Fellowships for Women Researchers

According to the “Female Professor Programme of the State and the Federal States” (Professorinnenprogramm des Bundes und der Länder), the University of Erfurt announces scholarshisp for female postdoctoral researchers - either shortly after their PhD or  on the track to professorship.

The Initialization scholarships aim to fund female postdoctoral researchers that intend to apply for a third-party funding, or participate in the application process of a larger project at the University of Erfurt and who wants to gain experience in project management after the application for third-party funding has been successful.
This scholarship has no thematic restrictions. A subject-related connection of the project to the Gotha Research Centre or the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection would be preferable but is not required.
The Initialization Scholarship is granted for a maximum of 12 months. Postdoctoral researchers receive a basic monthly grant of 1,600 euro and up to 1,000 euro funding for research expenses. The scholarship is accompanied by application advice as well as some individual career coaching.

For detailed information please refer to the announcement.

The Postdoctoral scholarship aims to fund excellent and experienced female postdoctoral researchers, who specifically prepare for a career as professor or who do fullfill the requirements for a professorship. Within the scholarship female researchers shall be enabled to work on their habilitation or prepare applications for a larger third-party funded project. The scholarship has no thematic restrictions. A subject-related connection of the project to the Gotha Research Centre or the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection would be preferable but is not required.

The Postdoctoral Scholarships can be granted for a maximum period of 24 months. Postdoctoral researchers receive a basic monthly grant of 2,000 euro. The scholarship is accompanied by application advice as well as individual career coachings.

For detailed information please refer to the announcement.

GOTHA RESEARCH LIBRARY

The Research Library (FBG), located in Gotha’s Friedenstein Castle, holds a remarkable collection on early modern and modern cultural history. After Berlin and Munich and alongside the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, it houses the most significant collection in Germany of historical sources from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. To these were added in 2003 the Perthes Collection Gotha from the holdings of the Justus Perthes Gotha publishing house, established in 1785. It is considered one of the most significant cartographic collections worldwide.

The library keeps and catalogues these sources, which are part of a European cultural heritage. The library collection encompasses c. 700,000 prints, of which about 350,000 are early modern. Additionally, it holds c. 11,500 manuscript volumes containing a considerable collection of manuscripts, autographs, and literary remains pertaining, among other things, to the cultural history of early modern Protestantism, as well as a collection of some 3,500 oriental manuscripts – the third largest of its kind in Germany. Moreover, the library provides a remarkable collection of letters by German emigrants to America.

The Perthes collection with its collection of maps, cartographic library, and the press archives offers a unique collection in situ. The cartographic collection is comprised of c. 185,000 maps from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century, produced by Perthes and other cartographic printers throughout the world. The cartographic-geographic library comprises 120,000 volumes, a genealogical-statistical book collection, as well as a complete exemplar of the Almanach de Gotha, produced by the Perthes publishing house. The press’ archive, with 800 linear metres of archival material, includes, inter alia, the editorial archive of Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen, a collection of the press’ specimen copies, as well as 1,650 copper plates. The FBG is headed by Dr Kathrin Paasch.

GOTHA RESEARCH CENTRE

The Gotha Research Centre (FZG), founded in 2004, is a central academic body of the University of Erfurt. Its main objective is to conduct and facilitate international interdisciplinary research projects in the field of cultural and intellectual history of the modern period, in close cooperation with the institutions and their holdings at Friedenstein Castle. Current research projects include e. g. work on the numismatic collections, the ducal finances and on Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian mobility dynamics. In addition, the Research Centre offers a rich programme of (guest)lectures, conferences, and colloquia. Our goal is to serve as a platform where scholars from all over the world can conduct research and discuss their ideas and work in progress in a challenging and congenial atmosphere. The Gotha Research Centre is headed by Prof. Martin Mulsow.

CENTRE FOR TRANSCULTURAL STUDIES / PERTHES COLLECTION

The Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection (FKTS/SP), newly established at the beginning of 2021, is also a central academic body of the University of Erfurt. It sees itself as a platform for interdisciplinary research on the historical becoming of today's global world. Its research is oriented towards the Gotha collection contexts since the end of the 18th century and focuses in particular on the Perthes Collection. The centre pursues independent as well as cooperative research projects, among others on the cartography of the oceans and the maps of Africa and Asia. It works closely with national and international scholars and strives for close cooperation with academics from the global south. The FKTS/SP is headed by Prof. Iris Schröder.