What the graduate school is all about

The graduate school "History of Knowledge" offers the opportunity to complete a structured doctorate. Doctoral candidates are primarily supervised by Professor Dr Iris Schröder, Professor Dr Wolfgang Struck and Professor Dr Bernhard Kleeberg as well as by the other senior scholars involved in the graduate school. The Gotha collections offer an extraordinary range of sources for working on a variety of topics in the history of knowledge and science and colonial history, as well as for transdisciplinary collection studies. 
The graduate school is supported by the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Erfurt, the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection (FKTS) and the Gotha Research Centre (FZG). The workplaces are located in the Gotha institutions.

Structured doctoral studies

The graduate school "History of Knowledge" is part of the Erfurt Doctorate and Postdoctoral Programme (EPPP). This structured doctoral programme at the University of Erfurt is based on a binding curriculum that contains both compulsory and elective elements in its core components. The graduate centre expands the structured training of doctoral candidates by supporting the acquisition of additional practical qualifications in addition to in-depth instruction on independent academic research, which are useful not only for a possible academic career, but also for later employment in institutions related to collections (archives, libraries, museums) or in science management.

Doctorate in the Erfurt doctoral and postdoctoral programme

Joint programme:

  • At the focal point of the structured doctoral programme in the graduate school "History of Knowledge" is an internal weekly seminar in which students' own texts and key publications on the history of knowledge are up for discussion; within this framework, there is also a regular writing workshop that focuses on students' own writing practice
  • Additional participation in the research colloquia of the participating institutions and disciplines offers further opportunities for exchange with other doctoral students and the international fellows working on site in Gotha
  • Furthermore, the doctoral students take part in further training courses for interdisciplinary key competences

Own organisational options:

  • Enabling them to organise their own courses
  • Organising your own workshops
  • Support in the preparation of internships and stays abroad
  • Jointly organised excursions

Joint supervision:

In addition to the main supervision by one person, the doctorate in the graduate centre enables ongoing collegial feedback on your own work project. The joint programme guarantees a constant exchange with the associated postdocs and senior scholars. The integration into a central research institution at the Gotha Research Campus, the Department of History or the Department of Literary Studies at the Erfurt Campus also enables intensive exchange on a wide range of advanced specialist topics and on the methodological challenges of your own work.

Financial support:

If you are interested and have questions about funding options for your doctorate:

Career funding and scholarships (overview page of the University of Erfurt)

Working at the Gotha Research Campus

Due to its unique collection ensemble, the Gotha Research Campus was created in Gotha by the University of Erfurt for the interdisciplinary field of humanities. The collections, which are accessible on site in Gotha, include holdings from the 8th to the 20th century:

The internationally networked research location of Gotha/Erfurt enables doctoral students to establish numerous academic contacts. Large-scale third-party funds, collaborative and digitisation projects, national and international conferences and workshops as well as numerous international scholarship programmes bring researchers from all over the world to Gotha. A dense academic programme throughout the year promotes exchange between junior and senior scholars on site; at the same time, the connection to the University of Erfurt is guaranteed by the regional proximity.

Current doctoral projects

Kartenschrank Perthes 2020

The following doctoral projects are currently underway at the graduate centre "History of Knowledge in the Modern Era":

  • Trading Animals / Animals that act. Human-Animal-Relations between the Horn of Africa, Germany and the World (Annika Dörner)
  • "...the endeavour of curing the fools..." – On the Production and Function of the Category of Healing in the Context of Psychiatric Practice at the Sonnenstein Sanatorium and Nursing Home in the First Half of the 19th Century  (Elisa Kewitsch)
  • The Scientific Age in the Province. Research, Collecting and Presenting as Social Practices around 1900 (Anna-Maria Hünnes)
  • Bruno Hassenstein's Works on Japan. A History of Knowledge Between Japanese Studies and Cartography (1879–1887) (Patrick Müller)
  • Researching Swahili. Africanist Linguistics in Germany, Britain, and East Africa, 1843-1945  (Florian Balbiani)
  • The Socialist Scale. Cartographic Production of the VEB Hermann Haack, 1955-1989  (Dominic Keyßner)
  • Politics in Motion. German Expeditions in the Sudan, 1860–74  (Albert Feierabend)
  • Pre-astronautics as a popular culture of knowledge from 1968 to the end of the Cold War (Erik Kaiser)
  • Manès Sperber - a life between Judaism, Marxism and individual psychology. A biography and analysis of his work (Sebastian Ripl)
  • Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg (1745-1804) between science, politics and secret society activities (Marie Nosper)
  • Everyday Experiences of Women who love Women - Psychiatrisation of Lesbians in the GDR (Anna Domdey)