CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Berlin-based Postdoctoral Program Rechtskulturen: Confrontations beyond Comparison invites scholars to apply for seven postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2013/2014.

THE PROGRAM
Rechtskulturen (‘legal cultures’) is a Berlin-based postdoctoral research program which is designed to explore the law in new and innovative ways. We intend to create a space of reflection and communication where fundamental and salient questions of the law and its context(s) can be re-negotiated from a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives, and re-connected with jurisprudence and legal methodology.

As a central element of the Berlin research network Recht im Kontext (‘law in context’) based at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Rechtskulturen aims at re-contextualizing established understandings of law by transcending the scope of comparative legal studies and international law. It is designed to enhance a re-location of law among its neighboring disciplines—the humanities, the cultural and social sciences—, and can thus allow affiliated scholars, fellows and faculty to develop innovative research agendas in transregional constellations beyond a European or Anglo-American focus. The program addresses scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, regional contexts and academic fields of discourse. In Berlin, the postdoctoral fellows will work on projects of their own choice. The program’s scholarly environment is designed to enable and to encourage both fellows and the wider community to explore and create new orientations in their transdisciplinary research on law.

The program Rechtskulturen is directed by Susanne Baer (Bundesverfassungsgericht/ Humboldt-Universität), Christoph Möllers (Humboldt-Universität/Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) and Alexandra Kemmerer (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin), and is supported by an international group of scholars.

CANDIDATES
Applicants should be at the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their doctorate within the last five years before their application to the program. We welcome candidates with various disciplinary backgrounds, such as the field of legal studies, sociology, political science, philosophy, history, anthropology, theology, and area studies, representing a broad range of diverse approaches to the law, including gender studies, comparative research, law & literature, critical legal studies, administrative sciences, transitional justice, postcolonial theory, and legal philosophy and theory. In particular, we encourage applicants with a firm disciplinary background in law to engage in reflexive and transdisciplinary research.

For the academic year 2013/2014, we welcome in particular applicants interested in the law’s place in systems of knowledge and knowledge production (e.g. its relation to science, theology, philosophy, philology), in legal methodologies, in the law as a professional field, and in law in professional practices. We strongly encourage applications from scholars analyzing the law in various cultural contexts, engaging with confrontations beyond comparison.

Candidates should demonstrate their strong interest and innovative approaches to engage with the law. Rechtskulturen fellows are expected to participate in the regular Rechtskulturen Colloquium series, as well as in workshops, conferences and seminars organized by the program and the overarching project Recht im Kontext. The program seeks to create a context of intellectual synergy, where scholars from various disciplinary and regional backgrounds can work together comparatively (and confrontational) and develop a common language necessary for intra- and transdisciplinary exchanges and for an engagement with fundamental questions of the law and its cultural and political entanglements.

We encourage and welcome applications from all regions of the world. Especially candidates from Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia are strongly encouraged to apply. Fellows are given the opportunity to pursue their individual research projects within a transdisciplinary and transregional context. During the fellowship in Berlin, they will be associated with the Faculty of Law at Humboldt-Universität. In the overall context of the program Rechtskulturen and the framework of the Forum Transregionale Studien, they will be part of a vibrant discursive environment.

FELLOWSHIPS
Fellowships begin on 1 October, 2013 and will end on 31 July, 2014. Postdoctoral fellows will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,500 plus supplements depending on their personal situation. Organizational support regarding visa, insurances, housing, etc. will be provided.

Successful applicants will be fellows of the project Rechtskulturen at the Forum Transregionale Studien and Associate Members of Humboldt University Law School. Through this association, they will be integrated into the Law School and will have access to the academic milieu of a leading German university as well as to libraries and other research facilities.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE
To apply, please make use of our web-based electronic application procedure that will be open for applications from 10 January 2013 to 24 January 2013 (24:00, CET), see http://www.rechtskulturen.de/en/call-for-applications.html

Please upload then unto our website the following documents in English, as separate PDF files:
- a curriculum vitae
- a project description stating what you will work on in Berlin if granted a fellowship
- bibliographical information of three pieces of your scholarly work and your favorite one of those as PDF file
- the names and contact details of two referees

Project descriptions must not exceed 20.000 characters (including footnotes).

Project descriptions must sufficiently set out the applicant’s argument and research questions as well as its relations to and implications for the program’s research frame.

The following criteria will be used to aid the evaluation of candidates’ project descriptions:

- general academic quality
- innovative potential
- transregional perspective
- interdisciplinary approach to law
- specific potential to connect with local academic communities in Berlin

Successful candidates will be notified by mid-April 2013.

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
The program Rechtskulturen, a project of the Berlin Research Network Recht im Kontext is part of the Forum Transregionale Studien, a research platform that connects systematic and region-specific questions in a perspective that addresses entanglements and interactions beyond national, cultural or regional frames. The Forum works in tandem with established institutions and networks which are engaged in transregional studies and is supported by an association of the directors of research institutes and networks mainly based in Berlin.

It supports four research programs: Rechtskulturen: Confrontations beyond Comparison, Zukunftsphilologie: Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship, Global Prayers: Redemption and Liberation in the City, and EUME: Europe and the Middle East-The Middle East in Europe, and will soon expand its activities also into the field of art histories. The Forum Transregionale Studien cooperates with the Max Weber Stiftung and is funded by the Senate of Berlin.