Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar: Twentieth-Century German History

The German Historical Institute Washington and the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University are pleased to announce the 21st Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar in German History. Organized by Anna von der Goltz (Georgetown University) and Richard F. Wetzell (GHI Washington) in cooperation with Michael Wildt (Humboldt University), the 2015 seminar will be devoted to the twentieth century and take place at the Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften of the Humboldt University in Berlin on May 27-30, 2015.

The seminar brings together junior scholars from Europe and North America who are nearing completion of their doctoral dissertations. We plan to invite up to eight doctoral students from each side of the Atlantic to discuss their dissertation projects. The organizers welcome proposals on any aspect of twentieth-century German history. Doctoral students working in related disciplines – such as art history, legal history or the history of science – are also encouraged to apply, as are students working on comparative projects or on the history of Austria or German-speaking Switzerland. The discussions will be based on papers (in German or English) submitted six weeks in advance. The seminar will be conducted bilingually, in German and English. The organizers will cover travel and lodging expenses.

We are now accepting applications from doctoral students whose dissertations are at an advanced stage (that is, in the write-up rather than research stage) but who will be granted their degrees after June 2015. Applications should include: (1) brief cover letter, (2) dissertation project description (including title, chapter structure, and current stage of completion; max. 1000 words), (3) one-page outline of the dissertation (provisional table of contents), (4) curriculum vitae, (5) letter of reference from the major dissertation advisor (commenting on progress toward completion and foreign language skills). German-speaking applicants should submit their materials in German; English-speaking applicants in English. The first four documents should be combined in a single PDF file and emailed to Ms. Susanne Fabricius by January 15, 2015. Letters of reference should be emailed (preferably in PDF format) directly by the advisor by the same date. Questions may be directed to Richard Wetzell.