The last call for applications within this programme was open until 1 March 2023 and we do not plan any further application rounds within this funding framework. For further and future scholarship opportunities at the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, please visit our main website at https://www.zeit-stiftung.de/

News

First Border in Focus seminar - June 2023 in Poland

"People are treated like commodities," says Piotr Czaban. In an interview with Karine Asatryan on the A1Plus platform, the journalist and activist talks about the situation of refugees at the Polish-Belarusian border. Asatryan conducted the interview as one of the participants who travelled to Poland's eastern border as part of the "Border in Focus" seminar in June 2023. Here, scholarship holders from the "Beyond Borders" programme came together with journalists whose work focuses on migration. The aim of the seminar was to gain a differentiated impression of the current migration situation in Poland and to show ways in which this can be communicated to the public.

You can find a short report about the seminar here.






"Beyond Borders" Fellows Working Group: From Empires to Nation-States

The global demise of empire as hegemonic polity and the subsequent emergence of nation-states draw ever-increasing scholarly attention. While older historiography portrayed this process as an uncompromising triumph of the nation over antiquated forms of statecraft, recent scholarship focusing on the afterlife of imperial structures demonstrates that these transitions were complex processes marked by both ruptures and continuities. ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS "Beyond Borders" Fellows Working Group seeks to bring together young scholars working on different aspects of these transformations across different (post-)imperial contexts and begin developing a topology of transition.

About

The “Beyond Borders” programme was launched in 2020. Since then, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS has funded 51 international doctoral students within the programme. The “Beyond Border” call for applications have focused on the following topics of “Borders, Democracy and Security” (2020), “Borders, Migration and Knowledge” (2022), and “Borders, Contestation and Conflict” (2023). Starting in 2024, the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS Ph.D. scholarship programme in the Research and Scholarship department will have a new thematic focus, which will be published on the foundation’s website in due course. There will be no further calls for applications within “Beyond Borders” programme.

Focus 2023

Borders, Contestation and Conflict

Borders’ violations have been back in the breaking news since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The war expanded the armed conflict from the Donbas region to a large part of Ukrainian territory. Following the annexation of Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the Russian Federation has attempted to incorporate further occupied areas to its state territory. The leadership in Moscow has been openly questioning the integrity and sovereignty of the Ukrainian state.  

The war in Ukraine together with further ongoing border disputes and clashes, i.e. between China and India, Ethiopia and Sudan or Armenia and Azerbaijan show that multilateralism is currently at stake. As the Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, underlined in his speech given on the 21st of February 2022 at the emergency session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Ukraine, a renewed commitment to international cooperation is needed for worldwide peace and security. He invoked his nation’s struggle for independence from the British Empire and the necessity to consent to existing borders despite their colonial heritage. Can defining the limits of jurisdiction and governance ensure peace and the international order? And what would or could this 'international order' look like? 

How did state borders develop historically in different parts of the world? How do they relate to cultural and social boundaries and depend on historical – national, imperial, colonial etc. – heritage? And what does territoriality mean today in times of geopolitical competition and changing domestic environments? How do borders contribute to the definition of sovereignty and belonging? What are their origins and how have they been transformed in the past and present times? What are the prospects of cross-border cooperation and integration?  

Questions concerning borders, their contestation as well as territorial conflicts and disputes are the focus of the current call for applications for Ph.D. scholarships. We encourage applications for projects concentrating on following aspects, although other topics will be also considered: 

We invite applications from Ph.D. students worldwide studying borders and bordering phenomena in different regions of the world. Both empirical research based on extensive fieldwork and projects centered on theoretical reflection are eligible for support. Innovative and challenging research questions as well as comparative approaches are highly welcome. 

Scholarships

BEYOND BORDERS
provides scholarships for different stages of Ph.D. research

Start Up Scholarships
for advanced master’s students and Ph.D. students in an early stage of project formulation
Duration: 10 months
Monthly living stipend of € 1,200
Dissertation Proposal Development Workshop

Ph.D. Scholarships
for Ph.D. students enrolled in Ph.D. programs or admitted to an individual Ph.D. scheme
Duration: one to three years
Monthly living stipend of € 1,400
Yearly Students’ Conference

Dissertation Completion Scholarships
for advanced Ph.D. students
Duration: one year
Monthly living stipend of € 1,400
Yearly Students’ Conference

Advisory Board

Akosua Adomako Ampofo
Professor at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon
President, African Studies Association of Africa

Michael Goebel
Einstein Professor of Global History, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin

Peggy Levitt
Chair, Department of Sociology, Wellesley College
Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Co-Founder, Global (De)Centre

Noora Lori
Assistant Professor of International Relations, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Steffen Mau
Professor of Macrosociology, Department of Social Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Ranabir Samaddar
Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group

Jens Schneider
Senior Researcher at the Institute of Migration Studies and Intercultural Studies, Universität Osnabrück
Co-Founder, Global (De)Centre

Sören Urbansky
Head of Office & Research Fellow, Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington at UC Berkeley
Visiting Professor, Department of History, Central European University Vienna

Application

The last call for applications within this programme was open until 1 March 2023 and we do not plan any further application rounds within this funding framework. For further and future scholarship opportunities at the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, please visit our main website at https://www.zeit-stiftung.de/ and follow our Research and Scholarship team on LinkedIn at ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS Wissenschaft.

Fellows 2020Fellows 2022Fellows 2023

PAULINE ADAM

Quantification Devices of Irregular Migration at the European Union Level: Between ´computational coalitions´ and Use in Migration Governance

Université Libre de Bruxelles / École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Pauline Adam >>

JOSEPHINE AKINYOSOVE

Black Politics, Activism and Identity in Western Europe: Negotiations, Continuities and Visions

University of Hamburg
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Josephine Akinyosove >>

OSCAR APONTE

The Roads to Rural Colonization: A Regional History of Putumayo, Colombia, 1893-1977

The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Oscar Aponte >>

ERIC ELIKEM ASHIABI

Contested Citizenship and Social Cohesion: A Comparative Study of the Ewe and Mande Cross-Border Ethnic Groups in West Africa

University of Duisburg-Essen
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Eric Elikem Ashiabi >>

PETER AWODI

Politics of Identity: Colonial Border Delineation, Belonging and the Securitization of the Anglophone People of Cameroon

University of Ibadan
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Peter Awodi >>

LAURA CHARNEY

A Tale of Two Treaties: Adjudicating Canada’s Colonial Borderlands

McGill University
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Laura Charney >>

DAIGENGNA DUOER

Buddhism Beyond Nations and Empires: Mapping Transnational Buddhist Networks from Early Twentieth-Century Inner Mongolia and Manchuria

University of California Santa Barbara
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Daigengna Duoer >>

WALID HABBAS

The Political Economy of the West Bank-Israeli Economic Relationship: Class and Sectoral Analysis

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Walid Habbas >>

JACQUELIN KATANEKSZA

Running in the Shadows: Fugitive Movements Across and Beyond the Dark City

The New School
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Jacquelin Kataneksza >>

THEA KIRSCH

Care or Control? The Safety/Security Nexus and the Externalization of Europe's Borders

Freie Universität Berlin
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Thea Kirsch >>

MAGDALENE KLASSEN

Good Work: Jewish Sex Work and Transnational Human Rights Work, 1885 – 1931

Johns Hopkins University
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Magdalene Klassen >>

ROMAIN LANNEAU

Respect for the Duty of Care and Data Quality a Guarantee for the Rule of Law in Asylum Procedure in the European Union

Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Romain Lanneau >>

ALEXANDER MAIER

Paper-Work: The Political Economy of Migration, Labor, and Documentation in Postsocialist Moscow

Columbia University
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Alexander Maier >>

JAMES MEADOR

Making Chinese Orthodox

University of Michigan
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about James Meador >>

NICHOLAS NYACHEGA

Borderlanders, Contested Sovereignties, and Everyday Life in North-Eastern Zimbabwe, c.1890s to 2021

University of Minnesota
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Nicholas Nyachega >>

ZORA PISKAČOVÁ

Torn Towns: Civic Elites between Local Belonging and Nationalization in Cieszyn and Český Těšín, 1919-1938

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Zora Piskačová >>

BURAK SAYIM

Transnational Communist Networks in the Post-WW1 Middle East: Anti-Colonialism, Internationalism and Itinerant Militancy, 1919-1928

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Burak Sayim >>

LUKAS SCHMID

Enforcing Borders and Preventing Immigration: A Normative Appraisal on Two Levels

European University Institute, Florence
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Lukas Schmid >>

GIRMA DEFERE TEGEGN

Effects of Cross-Border Population Mobility on Environmental Resource Governance and Sustainability: Case of Ethio-Kenya

Jimma University
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Girma Defere Tegegn >>

ANRAN WANG

The Model Borderland of Maoist China: Identity Politics and Ideological Contentions in Inner Mongolia, 1945-1966

Cornell University
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Anran Wang >>

ZAKARIA AL SHMALY

The Local Context of Refugee Political Socialisation: A Mixed-method Analysis of Syrian Refugees in Germany


United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology,
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Zakaria Al Shmaly >>

YAA OPAREBEA AMPOFO

Circuits of Sense-Making: A Study of Youth Experiences of Human-Earth Relations, Ecological Knowledge, and Environmental Change in Ghana

University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Yaa Oparebea Ampofo >>

SAHAR BOSTOCK

Desert Colonization: Ottoman, British, and Zionist Development in Southern Palestine, 1830-1950

Columbia University in the City of New York,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Sahar Bostock >>

LUNA CARRASQUER

Women Fight, Women Write: Renegotiating the Borders of the War Canon

Utrecht University, University of Oviedo,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Luna Carrasquer >>

ELERI CONNICK

The Diaspora as Cultural Creative Spaces

University of Amsterdam,
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Eleri Connick >>

LINA GABRIELA CORTÉS

Artistic Productions of the Brazil-Uruguay Border: Mixed Portuñol

National University of San Martín,
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Lina Gabriela Cortés >>

ARNAB DUTTA

In Search of an Alternative Europe: Germanism in the Bengali Imagination, 1919–1945

University of Groningen,
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Arnab Dutta >>

KARL HEYER

Ambiguous Policy, Uneven Implementation, Discretionary Practices. A Situated Analysis of Fragmented Spatio-legal Bordering Dynamics in the post-2015 European Border and Migration Regime on Sicily

Universität Osnabrück,
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Karl Heyer >>

MARQUISAR JEAN-JACQUES

Lines Drawn in the Sand: The Shifting Boundaries of Kali’na Territory at the Mouth of the Maroni River

Université de Guyane,
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Marquisar Jean-Jacques >>

SUVI LENSU

Cosmopolitanism from the Margins – Embodied Migrations, Beauty and Belonging amongst Rwandan Cross-Border Sex Workers

The University of Edinburgh and Aarhus University,
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Suvi Lensu >>

DAVID MOTZAFI-HALLER

A Nation of Families among the Family of Nations: Upwardly Mobile Israeli Developers and their Families in the Middle East and Africa, 1926 – 1979

The Geneva Graduate Institute
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about David Motzafi-Haller >>

SHREYA PARIKH

Race and Racialization in North Africa: The Case of Blackness in "Arab" Tunisia

L’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Shreya Parikh >>

NAMA'A QUDAH

Paths of Displacement and Refuge: Tracing the Movement in Al Wehdat Camp in Amman, Jordan

Delft University of Technology,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Nama'a Qudah >>

ANDREAS STOIBER

The Social Life of Satellite Images – A Qualitative Research Project into the Work of Space-Eye and the Application of Artificial Intelligence for Supporting Sea Rescue Missions

University of Amsterdam,
Bucerius Strat Up Scholarship

more about Andreas Stoiber >>

SIMON TRUNK

Negotiating Life in between Empires: Debates on the Position, Possibilities and Belonging of Bosnian and Cypriot Muslims in Relation to the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian and British Rule

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg,
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Simon Trunk >>

LIN YI-HUI

Untangling China: Everyday Lives and Nation-Making

Utrecht University,
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Lin Yi-Hui >>

EMINA ZOLETIC

Intergenerational Transmission of the Memory of the War: The Cases of Families in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and the Bosnian Diaspora in Europe

University of Warsaw,
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Emina Zoletic >>

TIMOFEY BALIN

User-conceived Algorithmized Platform Interaction and the Production of Confidence and Trust on Telegram

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Timofey Balin >>

LYDIA BARRETT

Sacred Songs from the Kitchen: Women's Participatory Performance and Bricolage Percussion in Trans-Saharan Perspective

University of California, Santa Cruz
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Lydia Barrett >>

MARIA BELÉN LÓPEZ

Environment and Care: Perceptions and Practices of Rural Migrant Women from the Reconquista Basin of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM)
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Maria Belén López >>

MARIA BOWLING

Borderlands as the Nation's Margins: Decolonization, State-building and Language in Angola’s Forgotten South (1950s-2010s)

N.N.
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Maria Bowling >>

SEBASTIAN CARLOTTI

Mobility or Immobility? The Complex Implementation of Legal Migration Channels between Europe and West Africa

Università di Pisa & University of Amsterdam
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Sebastian Carlotti >>

NABIL FERDAOUSSI

Border Hauntology: An Ethnography of Border Death and Disappearance at the EU-Moroccan Borders

University of Cape Town
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Nabil Ferdaoussi >>

YUN JUNG KIM

Bases and Borders of the Pacific: Migrant Labor, Medical Humanitarianism, and Asian Refugees

University of Minnesota
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Yun Jung Kim >>

TIMOR LANDHERR

Border Politics Beyond Limits: Spatializing Externalization and the Production of Transit States

Queen Mary University of London
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Timor Landherr >>

TESS MEGGINSON

Re-Imagining Europe’s Borders: The Mapping of Czechoslovakia, 1915–1920

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship

more about Tess Megginson >>

NICHOLAS NYACHEGA

Seeing like Borderlanders”: Border(lands) Controls, Mobilities, Contestations and Everyday Life in North-Eastern Zimbabwe, c.1890s to the Present

University of Minnesota
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Nicholas Nyachega >>

GABRIELLE ROBINSON-TILLENBURG

Border Crossing: Island Artists Defying US Military Occupation

University of Maryland College Park
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Gabrielle Robinson-Tillenburg >>

LEON JONAS SCHLÜTER

Visions of the Border: Political Theory and the Displacement of Border Struggles

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Bucerius Start Up Scholarship

more about Leon Jonas Schlüter >>

LOUISE THATCHER

Spaces of Bordering along the Shipping Routes between Bremen and Australia across the late 19th and early 20th Centuries

Universität Potsdam
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Louise Thatcher >>

SAMUEL TSEGAI

Mapping Ethiopia: Sovereignty, Territoriality and Nationalism, 1855-1941

Queen's University
Bucerius Dissertation Completion Scholarship

more about Samuel Tsegai >>

Contact

ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS
Feldbrunnenstrasse 56
20148 Hamburg
Germany

Dr. Anna HofmannAcademic Director
+49 (0) 40 41 336 785

Mail to Dr. Anna Hofmann

Rosenka Babinets Project Manager
+49 (0) 40 41 336 770

Mail to Rosenka Babinets

ZEIT
STIFTUNG
BUCERIUS

ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS
Feldbrunnenstrasse 56
20148 Hamburg
Germany