Workshops for Young Scholars

Since the early 1950s, the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe has been organaizing two to three-day conferences for aspiring researchers. Since the end of the 20th century, the conferences have not usually been held at the Institute itself, but at the venue of a partner organization in Eastern Central Europe. Invitations are extended to up to fourteen – in exceptional cases up to sixteen – doctoral students and, in some cases, also graduates. They are organized in annual rotation in collaboration with the Institute of Northeast European Studies in Lüneburg (IKGN) and the Institute of Lithuanian History in  and as a German-Polish junior researcher conference (in the thematic sense) with a Polish partner at its university. Here, topics related to a broader field of research are presented and debated, along with one or two keynote lectures by renowned scholars. The group of participants is always international and is filled by an application procedure following a call for papers (with a focus on providing equal opportunity). Special consideration is given to the doctoral students working at the institute; if the quality of applications calls for it, additional places may be offered. The conference languages are usually German and English, but other languages may be also included if required. After the end of the conference, participants whose research shows particular promise and who have made sufficient progress will be given the opportunity to write an essay on their topic and to publish it in an issue of “ZfO” (Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung), as a standalone article, or, if the conference has been outstanding, also in an anthology.