FZG_01/2025 Friedenstein Fellowship for Early Modern Research (f/m/d)

Universität Erfurt Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts; Gotha; Vor Ort; EUR 50.000 - 60.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

An academic institution in Gotha is offering a Friedenstein Fellowship for Early Modern Research. This position involves conducting a long-term research project, chairing colloquiums, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Candidates should hold a doctorate and demonstrate excellent research capabilities. The fellowship supports significant research activities in a collaborative academic environment.

Leistungen

Budget for workshops/conferences

Fully equipped guest apartment during fellowship

Qualifikationen

• Doctorate and preferably additional academic achievements.
• Proven excellent research capability on the early modern period.
• Experience with interdisciplinary research.

Aufgaben

• Focus on a long-term research project related to early modern studies.
• Chair the bi-weekly research colloquium.
• Participate in planning the centre's academic programme.

Kenntnisse

Research on early modern period

Interdisciplinary research experience

Strong academic curiosity

Willingness to engage in dialogue

Ausbildung

Doctorate in a relevant field

Postdoctoral qualification (habilitation or equivalent)

Jobbeschreibung

FZG_01/2025 Friedenstein Fellowship for Early Modern Research (f/m/d)

The Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt is awarding for the academic year 2026/27 (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027) a

Friedenstein Fellowship for Early Modern Research (f/m/d)
(remunerated up to salary grade W3)

The Gotha Research Centre (FZG) is a research institute of the University of Erfurt. It initiates and coordinates interdisciplinary research projects on the cultural and intellectual history of the 16th to early 19th centuries, organises international conferences, workshops and lectures, and enables international early career researchers, postdocs and senior scholars to conduct research based on the Gotha collections through several research fellowships. The FZG cooperates with scholars and research institutions in Germany and across the world and is involved in academic teaching at the University of Erfurt. Together with the Gotha Research Library, it publishes the series ‘Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit’.

Area of Responsibility

During your time in Gotha, you will focus on a long-term research project in the area of early modern studies, preferably with reference to the universal holdings of the Gotha Research Library and/or the collections of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha and, if applicable, the Gotha States Archives.

You will work with the current scholars and chair the bi-weekly colloquium. In this function, you will foster interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars from different regions, cultures and generations who are conducting research in Gotha.

Supported by the Managing Director of the FZG, you will participate in planning the centre's academic programme, provide impulses for future research projects and collaborations, and conduct a workshop or conference on a topic of your choice, ideally connected to your long-term research project while in Gotha. This includes the responsibility for the content and editing of the project’s publication.

In addition, you will be expected to communicate any results of your fellowship in Gotha to the scientific community and the wider interested public in an appropriate form, for example through lectures, publications, newspaper articles, interviews, podcasts, etc.

What we expect

doctorate and preferably additional academic achievements, proven by a postdoctoral qualification (habilitation or equivalent) or an assistant/junior professorship

excellent research on the early modern period

experience and a strong interest in interdisciplinary research

academic curiosity and willingness to engage in dialogue

openness to discussion and cooperation with the other Gotha based institutions

on-site presence in Gotha for the greater part of the week and active participation in the research centre's academic events

What we offer

With the universal collections of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha, the Gotha Research Library and the holdings of the Thuringian State Archives – State Archive Gotha, as well as several research institutions – Gotha is one of the outstanding centres for collections and research on the cultural history of the early modern and modern periods in Germany. This makes the Gotha campus of the University of Erfurt a stimulating research and working environment.

The fellowship can be taken for 6 or 12 months (summer semester 2026 and winter semester 2026/27) which makes it very suitable for someone taking a leave of absence from a professorship or other academic position. The type of contract and remuneration (up to grade W3) depend on the personal qualifications of the candidate.

The fellowship includes budget of up to EUR 5,000 for holding the workshop or conference and the subsequent publication of the conference contributions in the ‘Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit’ by Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. The Research Centre will provide editorial support for the publication process as well as actively support the planning and implementation of the event.

The Research Centre's office facilities will provide the necessary space, technical and personnel infrastructure and associated support (office, IT, secretarial services, student assistants). Furthermore, a fully equipped guest apartment will be available for private use free of charge for the duration of the fellowship in Gotha (subject to availability).

Comments/Remarks

The German version of this job advertisement alone shall be legally binding.

If you have a foreign university degree, it is necessary that you apply for a certificate application at the Central Office for Foreign Education (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, ZAB). We recommend that you attach the corresponding certificate to your application documents, but you can also provide this certificate at a later stage of the process. Please note that this is a chargeable service provided by the ZAB. For more information, please visit https://zab.kmk.org/de/zeugnisbewertung .

The University of Erfurt sees itself as an open-minded employer that values diversity. It is committed to diversity and gender equality and welcomes applications that contribute to this. The University of Erfurt has successfully passed the "shaping diversity" audit, has been audited as a "family-friendly university" and regulary participates successfully in the female professor programme of the federal and state governments. One of the university's strategic goals is increasing the proportion of women in re-search and teaching. Qualified female scientists are therefore particularly encouraged to apply.Severely disabled persons and those with equal status are given preference in the case of equal suitability, professional performance, and ability. It should be noted that even in the case of a repeated application or previous employment at the University of Erfurt, explicit reference must be made to the severe disability or equal status in the application, as this information is not automatically taken into account in the present procedure for data protection and organizational reasons.

For questions regarding the Friedenstein Fellowship, please contact the Managing Director of the Gotha Research Center, Dr. Markus Meumann: [e-mail] .

Application Deadline

Please send your application with relevant documents (CV, list of publications, files of either two peer-reviewed journal articles or your own monograph, letter of motivation, research project proposal (up to 3000 words) with work plan and overview of the most important project-specific publications) by email by 30 November 2025 to:

Please note that applications in electronic form must not exceed a size of 15 MB for technical reasons.

Data protection

The University of Erfurt uses an e-mail system with transport encryption capabilities. Please send your e-mails with transport encryption, too. If you wish to encrypt the content of your e-mail further, please use the following e-mail address instead of the one provided above: [e-mail] . The certificate containing the public key you need to send an encrypted e-mail to that address is available at https://www.uni-erfurt.de/universitaet/arbeiten-an-der-universitaet/stellenausschreibungen . If you choose not to encrypt your e-mail using the certificate, we cannot guarantee that the content of your e-mail will be encrypted at all.

In sending your application files in electronic form, you agree to having your e-mail scanned for harmful coding, viruses and spam, to the temporary saving of the necessary data of your correspondence and to the conducting of further correspondence via e-mail without further encryption.

By submitting your application, you also agree to the further processing of the submitted personal data within the application process. This agreement can be withdrawn at any point in written or electronic form, without specifying your reasons. Please note that withdrawal of your agreement may lead to your application not being further considered for the position applied for.

The University of Erfurt will not reimburse any costs related to the application.