Herzog Ernst Scholarships and Hiob Ludolf Fellowships

Profile and Application

Perthes Kartenschrank

Last updated 2023-10-17

The University of Erfurt had once again announced Herzog Ernst Scholarships and Hiob Ludolf Fellowships for 2024. The programme is open towards a diverse range of topics and disciplines. Fellows working with the Gotha collections on the 19th and 20th centuries, and especially with the Perthes Collection, will become affiliated with the Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection and the Universty of Erfurt during their research stay.

For any further questions, the Centre for Transcultural Studies will be happy to help. Please contact us at: fkts.gotha@uni-erfurt.de

Profile

Thanks to the generous support of the Ernst Abbe Foundation (Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung), which began funding in 2020, the Centre for Transcultural Studies is responsible for the Herzog Ernst Scholarship Programme – a close cooperation endeavor with the Gotha Research Center and the Gotha Research Library. The programme includes short-term scholarships for doctoral candidates and post-docs as well as the Hiob Ludolf Fellowship for senior scholars.

Our research focusses on the contemporary history of the Gotha collections and thus draws attention to 19th and 20th centuries topics linked to the Gotha holdings. This includes historical research on material culture and object history, history of knowledge as well as history of science, esp. of the natural sciences (e.g. zoology and botany) as well as space-oriented disciplines (e.g. geography, geology, ethnology, and statistics). We are especially interested in the new history of cartography, imperialism, and “critical geopolitics”. Furthermore, with regard to the Gotha Perthes Collection, we are also eager to further explore the history of the publishing house, including the history of individual publishing products, and transdisciplinary research on practices of collecting.

Calls for the Herzog Ernst as well as for the Hiob Ludolf Fellowships are issued annually in summer concerning research stays that might start in February the following year.

Further information:

Herzog Ernst Scholarships    Hiob Ludolf Fellowships

Who can apply

The scholarship programme is open for doctoral candidates, post-docs, and senior scholars. The Centre for Transcultural Studies is looking forward to applications from all fields of history, especially history of knowledge and history of science, literary studies, media studies, art and visual studies, regional studies, and political science with a historical approach as well as historically interested ethnology, anthropology and transdisciplinary research on practices of colleting. We especially encourage applications regarding topics that tackle the Centre for Transcultural Studies’ academic profile, sharing our interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, including questions concerning postcolonialism and globality as we favour reflexive approaches also tackling politically and socially relevant topics. Please note that we expect you to live in Gotha during your research stay.

Funding

Herzog Ernst Scholarships for doctoral candidates: research grant of 1.300 euros per month, plus a potential family allowance of 100 euros per month, if applicable, for a maximum duration of 9 months.

Herzog Ernst Scholarships for postdoctoral researchers: research grant of 1.800 euros per month, plus a potential family allowance of 100 euros per month, if applicable, for a maximum of 6 months.

Hiob Ludolf Fellowships are intended for established national or international senior scholars who wish to spend a research period of one or two months in Gotha. They will receive a reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs of up to 1.500 euros per month.

Application

The application period is closed. New scholarships are expected to be announced in summer 2024.

Application documents for Herzog Ernst Scholarships and Hiob Ludolf Fellowships:

  • Application form (Herzog Ernst Scholarships: PDF) or cover letter stating the desired research period (Hiob Ludolf Fellowships)
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Brief outline of the project (3–5 pages) including a statement on the necessity to do research in Gotha that explicitly indicates the holdings to be consulted.
  • Copies of relevant certificates
  • A list of publications, if applicable
  • Signed consent to the processing of personal data (PDF).

Further application documents for Herzog Ernst Scholarships:

  • Two recent letters of recommendation regarding the proposed project (both experts should be named in the application form); these are to be submitted via email by the reviewer themselves respecting the deadline.

For further details on your application, please have a look at:

application Herzog Ernst Scholarships     application Hiob Ludolf Fellowships

Deadlines

  • Closing date for applications for 2024: 30 September 2023
  • Earliest date for starting your research stay and your fellowship: 1 February, 2024

Contact

Contact for questions regarding the application:

Kristina Petri, M.A.
CG3 - Forschungszentrum Gotha | Schloßberg 2 | 99867 Gotha
+49 361 737-1712
herzogernst@uni-erfurt.de

Contact for questions regarding the Centre for Transcultural Studies/ Perthes Collection:

Dominic Keyßner, M.A.
Forschungskolleg Transkulturelle Studien / Sammlung Perthes | CG3 - Pagenhaus | Schlossplatz 1 | 99867 Gotha
+49 361 737-1602
fkts.gotha@uni-erfurt.de

Contact for questions regarding the Collections:

Perthes Collection:
sammlungperthes.fb@uni-erfurt.de
Research Library:
bibliothek.gotha@uni-erfurt.de

Perthes Collection (Online Research Tools and Digitized Material)

The Perthes Collection is part of the Gotha Research Library. It preserves the records of the publishing house Justus Perthes Gotha, founded in 1785, and its successors (VEB Hermann Haack Geographisch-Kartographische Anstalt Gotha and Justus Perthes Geographische Verlagsanstalt Darmstadt). The Perthes Collection consists of a specialized geographic-cartographic library with 120,000 volumes, the archival collection with about 800 running meters, and the map collection, which includes 185,000 sheets of cartographic material.

In addition to extensive correspondence, work journals, account books and a collection of voucher copies of the publisher's products, the archive contains hand-drawn manuscript maps, map drafts and itineraries. Additionally, there is a wealth of printed maps from other publishers, which had been evaluated and used by the Gotha cartographers for their own maps and atlases. This outstanding cultural heritage allows deep insights into the inner life of three of the most influential European map publishers in the 19th and 20th centuries and into the production processes of their published cartographic and geographical works.

Part of the collection, in particular a significant proportion of the maps of Africa and Asia as well as the publisher's products, is available digitally in the Digital Historical Library Erfurt/Gotha. Here you will also find holdings of the Gotha Research Library that have already been digitized. By searching with the abbreviation SPA (Perthes Archive Collection), SPB (Perthes Library Collection) and SPK (Perthes Map Collection), researchers can filter out the digital copies belonging to the Perthes Collection.

Printed works and books belonging to the library of the publishing house, as well as maps produced by Justus Perthes Gotha, can also be searched via the Online Catalogue of the Erfurt University Library. In addition, larger holdings connected to the editorial staff of the journal Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen can already be accessed via the manuscript database Kalliope.

For further information, please contact the collection team: sammlungperthes.fb@uni-erfurt.de

My stay in Gotha was full of fascinating discoveries. Thanks to the excellent support of the Forschungskolleg Transkulturelle Studien / Sammlung Perthes (Universität Erfurt), I had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in my research topic and discuss it with my colleagues and other international fellows. The unique Perthes Collection, which contains a wealth of documents ranging from sketches to final map works, is a splendid place for all map historians.

Jitka Močičková, Czech Academy of Sciences (Junior Fellow 2022)