Call for Applications
The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien invites scholars to apply for up to
four postdoctoral fellowships for the academic year 2024/2025 for the research
program Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME).
Closing Date: 8 April 2024, 12.00 noon (CEST) / Location: Berlin, Germany


Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME) seeks to rethink key
concepts and premises that link and divide Europe and the Middle East. The program draws on
the international expertise of a growing network of scholars in and outside of Germany and is
embedded in university and extra-university research institutions in and outside of Berlin. EUME
supports historical-critical philology, rigorous engagement with the literatures of the Middle East
and their histories, the social history and life of cities and the study of Middle Eastern political and
philosophical thought as central fields of research not only for area or cultural studies, but also
for European intellectual history and other academic disciplines. The program explores modernity
as a historical space and conceptual frame. EUME is interested in questions relating to ongoing
transformation processes in and between Europe and the Middle East, in re-imaginations of the
past and present that contribute to free, pluralistic and just societies.
The program puts forward three programmatic ideas:
1) supporting research that demonstrates the rich and complex historical legacies and
entanglements between Europe and the Middle East; 2) re-examining genealogical notions of
mythical ‘origins’, and ‘purity’ in relation to culture and society; and 3) rethinking key concepts of
a shared modernity and future in light of contemporary cultural, social, and political divisions and
entanglements that supersede identity discourses as well as national, cultural or regional canons
and epistemologies that were established in the nineteenth century.
EUME supports and rests upon interconnected research fields and themes that mark the open
framework for the fellowship program that constitutes EUME:
Travelling Traditions: Comparative Perspectives on Near Eastern Literatures represented
by Friederike Pannewick (Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies/Department for Arabic
Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg) and Samah Selim (Rutgers University) reassesses literary
entanglements and processes of translation and canonization between Europe and the Middle East.
Cities Compared: Governance, Consultative Mechanisms and Plurality represented by Ulrike
Freitag and Nora Lafi (both Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) contributes to the debates
on civil society, deliberation, opinion formation, citizenship, migration and mobilization from the
experience of cultural and religious differences in cities around the Mediterranean and beyond.
Tradition and the Critique of Modernity: Secularism, Fundamentalism and Religion from
Middle Eastern Perspectives represented by Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev, Beer-Sheva) tries to rethink key concepts of modernity in the context of experiences,
interpretations, and critiques from the Middle East in order to contribute to a more inclusive
language of culture, politics and community.
Politics and Processes of Change, Archaeologies of the Present, and Imaginations of the
Future are research themes that emerged during the last years and are represented by the work
of several EUME Fellows and members of the Collegium (e.g. Cilja Harders, Friederike Pannewick,
Rachid Ouaissa).
Since 1997, more than 400 scholars from and of the Middle East have been EUME Fellows, who,
by their scholarly projects, engagement, and their inquiries into the order of knowledge, society and
politics, shape the academic program of EUME that is coordinated by Georges Khalil, Jessica Metz,
Claudia Pfitzner and Rashof Salih at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
“The Prison Narratives of Assad’s Syria: Voices, Texts, Publics” (SYRASP), directed by Anne-Marie
McManus, and “Beyond Restitution: Heritage, (Dis)Possession and the Politics of Knowledge (BEYONDREST), directed by Banu Karaca, are two ERC funded projects related to EUME, hosted at
the Forum Transregionale Studien.
Fellowships
We invite scholars in the humanities and social sciences who want to carry out their research
projects in connection with the Berlin-based program. The fellowships are intended to contribute
to the mobility of researchers, and are primarily addressed to scholars from outside Germany. We
especially encourage scholars from the Middle East to apply.
Applicants should be at the postdoctoral level and should have obtained their doctorate within
the last seven years. Fellows gain the opportunity to pursue research projects of their own choice
within the framework of EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE EAST—THE MIDDLE EAST IN EUROPE.
Successful applicants will be fellows of EUME at the Forum Transregionale Studien, and associate
members of one of the university or non-university research institutes listed below or connected to
the Forum Transregionale Studien.
The fellowships start on 1 October 2024 and will end on 31 July 2025. Postdoctoral fellows will
receive a monthly stipend of 2,500 € plus supplements depending on their personal situation.
Organisational support regarding visa, insurance, housing, etc. will be provided. Fellows are obliged
to work in Berlin and to help shape the seminars and working discussions related to their research
field. The working language of EUME is English.
As the number of fellowships is limited we invite interested scholars also to apply with their own or
for external funding. If this may be an option, please contact us.
Application Procedure
We kindly ask you to submit your application via the secure online application platform of the
Forum Transregionale Studien by 8 April 2024, 12.00h (noon) CEST:
https://application.trafo-berlin.de/
Please note that applications by email will not be considered.
As part of your application, you will be asked to prepare and upload the following:
— a curriculum vitae (including a list of publications);
— a project description (no longer than 5 pages), stating what the scholar will work on in Berlin if
granted a fellowship, and
— the names of two university faculty members who can serve as referees (no letters of
recommendation required).
In case of questions, please consult the FAQ or send an email to eume@trafo-berlin.de.

Institutional Framework
Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME) has been initiated in 2006
as a joint research program of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the
Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. It builds upon the previous work
of the Working Group Modernity and Islam (1996-2006). Since 2011 EUME is continued at the
Forum Transregionale Studien.
In scholarly terms EUME is steered by a Collegium that currently consists of Ulrike Freitag
(Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin), Cilja Harders (Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science,
Freie Universität Berlin), Nora Lafi (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin), Rachid Ouaissa
(Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg / MECAM – Merian
Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb), Friederike Pannewick (Center for Near and Middle
Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg), Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev, Beer-Sheva), Samah Selim (Rutgers University), and Stefan Weber (Museum for Islamic
Art, Berlin).
The Forum Transregionale Studien (Forum) is a platform for the international cooperation between
scholars of different expertise and perspectives on global issues. Transregional approaches connect
and confront diverse disciplines, regional, national and local positions and insights on global
issues. The Forum provides scope for exchange on questions of science policy, epistemology and
ethics, and develops infrastructures and formats that allow transregional research ideas and
projects to be tested, implemented and communicated. The Forum is constituted by its members
and the diversity of their research expertise and networks. It is committed to strengthening
regional studies and to the principle of non-hierarchical research. It appoints scholars from around
the world as fellows and engages in joint research programs and initiatives with partners from
universities and research institutions in and outside Berlin. The Forum is funded by the Berlin
Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care.
The Forum currently supports the following research programs and initiatives: Europe in the
Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME), Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network
Eastern Europe, and re:constitution – Exchange and Analysis on Democracy and the Rule of Law in
Europe. The Forum is a member of the consortium of MECAM: Merian Centre for Advanced Studies
in the Maghreb, and of the research college Europäische Zeiten/European Times – A Transregional
Approach to the Societies of Central and Eastern Europe (EUTIM). Zukunftsphilologie:
Revisiting the Canons of Textual Scholarship and 4A_Lab: Art Histories, Archaeologies,
Anthropologies, Aesthetics are connected programs developed at the Forum that are continued at
other institutions.
For more information on the Forum, its programs, initiatives and communication, please visit
www.forum-transregionale-studien.de
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research
https://trafo.hypotheses.org/
For further information on EUME and for detailed information on the research fields and themes,
please visit
www.eume-berlin.de
For information on the research institutions in Berlin participating in EUME, please visit
— Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/
— Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science,
Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/en
— Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient
https://www.zmo.de
— Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/en/friedrichschlegel
— Institute of Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/islamwiss
— Museum for Islamic Art
https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/
— Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
https://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/en/e/semiarab
— Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg
https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/cnms
— MECAM – Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb
https://mecam.tn/?lang=en