Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL)
Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO)
Courses are held in English (90%) and German (10%). Participants can choose to write the PhD thesis in either language.
For the summer semester (i.e., April to September), applications have to be submitted before 1 January.
For the winter semester (i.e., October to March), applications have to be submitted before 1 July.
The Graduate School Global and Area Studies (GSGAS) at Leipzig University invites young scholars from all over the world to join a fascinating project that is global in scope, and inter- as well as post-disciplinary in its orientation. We are looking for original contributions by excellent PhD candidates from all kinds of area studies, history, and the social sciences as well as international studies, searching for a comprehensive answer to the general question of how societies across the globe react to the dialectics of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation.
The approach the graduate school is based upon has been developed over the past 20 years. It is unique in its emphasis on a combination of global and transnational history on the one hand, and international, area and transregional studies on the other, including the investigation of commodity chains, international organisations, migration systems, and cultural transfers in the study of critical junctures of globalisation. While deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation are permanently ongoing dialectic processes that are determined by the various global flows and the search for ways to tame them and re-establish sovereignty, there are historical moments when conflicts concerning new spatial frameworks of social interaction and integration actually coincide.
We are interested in mechanisms that make the interaction between societies a source for innovation and development, rather than taking societies as containers for granted. However, development doesn't necessarily mean that global inequality will be reduced per se. On the contrary, new spatial frameworks that help in territorialising property, political control, and cultural belonging are introduced in order to increase profits that emerge from growing global exchange. Thus, these frameworks are related to the exercise of power and dominance. Our research is critically engaged with all actors of power relations. Forms of resistance to such a search for hegemony can be observed both on a transnational and a global level, by actors using national institutions and working at the local and regional level.
The graduate school combines efforts from all the area studies represented at Leipzig University (ranging from East Asian Studies to Near East and African Studies, from North to Latin American Studies, but also including Eastern European and Western European Studies). Candidates are invited to develop projects that bring developments in at least two different world regions together. At the same time, a historical approach is related to systematic-analytical categories from the social sciences, evidently including human geography.
What we provide is a well-structured teaching programme and competent individual supervision as well as the opportunity to interact with a group of more than 100 other PhD students and post-docs in the same field of interest. The programme has a modular structure according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), as initiated by the Bologna Process. The workload of the doctoral candidates will be measured in credit points. Altogether, candidates require 180 credit points during the PhD, 60 of which can be acquired from the lectures and seminars held during the programme, and the remaining credit points can be acquired from the progress of the dissertation. The programme comprises four modules, each composed of a weekly seminar, a monthly working group and a regular doctoral colloquium. At special workshops, the following key skills are taught: presentation techniques, empirical methods of social research (at different levels), and academic writing as well as application techniques. The teaching programme is completed by an annual PhD conference and the Leipzig Summer School on Globalisation and Area Studies, which has been held every year since 2002.
In addition to the teaching programme, we conduct annual thesis committees. These consist of the head of the committee, the supervisor, and two further board members. These thesis committees serve as advisory boards in order to monitor the progress of the thesis and identify possible obstacles.
PDF Download255 EUR per semester
Approx. 1,000 EUR per month
Positions for doctoral candidates, Saxony State Postgraduate Scholarship, Sylff Fellowship
If you wish to apply for the PhD programme, you should fulfil the following requirements:
Excellent English and at least basic German skills
For the summer semester (i.e., April to September), applications have to be submitted before 1 January.
For the winter semester (i.e., October to March), applications have to be submitted before 1 July.
Graduate School Global and Area Studies
Emil-Fuchs-Str. 1
04105 Leipzig
Germany
Via e-mail to: phd@uni-leipzig.de
Student residence halls run by the "Studentenwerk Leipzig", shared apartments, accommodation services and estate agencies
https://www.studentenwerk-leipzig.de/en/dormitory-application
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