Deadline: 8 January 2025
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is inviting applications from early-career researchers from various disciplines to participate in a symposium organised jointly with the British Academy on the broad theme of “Belonging”.
The symposium will take place from 07 to 09 May 2025 in Berlin (Germany) and aims to stimulate and establish international engagement and collaboration between early-career researchers in Germany and the United Kingdom working in a broad range of disciplines. It is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas across both disciplinary and national boundaries by adopting a format that will allow for extensive discussion and debate, with considerable time set aside for this and other networking opportunities.
Focus Areas
- Conceptions of belonging, both in legal/material and in imaginary/symbolic terms, interact with people’s sense of identity, shaping the way in which individuals, communities and societies understand themselves and interact with the world around them.
- Notions of belonging allows you to explore connections between space, place and identity. This symposium seeks to bring a highly interdisciplinary lens to this work, exploring ideas of belonging and identity in relation to borders and boundaries, both physical and ideological. It will explore the way that heritage and memory are conceptualized, how literatures of place and origin narratives are developed, and the role that emotion plays in perceptions and conceptions of belonging. Identities are often defined and reinforced in relation to a proximate other; this symposium will also consider the implications of this for the way communities engage or have engaged with both internal and external forces.
- It is expected that the symposium will include a series of sessions focusing on:
- mutability of belonging
- nature of belonging
- representations of belonging
Eligibility Criteria
- Researchers at all career stages are eligible to apply provided that they:
- are based in Germany,
- work at research institutions in Germany,
- have completed a PhD within the last ten years,
- are fluent in spoken and written English.
Application Requirements
- Applicants should provide:
- the completed application form (accessible via the link)
- a curriculum vita (two pages max.)
- a list of key publications (one-page max.)
- Applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- proven research interest in and/or experience with the symposium topic
- previous commitment to and experience with interdisciplinary research projects
- added value of the symposium for applicant’s academic career development.
For more information, visit Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
