The seminar will provide a forum for doctoral students to present their work and receive critical feedback from experts as well as to discuss questions and problems with peers. This shall lead to an interdisciplinary and intercultural “polylogue”. Presentations will be augmented with keynote addresses and parallel workshops dealing with a specific set of problems or reconsidering methodical approaches. Discussions will be based on pre-circulated texts and papers. For details see http://www.konak-wien.org/docse.htm. The main goal of the seminar is to foster excellence in global history research by giving doctoral students constructive feedback and technical advice from senior researchers as well as the opportunity to exchange ideas with peers outside of their home institution and insights relative to career development. To create an easy atmosphere, we have scheduled social activities such as an informal get-together on the evening before the seminar and an excursion on the afternoon of September 18 exploring “Global places in Vienna”. We encourage participants to stay for the duration of the international bicentenary conference.

Participants may focus on any area or field pertaining to the 18th/19th/20th century but should have a strong interest in building a global dimension into their work. We invite applications from doctoral students from any university in any country at any stage of their doctoral studies, and plan to have about 30 attendees. We are not able to accommodate the oral presentations of all the participants and will therefore make a selection. All others will be offered the possibility of presenting a poster. This will probably provide the opportunity to go into more detail than is possible in a short oral presentation and also allow the option of displaying your poster throughout the main conference. However, keep in mind when applying that you must submit your paper or poster in advance, no later than 4 August 2014.

Application due date: 9 July 2014. Final decisions will be announced by mid July.

Applications are to be submitted electronically to: Christian.Cwik@sta.uwi.edu
with the following documents (either PDF or Word format) attached:

1) Cover letter (containing applicant’s name, affiliation, email address, indicating your stage of research, and explaining your interest in participating in the seminar, 1 page)
2) Dissertation proposal (max. 5 pages)
3) Letter of support from your supervisor
4) Short CV (max. 3 pages)
Please include applicant’s surname as part of file name for each document submitted.

The doctoral seminar is generously sponsored by the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Vienna, the Austrian Student`s Union Klagenfurt/Celovec and the Association of Continental American and Caribbean Studies and Culture (KonaK Vienna). Registration will be free of charge. Some help on travelling costs for students, who will present their work and are coming from countries with strongly challenged economies, will be provided.

For inquiries contact any of the seminar assistants:
Philipp Bruckmayr (University of Vienna), pbruckmayr@konak-wien.org
Florian Kerschbaumer (University of Klagenfurt), Florian.Kerschbaumer@uni-klu.ac.at
Verena Muth (University of Cologne), vmuth@konak-wien.org
Georg Schendl (University of Graz/University of Vienna), georg.schendl@uni-graz.at