Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien Postdoctoral Fellowships 2018, Germany

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites scholars to apply for up to six postdoctoral fellowships within the framework of the research program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices. Kunstgeschichte und Ästhetische Praktiken for the academic year 2018/19.

Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices is a research and fellowship program which questions and transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries of art history in a transcultural, global horizon. By creating a space of dialogue for university and museum scholars from all regions, it aims to discuss the potentials and contours of a plural history of art. It especially invites scholars from Islamic, Asian, African, Australian, European art histories and the art histories of the Americas, to join the program, but also addresses neighboring disciplines such as Archaeology, Anthropology, History, Aesthetics and other fields dealing with the history of visual and material cultures. Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices analyses the connectivity of larger historical spaces in a transregional perspective and investigates artistic and aesthetic practices and the history of artifacts in a comparative approach, experimenting with new methodologies, forms of collaborative research and curatorial practices. The concept of Aesthetic Practices introduced by this program, is an invitation to study artifacts with their biographies as well as processes of transfer and transformation in a transcultural, postcolonial and global perspective. The program has no chronological or geographical constraints. It collaborates with the Berlin State Museums, the Berlin universities, as well as other international and national academic partners, and aims at an intense interaction of art historical institutions. Its scholarly environment is designed to enable and encourage both fellows and the wider community to experiment and refine transregional approaches to the history of visual cultures and aesthetic practices.

Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices is an initiative of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (KHI), Max-Planck-Institute at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. Art Histories is directed by Hannah Baader and Gerhard Wolf and cooperates with the program Connecting Art Histories in the Museum (Berlin State Museums/ KHI Florenz).

Candidates

Applicants should have obtained their doctorate within the last seven years (before their application). We welcome applications from all regions, with various disciplinary backgrounds, such as Art Histories, Archaeologies, Anthropology, Aesthetics, History, and all relevant neighboring fields dealing with artifacts, artistic production, material culture, and aesthetic practices relating to objects, images and architectures. Applicants should be interested to engage in reflexive and transdisciplinary research. Art Histories fellows are given the opportunity to pursue their individual research projects within a transdisciplinary and transregional context. They are expected to engage in the program activities, such as regular seminars, workshops, conferences and a travelling seminar. In the overall context of the Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices program and the framework of the Forum Transregionale Studien, the fellows will be part of a creative, intellectually stimulating and discursive environment.