Graduate school •

Course location

Gießen

Description/content

A Structured PhD Programme Within a Cutting-Edge Research Environment

At the GCSC, you will actively participate in a research-intensive environment from the start, with support available for organising, planning, and carrying out your dissertation projects. You will have the opportunity to join several interdisciplinary research groups to discuss interesting texts for your fields and develop collaborative projects. Your participation in workshops and master classes will ensure that you are up to date with current academic discourses and will give you the chance to discuss your own ideas with renowned international scholars.

In addition to the GCSC, Giessen’s many research centres, such as the Giessen Graduate Centre for Social Sciences, Business, Economics and Law (GGS), the Giessen Centre for Eastern European Studies (GiZO) and the Centre for Media and Interactivity (ZMI), welcome involvement.

A PhD with International Conference and Publication Experience

The GCSC encourages you to present and publish your work early on. Assistance is available through workshops and coaching sessions on academic writing and conference presentations. Our e-journal KULT_online and our Open Access journal On_Culture offer first publication opportunities. Our network’s symposia and summer schools give PhD students the opportunity to gain conference experience. We not only provide advice but also frequently cover travel costs associated with attending external conferences.

The GCSC is also part of numerous international networks. Together with partners from top-ranking European and American universities, we organise international summer schools and conferences, offer exchange programmes, and host renowned visiting fellows. A growing number of our doctoral students pursue their doctorates in Giessen and at a partner university, receiving a cotutelle degree awarded by both institutions.

A PhD with Prospects

Our alumnae and alumni prove that after obtaining a PhD at the GCSC, you will have excellent career prospects both in and outside of academia. Our Career Service and our Teaching Centre offer comprehensive support, complemented by our alumnae and alumni network.

PhD scholarships will be advertised in November 2024 for the October 2025 entry (deadline for applications: 1 February 2025). Moreover, self-sponsored memberships are available, and the GCSC offers support in applying for external funding. Deadlines for applications for memberships are in March and October. For more information, please visit our website.

Faculties

• English and American Studies
• German Studies
• History
• Sociology
• Applied Theatre Studies
• Art History and Art Education
• Classics
• Educational Studies
• Musicology and Music Education
• Political Science
• Protestant and Catholic Theology
• Romance Studies
• Slavic Studies
• Turkology

Course language

English and German

Financial support

Yes

Structured research and supervision

Yes

Research training / discussion

Yes

Career advisory services and programmes for future professionals

Career Service and special opportunities for international students: https://www.uni-giessen.de/en/faculties/research-centers/zfbk/career_services/career_services_inhalt_en?set_language=en

Support for international students and doctoral candidates

• Welcome event
• Cultural and linguistic preparation
• Visa matters
• Help with finding accommodation
• Support with registration procedures

General services and support for international students and doctoral candidates

We have several support structures and offers for our members: 

• Our Teaching Centre supports the acquisition of higher education teaching experience.
• Our Career Service offers strategies to find an optimum foundation for entering a profession.
• Our Member Support is the contact point for our members for individual matters from funding advice and travel grants to combining family and career.

Moreover, we offer editorial support, support for mental health during the PhD, and we are deeply invested in equal opportunities matters. 

List of doctoral programmes and other offers

GCSC research areas cover the following topics:

• Cultural Memory Studies
• Cultural Narratologies
• Cultural Transformation and Performativity Studies
• Visual and Material Cultural Studies
• Media and Multiliteracy Studies
• Cultural Identities
• Global Studies and Politics of Space
• Cultures of Knowledge, Research, and Education
• Ecology and the Study of Culture

Additional research groups are dedicated to emerging topics in the Study of Culture:

• Migration and (De)coloniality
• Religion in the Study of Culture 
• Interfaces of the Study of Culture and Life Sciences

Moreover, the following working groups and sections at the Gießener Graduiertenzentrum Kulturwissenschaften (GGK) are also open to all GCSC members:

• AG Moving Images: Theory and Practice
• AG Game Studies
• AG Europe's East
• AG Issues of Aesthetics
• AG Global South
• AG Writing
• Historical Theory and Methods of Source Analysis
• Early Childhood Education, Development, and Socialization
• Foreign-Language Teaching/Learning with Digital Distribution and Communication Media
• Holocaust & Remembrance

All research groups offer members a dynamic think tank structure that facilitates taking up new developments rapidly. Therefore, the GCSC always welcomes individual initiative to address new/emerging topics and expand the spectrum of our research laboratories.

Justus Liebig University Giessen
GCSC building © GCSC

Founded in 1607, Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), Germany, is a comprehensive university with a longstanding tradition which attracts around 26,000 students. JLU is offering the full range of traditional and modern subjects with top-level teaching and research ‒ extending from classical natural sciences, law and economics, social and educational sciences, linguistics and cultural studies to a unique selection of life science subjects such as human and veterinary medicine, agricultural, environmental and nutritional sciences and food chemistry. The leading personae who carried out research and taught at JLU include a number of Nobel Prize winners, such as Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901) and Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace Prize in 2004). Since 2006, research at JLU has received continuous funding from the Excellence Initiative schemes and the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal Republic and Federal States.

100 Number of doctoral students
50 Percentage of international students
University location

With around 94,000 inhabitants, Giessen has one of the highest student densities throughout Germany. Four higher education institutions with altogether 40,000 students provide a unique college-town atmosphere. The city offers plenty of leisure options for students, such as canoeing on the Lahn river, walks and picnics in its multiple green areas, cinemas with student concession tickets, the municipal theatre with a programme consisting of plays, opera and ballet as well as swimming pools and sports facilities, and a variety of pubs, restaurants and night life venues. The great thing about Giessen is that it's an easy place to navigate and, when the mood takes you, to escape into the picturesque surrounding countryside or the metropolis of Frankfurt am Main, which is about 60 kilometres away.

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