Georg Eckert Institute Fellowship Programme

The purpose of the fellowships and research stipends offered by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute is to provide both young and established academics, and textbook authors, with extensive access to the textbook collections in the Institute's library as well as the opportunity to take a comparative approach to their work and to consult and work closely with academic colleagues in Germany and abroad. Through these programmes the Institute enables its fellowship and stipend holders to suspend other commitments for the duration of their funding and thus dedicate themselves wholly to their research interests. The GEI's staff provide organisational and academic support to research fellows and stipend holders, enabling them to take advantage of the forum of lively academic discussion and international, interdisciplinary communication offered by the Institute.

The research library at the Georg Eckert Institute represents a unique tool for international textbook research. The Institute relies on permanent and close academic contact with domestic and foreign researchers and practitioners in the fulfilment of its important role. In order to promote the exchange of ideas internationally and to further develop international textbook research – with an emphasis on comparative approaches –, the Institute has developed a fellowship programme with the support of the Association of Friends of the Georg Eckert Institute.

Fellowships are designed to encourage:

• Individual research projects that focus on international understanding through education and schools; research aimed at reducing prejudice and identifying alternative perceptions as well as stereotyped and adversarial images in educational media, and their origins.
• International education and didactics research on the methods, content and objectives of teaching in the subject areas in which the Institute's library specialises; research into the governmental, institutional and social frameworks in which this teaching takes place.
• Academic research on issues of perception and reception in the fields of history, geography and social science.
• Studies on textbook development in the subjects in which the Institute specialises which aim to identify new paths for textbook production based on comparative international textbook research.

Details of the fellowship

• Length of fellowships: 2–4 weeks.
• Fellows receive a monthly stipend of 800 EUR.
• The fellowship includes accommodation in one of the Institute’s guest apartments.
• Applicants can also apply for a contribution towards travel costs. The decision to reimburse travel costs will be decided separately according to the availability of annual funds. PhD students will be given priority.
• Fellows are responsible for their own health insurance.
• Comprehensive introduction and access to the GEI’s library resources.
• Provision of an individual workspace within the library.
• Allocation of a mentor.
• Participation in the Institute’s research colloquia

Who can apply?

• Applications are welcomed from researchers based internationally or in Germany and of any nationality. Candidates must fulfil the following requirements in order to be considered by the Institute for a fellowship position:
• Candidates for a fellowship should generally hold a university degree. We also welcome applications from people who are involved in the writing of textbooks or employed by textbook publishers, as well as those whose activities in the field of education are concerned with curricula and textbooks.
• The work to be undertaken during the fellowship must support the Institute's own work or projects in the field of international textbook research.
• The Institute may occasionally invite applications for fellowships attached to a specific topic.

How to apply

Applications for a fellowship to be taken up in a particular year should be submitted by the 30 September of the preceding year. A committee consisting of the Institute's director and academic staff will meet after the closing date for applications to award fellowships for the following year. Applicants will be informed about the decision before the end of the current year where possible.

Applications for a fellowship should include:

• The completed fellowship application form (cover letter).
• A short CV, containing details of the candidate's professional background and/or academic career to date, including information on his/her current position and language skills.
• A list of publications.
• A one- to three-page outline of the proposed research topic, describing its aims and methodology.
• A specific list of the literature that the candidate wishes to study at the Institute in order to illustrate the importance of a research stay at the GEI.
• A work schedule for the desired duration of the stay at the GEI.

Further conditions

• The period covered by the fellowship must be spent working at the Institute. The Institute’s specialist research library may be used by all fellowship holders.
• Fellowship holders are expected to discuss their research experiences and exchange academic ideas with colleagues at the Institute.
• Fellowship holders are required to submit a report (1-2 pages) detailing the work conducted after completion of their research.
• We also expect that felows send the GEI library a free printed copy of any work resulting from research at the institute, or provide the library with free access to the relevant open-access publication.