhD research project that is transdisciplinary (and are co-supervised accordingly).
• Applicants must have good proficiency in spoken and written English (proof of this will be required from non-native speakers).

Research Topics

You must have significantly overlapping interests with a member of staff in the department who agrees to supervise your reseach. You can see a list of staff members and their reserach interests here:

https://filsem.ut.ee/en/department-philosophy-faculty

However, the following members of staff are particulary interested in taking on doctoral students--if you have interests in these areas, then you are strongly encouraged to get in touch with the relevant staff member(s) to discuss your project.

Alex Davies & Helen Eenmaa: Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Law, Linguistic Context-Sensitivity, Miscommunication.

Meelis Friedenthal: European Early-Modern history of ideas, Early Modern universities and related topics.

Francesco Orsi: Normative Ethics, Applied Ethics (centrally: Sexual Ethics, Ethics of Relationships generally, Childhood and Old Age, Animal Ethics), Metaethics, Moral Psychology, History of Ethics.

Kadri Simm: Political and Moral Philosophy, especially topics in Applied Ethics (from Bioethics to Research Ethics). 

Riin Sirkel: Aristotelian ethics, Aristotelian (incl. Neo-Aristotelian) Metaphysics, Stoic Philosophy.

Uku Tooming: Imagination (cognitive roles of imagination and/or memory, the nature and structure of imagination, philosophical implications of aphantasia), Desires, Aesthetic Normativity (aesthetic reasons and aesthetic value).

Applying

Before applying, you should first identify a member of the Department of Philosophy who could serve as your supervisor. Your research interests should significantly overlap and the prospective supervisor should be willing to supervise your research project. Check the list of academic staff here:

https://filsem.ut.ee/en/department-philosophy-faculty

Contact the relevant staff member as soon as possible to discuss the possibility of doctoral supervision.

Applicants will be asked to submit the following:

• Doctoral thesis project (3–5 pages + references): this should state the research question(s) to be addressed; contextualize the research question(s) in the relevant literature as it currently stands; describe the strategy for answering your research question(s); present a workplan for how this will be accomplished within the timeframe of the position.
• CV
• Writing sample (of roughly the length of a typical paper in philosophy).

Information on how to submit these documents is here:

https://estonia.dreamapply.com/en_GB/courses/course/212-phd-humanities-specialisation-philosophy. The deadline for submissions is 15th May.