KWI International Fellowships & Thyssen@KWI Fellowship
The Thyssen@KWI Fellowship adresses excellent researchers from the humanities, cultural studies, and the social sciences. It is most generously funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. International researchers are invited to apply as well as scholars of German nationality, provided they demonstrate outstanding international work experience and contacts. We invite applications from research fellows who have completed their PhD and have already gained several years of post-doctoral research expertise (R3 level). Project proposals should address KWI’s research agenda. The KWI (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut) in Essen provides fellows with modern infrastructure, office space, technical support, and offers a library service, event and research management as well as any administrative and communicative support.
We expect the Thyssen@KWI Fellow to be present at the institute at least 3 days a week. The fellow will be expected to participate in entry and exit interviews. The Thyssen@KWI Fellow is requested to actively take part in the Colloquium, lectures, conferences, reading groups and other academic events at KWI. Moreover, we expect the fellow to contribute to the KWI Blog. Knowledge of German is not required since the Fellowship Programme relies on a strong command of English. We expect successful applicants to begin their fellowship on the announced starting date (October 1 2026). Due to our semester schedule and the design of the fellowship programme, the start and end of the fellowship are not negotiable.
We kindly ask you to apply in the form of one single PDF file (max. 20 MB) which must be submitted electronically to international.fellowship@uni-due.de with the subject line: “Thyssen@KWI-Fellowship”. The application must be written in English and must contain a CV, a list of publications, PhD certificate, and a proposal sketching your KWI project (max. 5,000 characters).
The application deadline is 11 May 2026. For further questions, please consult the FAQs or contact international.fellowship@uni-due.de. Please finde the full call here.
