The International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities” (IMPRS-KIR) invites applications for 5 doctoral positions, to begin on September 1, 2024. Each position will run for 3.5 years, with the possibility of extending once by six months.

The IMPRS-KIR is a research-driven PhD program based in the history and philosophy of science, technology, and medicine (HPSTM). It is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin. The IMPRS-KIR traces the deep entanglements of knowledge and its resources from a long-term and global perspective. Key to its agenda is a “historical-political epistemology” that highlights how knowledge is shaped historically by a great variety of resources – political systems, technological infrastructures, social interaction, material objects and media technologies. Knowledge, in turn, is understood as a means to define and unlock such resources, while being, in and of itself, one of the key resources of human culture.

The School offers training in historical-political epistemology, combining HPSTM with Regional and Global Studies, Science & Technology Studies (STS), all fields of history, media studies, museum studies, archaeology, art history, literary studies, philology, environmental studies, and digital humanities research. Prospective doctoral students with projects on any specialty and period within these and related fields are invited to apply.

The IMPRS-KIR is located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Dahlem, Berlin. The successful applicants will receive funding via an employment contract with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science or with one of the three Berlin universities involved in the IMPRS-KIR (FU, HU, TU) and will have the possibility to teach. The PhD degrees will be awarded by one of the Berlin university departments represented in the Principal Teaching Faculty.