PhD Scholarship: Legal Studies & Housing / Community Land Trusts

Salah Oueslati and Marc Goetzmann (University of Tours) are recruiting a PhD student to join the TRUST_ISSUES project in Tours by September 2024, for a duration of 3 years. Applications can be sent at the link below, by May 15.

https://collegedoctoral-cvl.fr/as/ed/voirproposition.pl?matricule_prop=55879&site=CDCVL

The candidate will join, for a duration of 3 years, the team of the TRUST_ISSUES project (2024-2027), funded by the French National Research Agency and led by Marc Goetzmann, within the lab Interactions Culturelles et Discursives (ICD) at the University of Tours.

As a whole, the project team will study the creation of the Organismes de Foncier Solidaire (OFS) modeled on American Community Land Trusts (CLT) as a response to the housing crisis. The first part of the project will analyze the OFS by reflexively and critically applying the notion of legal and institutional “transfer.” The second part of the project will draw on this example to contribute, in the longer term, to developing a philosophy of housing and the city enriched by analyses from the humanities and social sciences.

The PhD project focuses specifically on three objectives:

1. Analyze and compare the role of social movements and various interest groups in the institutional shape taken by Community Land Trusts in different institutional environments where they have been created and imported.
2. Contribute to the development of normative evaluation criteria for the ‘transfer’ represented by the creation of OFS within the broader framework of a philosophy of housing at the intersection of philosophy, legal theory, and social philosophy.
3. Study the history of ‘Georgist’ ideals (i.e., those originating from Henry George’s thought) in the struggle against the capture of rents related to land value, their role in different political and social movements, and their role in the evolution and creation of institutions such as CLT and OFS.

Several types of profiles will be prioritized, and this is not an exclusive list:
• master’s degree in law or political science, with a focus or marked interest in comparative law, comparative institutional studies, and legal history.
• master’s degree in English studies with a focus or marked interest in political, social, legal, and economic issues and the history of ideas.
• master’s degree in philosophy, with a focus or marked interest in legal, political, and social philosophy.

An excellent command of the English language is expected from all candidates due to the institutional environment of the doctorate and the international nature of the TRUST_ISSUES project. This proficiency will be evaluated during the final interviews, but anything that can provide proof of this at the first stage of applications (e.g., TOEFL) will be highly appreciated. An excellent command of French will also be necessary.

If you have any doubts about your application, do not hesitate to reach out at marc.goetzmann

Source: Marc GOETZMANN <marc.goetzmann>