Doctoral research grants and postdoctoral contracts

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La mission du musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac est d’une part, de mener un travail de recherche sur et autour des collections qu’il abrite, d’autre part de développer la recherche sur les enjeux contemporains dans les domaines qu’il couvre. Dans cet esprit, trois axes vont structurer les recherches menées au Département de la recherche et de l’enseignement.
Les projets de recherche portés par le musée, nombreux et variés, s’inscrivent dans les champs de l’anthropologie, de l’histoire et de l’histoire des arts, sans exclure d’autres thématiques :

  • Diversité des esthétiques et des formes de créativité
  • Musées, patrimoines, cultures et identités
  • Héritages coloniaux : réappropriations, revendications, partages.

La présentation des axes prioritaires de recherche est téléchargeable ici.

Doctoral grants and post-doctoral contracts 2025-2026

Every year, the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac offers doctoral grants and post-doctoral contracts to help develop original and innovative research projects.

The disciplines concerned are: anthropology, archaeology, ethnomusicology, history, art history and sociology. Key areas of research include the arts, technology, non-European cultures and tangible and intangible heritage, and museums and their collections.

The Research and Teaching Department's research priorities are as follows and downloaded here:

  • Diversity of aesthetics and forms of creativity
  • Museums, heritage, cultures and identities
  • Colonial heritage: reappropriation, claims, sharing.

Applicants must specify how their project will fit into the environment of the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (collections, archives, media library, scientific community).

Applicants must be academically proficient, both orally and in writing, in French and English. There is no nationality requirement.

Doctoral grants

Four doctoral scholarships are intended to support doctoral students enrolled in at least their third year for the 2025-2026 academic year, at a French or foreign university. These grants are intended to help students write their final thesis and are not intended to fund fieldwork or archival research. Particular consideration will be given to projects that fall within one of the Research and Teaching Department's priority research areas.

Doctoral grants are awarded for a non-renewable period of 12 months, from 1 September to 31 August. In 2025, they will amount to 1400 euros net per month. They are awarded after assessment of the applications by the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Selection Committee.

Post-doctoral contracts

This year, the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac is offering three post-doctoral contracts to young PhDs to develop their work. It is recommended that the research projects fall within one of the Research and Teaching Department's priority research areas. Successful applicants are expected to participate in the museum's activities, and to make an effective contribution to the collective work around the research priorities.

Successful candidates will be eligible for a funded field trip of up to 30 days (for research outside mainland France).

These postdoctoral contracts are awarded for a non-renewable period of 24 months, from 1 September to 31 August; in 2025 they will be worth €2,547 gross per month (€30,564 per annum) in the form of a full-time fixed-term contract.

They will be awarded after assessment of the applications and interviews with the candidates selected by the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac selection committee.

Candidates may apply for this contract up to three years after their thesis has been defended (in accordance with article L412-4 of the Research Code establishing a new system for post-doctoral contracts), i.e. for theses defended after 1 September 2022. The thesis must be defended before the post is taken up.

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Successful candidates (doctoral and post-doctoral students) will be hosted by the Research and Teaching Department. Their presence on the museum site is required (there are no part-time arrangements).

During the course of the year, the doctoral and post-doctoral students selected will present the progress of their work at the Research and Teaching Department's internal seminar, in the form of a thesis chapter for doctoral students and an article intended for publication for post-doctoral students. Participation in this seminar is compulsory.

How to apply

Applications for doctoral grants and postdoctoral contracts must be made using a form that can be downloaded from our website (musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac - Bourses de recherches doctorales et postdoctorales).

To be registered, the complete application must be sent electronically before midnight on Sunday April 6 2025 to bourses@quaibranly.fr.

Applicants are asked to combine the various documents in the application file into a single file in PDF format, no larger than 5MB. The file should be named as follows: NOM_candidatureDOC_2025.pdf or NOM_candidaturePOST-DOC_2025.pdf

The list of successful candidates will be published on the museum's website in April 2025.

Candidates for postdoctoral contracts selected for the audition will be contacted in early June 2025 for an audition during the month of June.
This audition will take place at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac or, exceptionally, by videoconference for candidates unable to attend.

2025 - 2026

Doctoral grant

  • Abdelhakim BELHACEL
  • La domination omanaise en Afrique de l’Est. Réseaux, pouvoirs, hybridations (1804-1884).
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  • Mohamed BELHADJ
  • Anthropologie.
  • Hospitalité et cosmopolitisme : une ethnographie du phénomène ‘Muslim Friendly’ dans le Japon contemporain.
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  • Marie SEBILLOTTE
  • Histoire.
  • Abolitionnismes et esclavages au Kongo des années 1860 aux années 1920. Une histoire transimpériale et sociale de l’émancipation.
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  • Hélène TRÉBUCHET
  • Anthropologie.
  • Tisser le vivant. Le textile en ramie et le renouveau des savoirs et des pouvoirs féminins chez les Pangcah (Taiwan).
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Postdoctoral grant

  • Cécile DE CONINCK
  • Anthropologie visuelle.
  • Esthétique et politique du film ethnographique en Afrique subsaharienne dans le mouvement des indépendances (1955-1972).
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  • Mathieu PICAS
  • Anthropologie, Histoire.
  • Le patrimoine avant d’être patrimoine : une étude dialogique des passés archéologiques en terres Máasewáal, Mexique (1901-1939).
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  • N’tcha Gérard TIDOUO KOUAGOU
  • Archéologie.
  • Savoirs techniques et restitution historique. Les forgerons du Danxomè/Danhomè et leurs héritages (XVIe-XIXe siècles, sud du Bénin).
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