Four Global Encounters Fellowships starting April 1, 2024

are now open for application on the theme of:

Neighbourhood

No neighbourhood is an island unto itself; every neighbourhood is a piece of a continent, or part of an archipelago. Neighbourhoods are increasingly understood, within many branches of scholarship from urban planning to oral histories and archaeology, as places of global encounters. This call solicits applications from researchers working on neighbourhood as points of overlap, intersection, transformative interaction, as palimpsestic spaces, or as rhizomatic networks, whether conflicted or collaborative, past or present, North or South, or as zones in which such categories as irrevocably blurred and recast.

The call solicits applications from scholars working on one or more of the following research questions:

How are local neighbourhoods global? How do neighbourhhoods communicate with each other? Is the neighbourhood a nostalgic fantasy of a bygone age of organic communication supposedly threatening by globalization and heterogeneity? What guarantees cohesion in a neighbourhood? How do neighbourhoods deal with conflict and contradiction?

What economies of scale are at work in living, practicing, arrticulating, representing, mediatizing and conceptualizing neighbourhoods? How big or small can a neighborhood become without ceasing to be one? What forms of proximity, intimacy, privacy or distance are needed to make neighbourhood exist? How concrete does a neighbourhood have to be – can a digital community with a virtual existence and a global membership constitute a neighbourhood?

What conceptual instruments (narrative, political, juridical, governmental, praxeological, religious, etc.) are utilized to make sense of a neighbourhood? What temporal scales are employed to imagine and narrate neighbourhood? What spatial models (geographic, cartographic, architectural, planning-based) serve the work of self-reflection and articulation?

How do the forces of globalization, migration and digitalization transform ways of doing and thinking neighbourhood? What notions of homogeneity and heterogeneity underpin the idea of neighbourhood? Are neighbourhoods significantly different from each other whether situated in the North or the South?- or within blurred overlapping interzones (e.g. the North in the South)? Are these categories still of any real utility in conceptualizing the neighbourhood to come? What are the paramters of a neighbourhood-studies that is equipped to deal with the challenges of the mid-21st century, and what form will such studies take?

Structure of the Fellowships

Each of the four fellows will be affiliated with the University of Tübingen through a host (a professor at the university). During their stay, they will be placed at the College of Fellows, so that intensive collaboration between the four Fellows is possible. The Fellows have the opportunity to network not only with each other but also with the Global Encounters platform and the participating departments. During their stay, in addition to project presentations and participation in research colloquia and other events, they can work on potential project proposals and publications.

Fellowship formalities

International guest researchers can receive fellowships for a period of 12 months. In order to be eligible for a fellowship, researchers have to have spent the majority of their academic career outside Germany. The stipend amounts to 2350€ per month, plus supplements for children (400€ for the first child and 100€ for each additional child). The fellowship does not constitute employment status at the University, i.e. fellows will not automatically be covered by health, unemployment, or retirement insurance through the funding period. Early and mid-career scholars (maximum 8-12 years after doctorate) may apply. It is important to note that although it is possible to apply if you are already affiliated with the University of Tübingen through a scholarship or fellowship, there are restrictions regarding the duration of further funding. Applicants who are already affiliated with the University of Tübingen through a research fellowship cannot be funded for longer than a total of 18 months. Persons who were previously linked to the University via a teach@tübingen scholarship cannot be funded for longer than a total of 24 months.

Documents to be submitted:

- An explanatory cover letter from the potential Tübingen host. Keep in mind that you must request this well in advance of submitting your application.
- Your CV and
- An outline of the project you will work on during the stay (maximum three pages).
- The stay should commence in April 2024 and can last up to 12 months.

The deadline for submission is October 23, 2023. Please send the application as one PDF file to: global-encounters@uni-tuebingen.de.

All applications will be internally assessed by colleagues from your field. In November, the platform's advisory board will discuss all applications received and make a recommendation; the final funding decision will be made by the university leadership.

If you have any questions about the application process, please feel free to contact the coordinator of the platform, Matthias Bornemann, at: global-encounters@uni-tuebingen.de