The Graduate School Scholarship Program (GSSP) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) offers one doctoral scholarship to research and complete a doctorate in the "Ancient Objects and Visual Studies" program (former "Material Cultures and Object Studies") at the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (BerGSAS).

We welcome applications from highly qualified graduates from the fields of Near Eastern and Prehistoric Archaeology, Egyptology, Classical Archaeology and Ancient Art History, focused on Ancient Art, Early Christian, or Islamic Art. The candidates must hold a Master's degree, or equivalent degree, in one of the aforementioned subjects or be very close to completion. The scholarship is available from October 2016 for three or four years (subject to a satisfactory annual progress review). The call is open only to applicants who are not German citizens and who have not resided in Germany continuously for longer than 12 months as of the application deadline.

The "Ancient Objects and Visual Studies" program is a structured doctoral program that covers the study of ancient objects and art from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the early Islamic period. The common element of the doctoral program is the work conducted on concrete objects, on artefacts or object groups. The main focus always includes iconographical and hermeneutic methods of the interpretation of images within their cultural context. The formation and the development of images, artistic practices, the status of images and their use in the political and private sphere will be examined, including the effects of images on human behaviour and culture. The program deals with material and visual culture, related to the real and imaginary word (sculptures, paintings, architecture, urban spaces, but also generally concepts of the past). Conservational, archival, museological or IT aspects, and legal as well as political problems are included. The collaboration with major partner institutions such as the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin also allows investigations on the material of the Ägyptisches Museum, the Antikensammlung, the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, the Museum für Islamische Kunst and the Vorderasiatische Museum.

The announced scholarship is intended for topics in the field of Near Eastern Archaeology, Egyptology, Classical Archaeology and History of Art, focusing on ancient, early Christian or Islamic Art.