Academy in Exile - Institute of Turkish Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen 2018, Germany

Academy in Exile Fellowships

Six Fellowships for Scholars from Turkey for 24 months in Berlin or Essen to join the Academy in Exile. Application deadline: November 15, 2017

The Institute of Turkish Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien and the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) invite scholars from or in Turkey to join the

ACADEMY IN EXILE

with funding support from the Volkswagen Foundation. Eligible are scholars from all fields in the humanities, law, economics and social sciences who are at risk or in exile because of their academic work and/or civic engagement with human rights and the pursuit of academic freedom. The fellowships provide scholars with the opportunity to reestablish their scholarship in Germany and work on a research project of their own choosing in a multidisciplinary environment. Fellows will contribute to the research agenda and intellectual profile of the Academy in Exile generally.

The Academy in Exile provides a forum for a continued engagement with questions of religious and ethnic diversity, gender and sexuality, and civic engagement for peace, democracy, citizenship and human rights. With this first funding round for scholars from Turkey, this initiative intends to stimulate Turkish Studies and promote wider debate about authoritarian movements and threats to academic freedom.

Applicants should have a completed PhD and can be at any subsequent career stage. The selection of fellows will be based on both academic merit and risk assessment. Eligible are scholars at risk who are residing in Turkey or have been in exile for no more than three years.

With this first call for applications, the Academy in Exile will offer six two-year fellowships.  Fellows of the Academy in Exile will be associated with one of two main host institutions—three fellows will be assigned to the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin and three to the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen. Fellows are expected to reside in Berlin or Essen respectively, to participate in the academic life of their host institutions, and to help shape the activities and program of the Academy in Exile. The working language of the Academy in Exile is English.

The two-year fellowships will begin between January 15 and March 15, 2018. Organizational support regarding visas, insurance, and housing will be provided. The monthly stipend amounts to 2,500 EUR plus a family allowance of 250 EUR.

Application Procedure

The application comprises:

— a letter of motivation (in English) that explains the motivation for applying to the Academy in Exile and the circumstances of the risk and/or exile status. Please include a short rationale if you have a preference for residing at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen or the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin. No proof or letter of a third party is requested. However, if you are registered with the Scholars at Risk Network or with the Scholar Rescue Fund or any other comparable agency please indicate so in your letter.

— a curriculum vitae with a list of publications,

— a project description (maximum five pages in English),

— a sample of your scholarly work (maximum 20 pages from a journal article, book chapter, dissertation in Turkish, German, English, French or any of the other languages written in Turkey).

The application may be submitted in English, which is the working language of the hosting institutions.

If you are interested in applying, please send a short note to academy-in-exile@trafo-berlin.de. We will then contact you via an encrypted program. All applications will be dealt with in strict confidentiality.

Please submit your application as separated Word documents or PDF files by November 15, 2017. Applicants will be notified about the outcome in mid-December, 2017.

Institutional Framework

The Academy in Exile is a joint project of the Universität Duisburg-Essen (UDE), the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, and the Forum Transregionale Studien (Forum), Berlin.

The Academy in Exile is steered by a council of five members based at the institutions listed above. The director of the Academy in Exile is Kader Konuk (UDE). The members of the independent collegium are scholars exiled from Turkish universities as well as experts on Turkey based at universities in Germany and the US.  The collegium will evaluate the applications and suggest initiatives for promoting the academic agenda of the Academy in Exile.

The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien is a research organization that promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. The Forum provides scope for collaboration among researchers with different regional and disciplinary perspectives and appoints researchers from all over the world as Fellows. In cooperation with universities and research institutions in Berlin and outside, it carries out research projects that examine other regions of the world and their relationship to Germany and Europe systematically and with new questions. It supports four research programs and initiatives: Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices, Zukunftsphilologie: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship, Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network Eastern Europe, and Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME).

The Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities) in Essen (KWI) belongs to the three universities of Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg-Essen, which form the University Alliance Ruhr (UAR). The KWI promotes excellent interdisciplinary research in the humanities, social and cultural sciences and maintains close cooperation with regional, national and international partners. It conducts basic research on the principles of modern culture and questions relevant to contemporary societies. At present the Institute focuses on the following thematic areas: cultures of Europe in historical perspective (Europe), cultural diversity within global citizenship (Intercultural Studies), cultural aspects of climate change (Climate and Culture), communicative practices used by members of different cultures (Culture of Communication) and civic participation (Culture of Participation), as well as the media.

The Institute for Turkish Studies (Turkistik) at the University of Duisburg-Essen is the largest institute of its kind outside of Turkey. While its curriculum reflects the multilingualism and religious diversity of Turkey, the institute promotes the interdisciplinary study of Turkey’s history, languages, cultures, and literatures.

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