University of Salzburg - Erwin Kräutler Award

Erwin Kräutler Award

You will receive the 3,000 EUR as a one-off prize for an outstanding academic work on liberation theology and related issues. The award-winning work may also be published in the University of Salzburg’s series on intercultural theology. The prize is awarded by the Centre for Intercultural Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Salzburg and is presented every two years. It is named after Erwin Kräutler, a bishop who served in the Brazilian Amazon region from 1981 to 2015.

Who can apply

• What you submit: A completed doctoral thesis (PhD) or habilitation, a second academic qualification that goes beyond the PhD.
• Topic: Your work contributes to the debates on liberation theology. Relevant topics include political and ecological theology, postcolonial and decolonial thought, feminism and gender, migration, and critical development studies.
• Field of study: Primarily theology, but also related disciplines such as philosophy, social sciences, anthropology or development studies, provided the work is in line with the focus of the prize.
• When finished: You completed your dissertation between 2022 and 2025.
• Language: You have written the work in German, English, French, Spanish or Portuguese.
• Where you studied: Any university is acceptable. You do not necessarily have to have studied in Salzburg or in Austria.
• Nationality: Any nationality can apply.

How to apply

Please submit your work electronically to the centre’s coordinator at the University of Salzburg. The closing date for entries is 15 April. A five-member jury will select the winner, and the prize will be awarded in October at a ceremony in Salzburg.

How realistic are your chances?

This is a single prize for a completed doctoral thesis on a narrowly defined topic. You will be competing against a small group of specialist researchers, not against a vast number of students. If your doctoral or postdoctoral thesis is genuinely situated within the field of liberation theology and fits the themes of the prize, you have a real chance of winning. A clear, strong alignment with the prize’s focus is far more important than where you studied.