KWI International Fellowship Programmes

We are dedicated to pursuing our interdisciplinary agenda through international collaboration.
The international fellowships will contribute to attracting new research questions, concepts, methods and theories in close connection with the KWI research programme.

Our KWI International Fellowships are 6-month-scholarships at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen, which address excellent international researchers from the humanities, cultural studies, and the social sciences with a completed PhD plus up to 6 years of post-doctoral experience.

The Thyssen@KWI Fellowship, financed by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, is integrated into the fellowship programme and reaches out to excellent researchers of all nationalities with a completed PhD plus several years of post-doctoral experience.

To apply, various project formats are possible: Fellows might devote their time in Essen to finishing a book or a special issue, to finalizing a research proposal or setting up a research group. We also welcome plans to establish or substantiate collaborations with the universities of the Ruhr Alliance.

Located in the Ruhr Area, the KWI offers a space for independent and innovative research in the humanities and various opportunities to engage and include the public. Currently, research at the KWI focuses on the following areas: literary and cultural sociology, cultural science studies, science communication and public humanities. Further projects are concerned with cultures of communication and political participation. An important contribution to our scholarly and political work comes from the Academy in Exile, offering research space to colleagues whose academic freedom is threatened.

Latest News

KWI Welcomes Sixth Cohort of International Fellows

KWI Welcomes Sixth Cohort of International Fellows

This week KWI receives its sixth cohort of international fellows who will be in Essen from April 2023 until the end of September 2023. We also welcome our new colleague Laura Reiling, who joined KWI in March. At the same time we are wishing farewell to our fellows of the last cohort: Tim Altenhof, Kris […]

KWI Fellows publish new articles

KWI Fellows publish new articles

Current  KWI international fellow Alexandra Irimia has recently published a review of Tomáš Jirsa’s monograph Disformations: Affects, Media, Literature (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021). Those interested can read the full review in Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and find an excerpt here. Moreover, a new article by Academy in Exile fellow Adnan Çelik has been published […]

Neuste Publikationen aus dem KWI | Latest Publications

Neuste Publikationen aus dem KWI | Latest Publications

Auch kurz vor Jahresende sind noch Publikationen von KWI-Mitgliedern erschienen: Die aktuelle Ausgabe der Open-Access Zeitschrift sub/urban für “kritische Stadtforschung” beschäftigt sich unter dem Titel “Die intime Stadt” mit “Kulturen der queeren Verbindung” entgegen der allgemein diagnostizierten Anonymität des urbanen Lebens. Teil der Redaktion ist auch KWI-Fellow Stefan Höhne. In Zukunft wird das Projekt darüber […]

“Venice and the Anthropocene”: L. Sasha Gora on the Venetian speciality, baccalà mantecato

“Venice and the Anthropocene”: L. Sasha Gora on the Venetian speciality, baccalà mantecato

“What does Venice look like when observed from the perspective of climate change, environmental collapse, and human-animal relations in an age of industrialization and mass extinction? That is, as a privileged observatory of the Anthropocene?” These are the central questions posed in a new publication by Italian publisher wetlands titled Venice and the Anthropocene: An […]

Weronika Kobylińska Nominated for Polish Book Prize

Weronika Kobylińska Nominated for Polish Book Prize

Weronika Kobylińska – KWI International Fellow in Cohort 4 and Associate Professor at the Film School in Łódź (Poland) – was nominated for the Jan Długosz Award for her book Avant-garde Paradigm. Polish Photography Between the Wars [Awangardowa klisza. Polska fotografia dwudziestolecia międzywojennego]. The Jan Długosz Award (Polish: Nagroda im. Jana Długosza) is a unique initiative […]