The Doctoral Studies Program “History and Cultural Studies” (HCS) invites applications for up to ten study places

Application deadline: November 15, 2025

Program start date: Winterterm 2026/27

The Program offers graduate students with an excellent academic record a structured, research-oriented curriculum in cultural studies with disciplinary and interdisciplinary elements for doctoral studies in one of the research areas of the Department of History and Cultural Studies. The PhD Program is a three-year curriculum. Courses are taught in English and German.

HCS considers both the tradition of Kulturwissenschaften taught in Germany and the Anglo-American cultural studies approach to (socio-)political questions. The doctoral program brings these subjects together in the common interest of combining broad approaches of cultural studies with subject-specific knowledge and competence and forming a practice of interdisciplinary work. The program gives doctoral students the opportunity to develop and regularly discuss their own research based on these discursive traditions. Participation in the HCS requires both well-founded subject knowledge and a profound interest in theoretical and methodological issues on an interdisciplinary level.

Application: The application for the PhD program can be submitted in German or English exclusively via the online portal of the Dahlem Research School. The online portal will be open until November 15, 2025. For further information about the Doctoral Studies Program and the application process, please visit also our website.

We invite prospective students to join a webinar on 23 September 2025 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, to answer questions about our PhD program and the application process.

For further information, please click here.