Call for Papers

The German Historical Institute Washington and the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University are pleased to announce the 30th Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar in German History, which will take place in Washington DC on June 3-6, 2025.

The seminar will bring together advanced doctoral students from Europe and North America to discuss their dissertation projects with one another and a small group of faculty mentors. The organizers welcome proposals from doctoral students working on any aspect of the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German-speaking Central Europe or on topics in European, transnational, comparative or global history that have a significant German component. Doctoral students working in related fields – including art history, legal history, and the history of science – are also encouraged to apply. The discussions will be based on papers (in German or English) submitted six weeks in advance. The seminar will be conducted bilingually, in German and English; therefore, fluency in both languages is a prerequisite. Accommodations will be arranged and paid for by the conference organizers. In addition, a travel subsidy will be available for those who do not have travel funding from their home institution.

We are now accepting applications from doctoral students whose dissertations are at an advanced stage (that is, in the write-up rather than research stage) but who will be granted their degrees after June 2025. Applications should include: (1) vita, max. 2 pages; (2) dissertation project description, max. 1000 words; (3) provisional table of contents, indicating which chapters have been completed (max. 2 pages), (4) letter of reference from the major dissertation advisor (commenting on progress toward completion and fluency in English and German). Applicants may submit their materials in German or English (preferably in the language in which they are writing their dissertation). The first three documents should be combined into a single PDF (file name should start with applicant’s last name) and submitted via upload at the online portal by January 15, 2025. Letters of reference should be emailed to Richard Wetzell at wetzell@ghi-dc.org (preferably as a PDF) by the advisor by the same date. Questions may be directed to Richard Wetzell via email.