The Berlin-based FORUM TRANSREGIONALE STUDIEN invites scholars to apply for up to ten postdoctoral fellowships within the framework of the research program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices. Kunstgeschichte und ästhetische Praktiken for the academic year 2016/2017.
Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices is a research and fellowship program which questions and transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries of art history in a transcultural, global horizon. By creating a space of dialogue for scholars from all continents and regions, it aims to discuss the potentials and contours of a plural history of art. It especially invites scholars from Islamic, Asian, African, Australian, European art histories and those of the Americas to join the program, but also addresses neighboring disciplines such as Archaeology and other fields dealing with the history of visual cultures. Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices analyses the connectivity of larger historical spaces in a transregional perspective and investigates artistic and aesthetic practices and the history of artifacts in a comparative approach, experimenting with new methodologies and forms of collaborative research. The concept of Aesthetic Practices introduced by this program, is an invitation to study artifacts with their biographies as well as processes of transfer and transformation in a transcultural, postcolonial and global perspective. The program has no chronological or geographical constraints. It collaborates with the museums of Berlin, the Berlin universities, as well as other international and national academic partners, and aims at an intense interaction of art historical institutions. Its scholarly environment is designed to enable and encourage both fellows and the wider community to experiment and refine transregional approaches to the history of visual cultures and aesthetic practices.
Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices is an initiative of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut (KHI) at the FORUM TRANSREGIONALE STUDIEN, Berlin. Art Histories is directed by Hannah Baader and Gerhard Wolf and cooperates with the program Connecting Art Histories in the Museum (Berlin State Museums/KHI Florenz).
Candiates
Applicants should have obtained their doctorate within the last seven years (before their application). We welcome applications from all continents and regions, with various disciplinary backgrounds, such as Art Histories, Archaeologies and all relevant neighboring fields dealing with artifacts, artistic production, and aesthetic practices relating to objects, images and architectures. Applicants should be interested to engage in reflexive and transdisciplinary research. Art Histories fellows are given the opportunity to pursue their individual research projects within a transdisciplinary and transregional context. They are expected to engage in the program activities, such as regular seminars, workshops, conferences and a travelling seminar. In the overall context of the Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices program and the framework of the FORUM TRANSREGIONALE STUDIEN, the fellows will be part of a creative, intellectually stimulating and discursive environment.