Hier finden Sie Ausschreibungen für Stellen, Forschungsstipendien und Preise sowie Aufrufe zur Einreichung von Konferenzbeiträgen.
Here you will find calls for positions, research grants and awards, and calls for conference papers.
KWI International Fellowships & Thyssen@KWI Fellowship 2026
We are happy to announce that KWI offers the 12th cohort of fellowships for the duration of six months from 1 April 2026 until 30 September 2026!
KWI International Fellowships
From 1 April 2026 until 30 September 2026
The KWI Fellowship Programme is designed for excellent researchers from the humanities, cultural studies, and the social sciences. We invite applications from research fellows who have completed their PhD and have up to six years of post-doctoral experience. Project proposals should address KWI’s research agenda. The KWI International Fellowship Programme is open to researchers from around the world. German nationals may only apply if they are currently employed at an international institute. The institute provides fellows with modern infrastructure, office space, technical support, and offers a library service, event and research management, as well as administrative and communicative support. Please find the full call here.
Thyssen@KWI Fellowship
From 1 April 2026 until 30 September 2026
The Thyssen@KWI Fellowship is integrated into the fellowship programme and addresses excellent humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences researchers. It is most generously funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. We invite applications from research fellows who have completed their PhD and have already gained several years of post-doctoral research expertise. Project proposals should address KWI’s research agenda. International researchers are invited to apply, as well as scholars of German nationality, if they provide excellent international contacts and work experience. The KWI provides fellows with modern infrastructure, office space, technical support, and offers a library service, event and research management, as well as any administrative and communicative support. Please find the full call here.
Application deadline for all fellowships is 29 August 2025. The application must contain a CV, a list of publications, PhD certificate, and a proposal sketching your KWI project. Please email your application in one PDF to [email protected].
Call for Papers: What Will Photography Be? An Invitation to Speculate
3rd Essen Symposium for Photography February 4-6, 2026, hosted by the Essen Center for Photography
Raising the question “What Will Photography Be?”, the third Essen Symposium for Photography in February 2026 aims to newly address interest in the medium’s prospective forms and uses. We invite speculations that critically engage with recent developments in the open and much-diversified field of visual media and try to position photography’s future role within such a realm. How will photographic media participate in the dynamics of current technological advancements? Furthermore, how can photography impact and promote such developments with respect to social, artistic, scientific, and everyday practices?
We are interested in ideas about photography’s future roles in social, artistic, scientific, and everyday realms. At the same time, we must return to the basic assumption driving such interests: What will we mean when we say “photography”? Will we discuss specific techniques, aesthetics, or practices bound to visual images? Keeping the lessons taught by “operational images” in mind, will we leave the idea of the visual behind us? In short, what will be our point of reference when we address something as “photography”?
We invite critical speculations that refer to three stands of interests: 1. Technologies and Aesthetics, 2. Theories and Methods , 3. Politics and Agencies.
We welcome proposals from an interdisciplinary field of research. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Please send a title, 500-word abstract of the proposed presentation, and a brief CV. Please email your proposal in one PDF by July 31, 2025, at the latest, to: [email protected]
For the complete call please click here.
Call for Papers: Materiality Matters. Figurations of Comic Bodies and Things
Annual Conference of the Network Comic Literacies – Kulturtechniken des Komischen (Cultural Techniques of Comedy)
November 13–15, 2025 / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen, Germany
Keynote on Thursday, November 13, 2025: Oliver Double (University of Kent)
In comic figures such as clowns, amateurs, or spinsters, in the masks of the commedia dell’arte or in the pies thrown in slapstick, as well as in theatre, film, or text—comedy always manifests itself through bodies and things. The first annual conference of the network Comic Literacies – Kulturtechniken des Komischen (Cultural Techniques of Comedy) thus explores perspectives on the material dimensions of comedy and the comic. Discussing and comparing case studies from different contexts and disciplinary backgrounds, we aim to outline comic phenomena as constituted via cultural techniques that are shaped by the materiality of various cultural, corporeal, and media practices. In doing so, the conference draws special attention to acts of figuration: How can we conceptualize the staging of comic bodies and things as matters of design and formation?
Please submit abstracts (max. 500 words) and a short bio (max. 100 words) by June 15, 2025, to [email protected].
Participants will also attend an artistic performance at PACT Zollverein (https://www.pact-zollverein.de/, Performing Arts Choreographisches Zentrum NRW Tanzlandschaft Ruhr).
For the complete call please click here and check out the website of the network.
PostDoc in Geography, History, and/or Cultural Studies (100%, 60 months)
The ERC Synergy Grant project The Cultures of the Cryosphere. Infrastructures, Politics and Futures of Artificial Cooling (CultCryo) at The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) / KWI –Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities is seeking to fill a position at the next possible date as a
Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d, salaryy group 13 TV-L, 100%, 60 months) in Geography, History, and/or Culture Studies
Start of employment: as soon as possible
Duration of employment: until 2030-08-31
Working time: 39 hours 50min. (100%) (part time is possible)
Application deadline: 2025-06-19
We are seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d) with a background in history, cultural studies, georgraphy or STS and expertise in cartography and critical mapping to research the spatial dynamics of cooling techniques and to co-develop a first atlas of the cyrosphere and its historical development. The ideal candidate has a strong interdisciplinary profile with qualifications in history of technology, digital cartography or methods of critical or collaborative mapping as well as a proven record of engaging with concepts and theories of technology and space. The research will primarily concentrate on the spatial and cultural aspects of artificial cooling since the Cold War, including mappings of cold chains for food and biomedicine as well as space cooling and IT infrastructures. Tasks also include integrating findings and analysis into the public project archive and engaging in scientific dissemination and publication. For more info on the position, main tasks and requirements, see the following pdf.
About the project
The ERC Synergy project The Cultures of the Cryosphere. Infrastructures, Politics and Futures of Artificial Cooling (CultCryo) investigates the cultural preconditions and consequences of the use of artificial cold. With a globally networked system of cold storage facilities, nitrogen tanks, cold chains, and air-conditioned spaces, the global use of cooling and freezing technologies enables modern life on both biological and social levels –for example, in the areas of food supply, medicine, air conditioning, and data processing. Despite its far-reaching socio-ecological impacts, the enormously energy-intensive planetary „cryosphere“ has not yet been systematically researched. The interdisciplinary research project consists of several international research groups working in close cooperation. For more information, please visit: www.cryocultures.org
Studentische Hilfskraft (SHK) in der Geschäftsstelle der DGS, 10 Std./Woche
Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS) hat ab dem 01. August 2025 eine Stelle als Studentische Hilfskraft (SHK) mit 10 Stunden pro Woche in ihrer Geschäftsstelle am Kulturwissenschaftlichen Institut Essen (KWI) zu besetzen.
Die Aufgaben der Tätigkeit bestehen u.a. aus der Redaktion und Inhaltspflege der DGS-Website, der Erstellung visueller Inhalte für Social Media, der Begleitung der DGS-Kongresse in Präsenz sowie allgemeinen Bürotätigkeiten.
Voraussetzungen sind u.a. ein Studium der Soziologie oder Sozialwissenschaften, Erfahrung im Umgang mit Microsoft und Social Media sowie gute Kommunikations- und Teamfähigkeiten.
Die Bewerbungsfrist ist der 30. Juni 2025. Weitere Informationen zur Bewerbung und die vollständige Stellenausschreibung finden Sie hier.
Besuchen Sie auch die Website der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS).