The project aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Orthodox majority's attitude towards religious minorities in Byzantium, Bulgaria and Serbia, including both other believers and non-Christians (e.g. Bogomils, Paulicians, Catholics, Armenians, Muslims and Jews). The research will cover real social, legal and political relations, as well as the ways in which 'others' were imagined and represented in literature, legislation and religious texts.
The project will determine how these relations developed at behavioural, cognitive and affective levels, and how these levels were interrelated. Due to its objectives, the project will require an interdisciplinary approach. A logical and stylistic analysis of the text will be carried out alongside its contextual interpretation, taking into account the place, time and environment of its creation, its purpose, intended audience and subsequent use. These are appropriate instruments for historical source criticism and the insightful historical and literary reading of texts. When working with the collected data, claims from the fields of social psychology and sociology will be referred to. Properly placing the established facts in social reality is only possible in this way.
The project's novelty lies in its comprehensive approach to the issue, based on analysing various sources (such as chronicles, homilies, hagiographies, and theological, legal, and penitential texts), as well as using tools from social psychology and sociology (such as dehumanisation and the sociology of emotions and knowledge).
The research work planned in the proposal will be carried out in two parts. 

I. A study of the Orthodox majority's attitude towards religious minorities (Jews, Muslims, Armenians, Catholics, Bogomils, Paulicians, etc.) in Balkan and Asia Minor countries (Byzantium and its successor states, Serbia and Bulgaria). Behavioural aspect: description of mutual contacts, conflicts and episodes of peaceful coexistence. A typology of interreligious contacts will be developed at this stage, alongside an analysis of the context and identification of the main factors determining whether contact is peaceful or conflictual. The significance of religion, alongside ethnicity, language and political affiliation, as one of the main determinants of identity will also be described. 

II. Research into the acquisition, processing and transmission of knowledge about dissenters and non-Christians. The cognitive and affective aspects of relations between dissenting groups. This stage involves analysing Orthodox sources (Greek and Old Slavonic) concerning non-Orthodox people, identifying and describing derogatory motifs and images. Our focus will be not only on texts produced in a given era, but also on those that were widely used at the time, such as popular narratives (e.g. Malalas and chronicles from up to the 10th century, derived from the Syncellus or Theophanes tradition), liturgical texts (e.g. homilies and biblical commentaries) and anthologies (e.g. Erotapokriseis by Anastasios of Sinai and Pandects of Nikon of Black Mountain or Melissa). 
A comprehensive annotation of the sources will be carried out, marking themes, biblical and non-biblical images and narrative strategies used to symbolically mark non-Orthodox and foreigners. Qualitative and quantitative analyses will also be performed. This will entail determining the function and rhetorical value of depreciative tropes and topoi, identifying dominant figures and quantitative changes, and interpreting data according to chronological and geographical criteria.

A key contribution of the project will be the exploitation of sources that have not previously been used in this context, including unpublished Church Slavonic and Greek penitential nomocanons and a critical analysis of anti-heretical texts produced in Orthodox countries in comparison with Latin sources and those originating from the dissenters themselves. Comparative analysis will reveal the propaganda and narrative mechanisms used to marginalise 'others', providing a better understanding of the social function of religion in medieval Orthodox societies. The project will provide new
insights into research on collective identity, forms of exclusion and the cultural and religious positioning of minorities in medieval Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor.

PI: dr Jan Mikołaj Wolski

Contributors: dr hab. Piotr Czarnecki, prof. UJ; dr hab. Kirił Marinow, prof. UŁ; dr Anna Maciejewska; dr hab. Małgorzata Skowronek, prof. UŁ; prof. dr hab. Georgi Minczew, dr hab. Zofia Brzozowska, prof. UŁ.

The employment period will be four years. Very good knowledge of ancient or medieval Greek and communicative English is required. Experience in conducting self-directed research in the fields of historical and literary analysis, source editing, or translation of ancient or medieval texts, as well as knowledge of Latin or Old Slavonic, is welcome.

Newly hired employees will work on a monograph describing the social situation of dissenters and non-Christians in the Byzantine Empire. Their tasks will include researching language that derogates the religious others in Byzantine literature. 

They will be required to publish the results of their work in peer-reviewed articles and actively participate in academic life.

The form of employment is a postdoctoral fellowship that is funded under the NCN Opus program. Applicants must have obtained their doctoral degree no earlier than January 1, 2014 and no later than their start date on the project. For individuals who were caring for a minor child or on long-term sick leave at that time, the aforementioned date may be adjusted (scroll down to learn more).

Additional information (updated 01.04.2026)

The successful candidates will not be teaching. Their primary responsibility will be conducting research and publishing their findings. A permanent presence in Łódź is not required. Regular grant team meetings will be held. Some of these meetings will be held remotely, but in-person attendance will occasionally be required. For administrative reasons, travel to and stays in Łódź cannot be funded by the project. The monograph resulting from the project will be a collaborative effort.

Knowledge of Polish is not required.

The deadline for applications is May 22, 2026. Please send your application to jan.wolski@uni.lodz.pl

If you intend to apply, please contact me in advance, especially if you have any questions regarding the content of the announcement. I will be happy to answer your questions. Please send me your CV detailing your professional career, especially your academic experience; include a list of publications, participation in conferences, and other academic and organizational achievements. Attach or link to your most important publications. You can briefly describe your most important research achievements and plans for further academic career development. Briefly explain why you are interested in participating in the project.

Decision date: no later than June 15, 2026. 

Employment may begin immediately after the recruitment process is completed. If you would like to start later than July 2026, please indicate this in your application.

Salary: Ca. PLN 8,600 (equivalent to approx. EUR 2,040) gross 13 times a year, which amounts to approx. PLN 6,450 (approx. EUR 1,530) net after deduction of tax and social security contributions. This is higher than the average salary in Poland (PLN 8,900 gross 12 times a year).

NCN requirements for postdoctoral fellows:

their PhD degree must be conferred in the year of employment in the project or within 12 years before 1 January of the year of employment in the project. This period may be extended by a time of long-term (in excess of 90 days) documented sick leaves or physiotherapy leaves granted on account of being unfit to work. In addition, the period may be extended by the number of months of a childcare leave granted pursuant to the Labour Code and in the case of women, by 18 months for every child born or adopted, whichever manner of accounting for career breaks is preferable;

their PhD degree has been awarded by another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or they have completed a continuous and evidenced post-doctoral fellowship of at least 10 months in another institution than the host institution for the project and in another country than the one in which they have been conferred a PhD degree;

when the remuneration is paid, they will be receiving no other remuneration paid from the funds granted to research projects under NCN calls under the heading of direct costs;

when the remuneration is paid, they will be receiving no remuneration from another employer pursuant to an employment contract, including an employer with registered office outside of Poland;

when the remuneration is paid, they will be receiving no pension under the social security scheme.

Requirements under Polish law: 

no valid conviction for an intentional crime or fiscal offense, as well as no disciplinary penalties depriving the right to practice the profession.

Documents to be filled by successful candidates are listed under the link below, scroll to the section “files to download”:

www.uni.lodz.pl/en/career

They reflect all of the employer's requirements, the most important of which concern declaring the University of Lodz as the primary place of employment and affiliating academic publications produced during employment. Consult the documents in advance if you do not like surprises!