BIGSSS-HWK Visiting Fellowship for International Researchers.

Application Deadline: October 20 2013

The BIGSSS-HWK Visiting Fellowship is an international researcher mobility program offering a 6-month research stay at two renowned academic institutions in the social sciences: The Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK),
one of Germanys leading institutes for advanced study across disciplines, is a foundation of the federal states of Bremen and Lower Saxony and the city of Delmenhorst. The Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences is an inter-university institute of the University of Bremen and Jacobs University Bremen supported by the German Excellence Initiative.

The program supports research by outstanding scholars in the social sciences (e.g. Sociology, Political Science, Psychology and Demography). Fellows benefit from exceptional intellectual and research conditions. They enjoy both the stimulating environment of a multi-disciplinary and international community of first-rate scholars and a graduate school with an outstanding faculty, innovative teaching concepts and an international body of excellent Ph.D. students and Postdocs.

The visiting fellows are expected  to have a presence at both institutes, to participate in regular activities of the HWK and to engage in doctoral education/supervision at BIGSSS including teaching a minimum of one course and taking part in the regular Ph.D.-colloquium. The BIGSSS-HWK Visiting Fellowship offers financial support and accommodation.

The BIGSSS-HWK Visiting Fellowship welcomes applications worldwide from promising postdoctoral scholars to leading senior researchers. The integration of most major social-science disciplines into one school is a key asset of BIGSSS, its umbrella theme is “Changing Patterns of Social and Political Integration“. Applicants should have research and expertise in one or more of BIGSSS’ three thematic fields:
•    Global Governance and Regional Integration
•    Welfare State, Inequality and Quality of Life
•    Changing Lives in Changing Socio-Cultural Contexts.

Application and Deadline

Application material to be submitted includes

1.)    a research exposé (max. 4 pages),
2.)    an abstract (max 1500 characters),
3.)    a CV and
4.)    a publication list.

Explanatory notes:

(1) The exposé should provide detailed information about the planned research project and its relation to BIGSSS’ academic program. This includes standard information such as the topic or research questions, how the topic or research question is embedded within current research, e.g. reasons why the project is original and relevant. Information about the methodology (“approach”, perspective) and methods should be included. A reference list of the literature mentioned in the project outline must be included. The evaluation of Fellowship applications involves scientists from different disciplines. The exposé, therefore, should be composed in a form that makes apparent the relevance and outstanding quality of the project and the applicant’s expertise, even to reviewers of the social sciences who are not immediately familiar with the precise subject area.

(2) The abstract should be a summary of the Fellowship project for specialists in your field of research. The abstract should be submitted as a MS Word-compatible text file (doc, docx, rtf) and not as a PDF! Its length should not exceed 1500 characters including blanks. Should an application be successful the abstract may be used for public relation purposes of BIGSSS and HWK.

(3) The curriculum vitae should be in table form, and may be arranged either chronologically or systematically.

(4) There are no specific requirements with respect to the format of the list of publications.

Please send your applications via email to BIGSSS’ Executive Secretary, Dr. Christian Peters (cpetersbigsss-bremen.de) and to HWK’s Research Manager for the Social Sciences, Dr. Susanne Fuchs (sfuchsh-w-k.de).

The deadline for applications is October 20, 2013. Late applications will not be considered. The Fellowship is scheduled for the 2014 winter term (October 2014 – February 2015).

Please find the ad in pdf. here for download.