CV of failures

Kai Brodersen

CV of Failures

(for a regular CV go to CV short or CV long)

Unsuccessful Applications (did not get beyond the shortlist)

  • Erlangen (C 3; 1996)
  • Greifswald (C 3; 1996)
  • St. Andrews/Scotland (chair; 1997)
  • Christchurch/NZ (chair; 1998)
  • Bamberg (C 4; 2001)

Chair Offered, but not Accepted (because of incompatible pension arrangements)

  • Newcastle upon Tyne (chair; 1999)

Unconfirmed Election to become Rector (council elected, senate did not confirm)

  • Tübingen (2005)

Returned Fellowships

  • Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC (Trustees for Harvard University), Junior Fellow for 1996/97 - returned for the Mannheim Chair
  • Heisenberg-Stipendium, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, from 1996 - returned for the Mannheim Chair
  • Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, Senior Fellow 2008/09 - returned for the Erfurt presidency (but see regular CV for 2019/20)
  • British School at Athens, Fellowship 2009 - returned for the Erfurt presidency
  • Polonsky Fellowship, University of Oxford 2018 - returned because of ill health (see below)

Rejected Funding Applications

  • Akademie-Antrag "Raumbilder - Bildräume" (co-applicant, shortlisted, but ultimately rejected 2014)
  • Fritz Thyssen Stiftung: Conference Philostratoi (co-applicant, 2018)
  • British Academy Global Professorship (2018)
  • Thüringer Forschungspreis (shortlisted, but ultimately not awarded 2019)
  • et al.

Rejected Book Projects

  • Melania - The Lives of Two Female Saints (considered by two different publishers as too "boring")
  • Herodotus VIII and IX, Greek and German (to complement the seven volumes already published; now published as a mere translation)
  • et al.

Commissioned and Finished Contributions to Volumes later Abandoned by the Editors

  • see list(at the end)

Unheld Lectures (cancelled because of the pandemic in 2020)

  • see list of guest lectures cancelled because of the pandemic

Bankruptcy of Academic Publisher

  • Bankruptcy of Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt), where I have written, edited or contributed to more than 40 books over the years (2023)

Dissertations Co-supervised, but Unfinished over a Decade Later

  • Die Antike im Kinderbuch (Mannheim, 2005)
  • Giftmord in der römischen Antike (Mannheim, 2005)

Failing Health

  • Morbus Berger (aka IgA Nephropathy), a degenerative kidney disease ultimately leading to the necessity of dialysis (diagnosed Erfurt, 2012)
  • Surgery on the colon (twice) converting me into a semicolon (Erfurt, 2018/9)
  • Loss of left kidney with a tumour, as a consequence 80% disabled - a very German way to assess disabilities (Erfurt, 2024)

Unwritten Book

Unfinished Books (as yet)

  • see the page with the optimistic title  projects.