Posted in Jobs, tagged Enlightenment, Job Opportunity, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Politics, Politics of the Enlightenment on July 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Five PhD positions for researchers from all humanities disciplines are available in the DFG-funded Research Training Group (GK) “Politics of the Enlightenment”, based at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg.
Deadline: October 27, 2025.
More information: https://polight.uni-halle.de/en/five-positions-as-research-associates-m-f-d-for-doctoral-studies-available-2/
Posted in Jobs, tagged Criticism, Eighteenth Century, Enlightenment, History, Job offer, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century on June 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The Research Focus Group ‘Enlightenment – Religion – Knowledge‘ based at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg is offering a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship under the title “Kritik im Widerstreit” (criticism in contest), beginning on October 1, 2025.
The research focus group is dedicated to the historical Enlightenment and its continued legacy up to the present. This includes, not least, the concept of “criticism,” which was first emphatically formulated during the Enlightenment and is currently again the subject of intense debate—particularly with regard to its political implications.
Where does criticism stand today, what is it still capable of, and how must we rethink it? What forms of practice are associated with it, what does it mean in different fields—politics, art, the public sphere—how is it shifting under new media conditions, and what political significance does it have in each case?
Today, criticism itself is under criticism: it is said to be elitist, exhausted, and outdated, to defend particular interests, and to serve self-promotion more than its apparent cause. Particularly disturbing is the fact that critical arguments seem to be easily appropriated by their opponents: Today, prohibitions on thinking are proclaimed in the name of “freedom”; exclusions in the name of “equality”; and questionable dogmas in the name of “criticism”. What remains of criticism if one does not want to abandon it entirely but has given up belief in a “critique of critical criticism” (Marx)?
The scholarship is intended to serve as a means of investigating and discussing political figurations of criticism between appropriation and dismissal together with other scholars involved in research focus group. Applicants should propose an academic project (aimed at publishing an academic article) and, within this framework, organize and host an academic event; accompanying formats such as readings, panel discussions, exhibitions, guided tours, etc. are also conceivable and can be financed with ARW funds.
Deadline for applications is 27 June, 2025.
More information on the fellowship and application procedure can be found here.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Call for Applications, Counter-Enlightenment, Enlightenment, History, Politics of the Enlightenment on July 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
In the coming year, a new DFG Research Training Group “Politics of the Enlightenment” will be established at the Interdisciplinary Center for European Enlightenment Studies (IZEA) at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. We are now seeking applications for the first ‘cohort’.
The first cohort will start on April 1, 2025. Two further cohorts of 5 doctoral students each will be recruited in 2026 and 2027. A second funding phase of the Research Training Group of 4 years is planned from 2030.
The application deadline for the first round of applications is November 4, 2024.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Enlightenment, Future, History, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Opportunity, Religion, Transformation on July 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A call for applications for a new 1-year postdoctoral fellowship program in the context of the Research Group “Aufklärung – Religion – Wissen” of the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg has just been published. It’s deadline is August 18, 2024.
For more information on the project, titled “sites of futurity” (Zukunftsorte) and on the application process, see here.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Eighteenth Century, Enlightenment, Global History, History, Nineteenth Century, Politics, Twentieth Century on June 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »
We have received notice that a new interdisciplinary Research Training Group, which I had applied for with a group of colleagues of the universities of Halle-Wittenberg, Leipzig and Erfurt, will be funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation). This means that from 2025 on, PhD students, visiting scholars and other researchers will be developing a wealth of new projects on the global “Politics of Enlightenment” since the eighteenth century.
Calls for application for PhD and Post-Doc positions will follow soon.
The Research Training Group (RTG) examines the politics of the Enlightenment from the 18th to the 21st century. Its approach is twofold: firstly, it analyzes the political claims and interpretations that have been fostered by the Enlightenment or in its name, and, secondly, the political discussions and measures which determines our understanding of Enlightenment that is constantly reinterpreted according to political interests and concepts. The project thus combines the study of the historical Enlightenment—here it relates in particular to recent research which has emphasized the complexity and diversity of Enlightenment movements— with the study of its impact, appropriation, and reinterpretation up to the present day.
Apparently, ‘Enlightenment’ is once again moving to the center of political debates on, for example, the crisis of the public sphere and the disappearance of truth. The historical expansion goes along with a spatial one, as the reassessment of the Enlightenment is no longer a European phenomenon but must be considered in a global context. This spatial widening is paid tribute to by the transnational conception of the RTG and by the inclusion of a postdoctoral position that focusses on issues of Enlightenment beyond Europe. Methodologically, these historically and geographically broad perspectives on the politics of the Enlightenment allow for the fruitful integration of different approaches such as the history of ideas and concepts, social and cultural history, political science and philosophy as well as literature and cultural studies, which is reflected in the team of applicants.
The joint work is oriented towards four thematic axes, which are both central to eighteenth century politics and to current references to Enlightenment: ‘civilization’; ‘public sphere’; ‘secularity’; ‘plurality’. The doctoral students will find a lively interdisciplinary working environment, that provides them with ideal conditions for completing their work. Thanks to its location at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of the European Enlightenment (IZEA) at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), the Research Training Group will be firmly anchored in Enlightenment research. In addition, the range of applicants’ institutional affiliations link the future doctoral students with two faculties at MLU, the Research Centre Gotha at the University of Erfurt as well as the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Communication, Diaries, History, Job offer, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century on July 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »
In October 2023, a new research project titled “Between Voice and Silence: Communicative Norms in Diaries, 1840–1990”, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, will be established as a cooperation between the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Reading.
In this context, we are looking for a Researcher (m-w-d) in part time (80%) for a period of 3 years (EG 13-TVL).
More information on the project can be found here.
The call for applications (in German) can be found here.
Deadline: August 11, 2023.
Posted in Jobs, tagged 1848, 1918, Friedhof der Märzgefallenen, History on October 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »
From November on, I’m honored to join the Cemetery of the March Fallen‘s newly constituted Board of Trustees. Located in Berlin Friedrichshain, the Cemetery is one of the major German sites of remembrance of both the 1848/49 and 1918/19 revolutions. Together with a wealth of other museums and memorials, it is part of the network Sites of Democratic History.
The Board advises the Cemetery on the overhaul of its permanent exhibition (a project that will be on the top of our agenda in the coming years) as well as on its many other activities (commemorations, lectures, workshops, concerts, guided tours, etc.).
For more information on the Cemetery’s events, click here.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Europe, History, Job, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Nineteenth Century on July 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’m offering a PhD position in modern European history (3y, with a possible 1y extension) for any project on the ‘long’ 19th century at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg.
Deadline: 22 October, 2022.
Details in German and English may be found here.
Posted in Jobs, tagged Albert-Ludwig-University Freiburg, Chair of Modern History, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg on June 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’m very happy to announce that from July 1, 2022, I will be heading the Chair of Modern History (Professur für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte) at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. I had already been active in this position since April 1 in the capacity of a ‘substitute professor’, but I’m glad that everything is official now.
I’m immensely grateful to the MLU and to my new colleagues at the History Department for giving me the opportunity to further develop my research and teaching in this exciting new role.
A short introduction about me in the university magazine can be found here.
Posted in Jobs on September 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Starting this semester, I am the official Erasmus Coordinator for the History Department of Freiburg University.
More information on the program may be found here, here, here and here.
For questions and guidance, I can be reached by email (erasmus.history[at]uni-freiburg.de), or during my office hours (starting October 11, 2016) on tuesdays, 10:00 – 12:30 (location).
Theo Jung 