Herzog Ernst Fellowships

The programme aims at promoting academic research through the use of the resources of the Gotha Research Libraryand of the associated historic collection of the Justus Perthes Gotha Publishing House. Its academic orientation intends to carry on the universal spirit of the library itself and its diverse resources. In this sense, the programme has an open thematic and disciplinary character. The holdings of the Thuringian State Archive of Gotha, which is located in the Perthes-Forum, as well as collections held by the museums of the Schloss Friedenstein Foundation can be included in the research project, too. Still, the following focal points are emphasized and applications should reflect the clear-cut fields of the Research Library:

• The ducal court in Gotha as an example for European court culture
• History of science and cultures of knowledge as global history, history of transfer, and entangled history, 16th to 20th century
• History of European literature, particularly 16th to early 19th century
• History of publishing and book trade
• Early Modern and 19th-century study of Classical religions, history of Protestantism, and Islam
• Philosophy and history of the German and European Enlightenment
• Heterodoxy, dissidence, and subversion
• History of the humanities, e.g. numismatics, oriental studies, philology
• History of natural science, e.g. alchemy, astronomy, physics and botany
• History of spatially oriented disciplines, 16th to 20th century, e.g. ethnology, geology, meteorology, geography and statistics
• History of cartography and colonial history (especially from an African, Asian or Latin American perspective), cartography and politics (“critical geopolitics”, history of slavery, history of the oceans)
• History of ego-documents in a global context (e.g. correspondences)
• History of objects and the historical study of material culture
• Collection and museum studies

For academic engagement with the resources held in Gotha, the following fellowships are awarded:

1. Herzog Ernst Fellowships for Ph.D. students (€ 1,300 per month, plus a family allowance of € 100 per month if applicable) for periods of up to nine months;
2. Herzog Ernst Fellowships for Postdocs (€ 1,800 per month, plus a family allowance of € 100 per month if applicable) for periods of up to six months;

In 2024, the University of Erfurt was once again awarded the berufundfamilie / family-friendly university audit certificate and was thus distinguished as being particularly family-friendly. When accompanied by young children, we will happily assist in finding appropriate child care.

Depending on their focus, the fellows are connected to the Gotha Research Centre or to the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection. They join the academic community on the Gotha Research Campus, and present their projects to the public. In addition, they submit a short report on the findings gained from the Gotha collections after completing their studies and write a blog post about it. For the duration of the fellowship we expect you to reside in Gotha. Earliest starting date for a fellowship is 1 February 2023.

The programme is supported by the Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung

Information about how to apply