Promoting Young Researchers

The connection between the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) and universities is particularly strengthened by the IfZ research staff members of professorial rank, who help supervise junior researchers. The professors and university lecturers of the institute teach at the Universities of Augsburg, Chemnitz, Mainz, Munich, Münster, and Potsdam in addition to staff with part-time teaching assignments at other universities. These activities have led to a network for the benefit of the institute, universities, and students.

The IfZ Doctoral Student Day took place for the first time in autumn 2018, providing a platform for IfZ doctoral students to discuss their dissertation projects in individual conversations with IfZ researchers. This format was conceived and organized by the doctoral students (and their speakers) themselves and received the express support of the institute direction. Many IfZ senior staff made use of the opportunity to have more in-depth discussions with young IfZ researchers. The Doctoral Student Day, which will now occur annually, raises the profile of the research of young historians and boosts collegial ties and academic exchange within the institute.

Building on tried and tested doctoral seminars, which go back to the director’s former teaching activities in Augsburg, the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History established a doctoral student network in 2012, which not only connects the PhD students working at the IfZ more closely with each other, but is especially successful when it comes to bringing about a regular exchange with the junior researchers of other universities. The network connects the IfZ with the Departments of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Bonn (Prof. Joachim Scholtyseck) and University of Mainz (Prof. Andreas Rödder) and with the Department of German Contemporary History at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Prof. Hélène Miard-Delacroix). Once a year, there is an international doctoral colloquium over the course of several days, which brings together the doctoral students of the IfZ and those universities.

The IfZ has been offering a writing practice seminar since 2007. It has taken place once each year in Aldersbach, Lower Bavaria under the auspices of the editors of the journal Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Under the guidance of experienced authors, young scholars – generally doctoral students – have the opportunity to learn the principles of excellent academic writing. Many junior researchers have already participated in the event, which has also become an important addition to the work of the institute.

Further information on the writing practice seminar