The Institute for German and European Studies (IGES) at the University of Birmingham, as well as the University of Lancaster and Durham University, invite Germany-based early-career scholars and doctoral students working on German diasporas in history and today to spend 6 weeks for research purposes in the UK.

Since the EU referendum of 2016, the rights and legal status of EU citizens in the UK have received considerable scholarly attention. For many German citizens living in the UK, Brexit has called any certainty of the future into question. The interdisciplinary visiting-scholar programme ‘Futures of German Diasporas’ aims to bring into a common frame different disciplinary approaches to the study of diaspora communities’ expectations towards their individual futures and towards the future of their relationship with the state and society they live in. The programme should thus initiate a sustained conversation between Germany- and UK-based scholars about German diasporas in times of profound change across modern history and across the globe. The programme promotes an inclusive understanding of diasporas by highlighting aspects such as race and gender and by discussing German cases in a relationship with other European and non-European diasporas. Such comparisons with socially idiosyncratic German-speaking communities abroad, such as 19th cet. German settlers in the Americas or in Eastern Europe, and with other European diasporas, such as today’s Polish community in the UK, will significantly enhance our understanding of the specific social and demographic structure, the self-understanding, and the ‘Germanness’ of today’s German communities both in the UK and the wider world.

Visits can take place across 6 weeks anytime between August and December 2023. Invited researchers will visit the Institute for German and European Studies (IGES), but can spend up to 50 per cent of their stay also at Durham University or the University of Lancaster. During their stay at Birmingham, the researchers will receive the status of visiting scholar. They will be actively integrated into the IGES’s research environment and provided with access to the library, to workspace in the university’s research suite, and to other campus facilities. Invited researchers will be asked to present their research and contribute an article to a thematic journal issue on how diasporas conceive of their future prospects.

Invited researchers will receive max. EUR 250 towards travel costs to the UK. Additionally:
- Post-doctoral researchers will be reimbursed costs for accommodation for the duration of 6 weeks (up to a max. of EUR 1,900).
- Researchers of professorial rank will be reimbursed costs for accommodation for the duration of 6 weeks (up to a max. of EUR 2,475).
- Doctoral students will be reimbursed for accommodation and costs-of-living expenses up to a maximum of EUR 2,225 for the duration of 6 weeks.

Applicants should send a proposal detailing their research project (max. 500 words), including their preferred host institutions, as well as a short CV (max. 2 pages) to Dr Klaus Richter (k.richter@bham.ac.uk). The deadline for applications is 17th of March 2023.