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The Basel Graduate School of History (BGSH) is offering two 1-year starter scholarships (Start date: 1 October 2020).

Your tasks

The purpose of the scholarships is to support you during the starting phase of your doctorate. Within the first six months of your scholarship, you must develop a grant application for your doctoral project and submit it to the Swiss National Science Foundation, or another funding institution.

Your profile

The scholarships are intended for graduates who hold a Master’s degree or an equivalent qualification in History, and who are interested in carrying out research in one of the following areas: Medieval History, Early Modern History, Modern and Contemporary History, Eastern European History, Jewish History, Global History. A high level of motivation is expected, with the ability to carry out a research project independently over the course of several years as an active member of the BGSH, and to contribute to academic debates both within and outside the Department of History. For further information on the fields of study at the BGSH see: https://bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch/about-us/research-fields/?L=1.

What we offer

The Basel Graduate School of History offers a structured graduate studies programme in history within an intellectually inspiring environment. Doctoral students at the BGSH benefit from a rich scholarly exchange, joint workshops and research seminars, and a vast international and interdisciplinary network. Moreover, the BGSH offers further instruments to pursue your doctoral project and supports the realization of own scholarly events. The 1-year scholarship amounts to CHF 30,000 and is paid in two tranches (with intermediate evaluation).

Application

Deadline for applications: 22 March 2020

The application is to be submitted electronically on following web page:

https://bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch/application

In addition, please email the following documents to the coordinator at the Basel Graduate School of History, Laura Ritter (laura.ritter@unibas.ch):

1. Covering letter
2. CV (including a list of publications, where applicable)
3. Outline of the dissertation project (max. 3 pages)
4. Degree certificate
5. One or two text samples (incl. master thesis or equivalent)

Please submit the documents in two separate pdf files:

– Documents 1 to 4: one single file with the title >[surname]-bew.pdf<

– Text samples: one single file with the title >[surname]-texte.pdf<

Applications can be submitted in German, French, or English. Applicants who are about to complete their studies can apply, provided that they can submit an official graduation certificate no later than 7 June 2020. Applications from doctoral students already enrolled at other institutions will not be considered. Holders of a starter scholarship must enrol as PhD students at the University of Basel.

Contact

For further information, please consult bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch or contact Laura Ritter at laura.ritter@unibas.ch / +41 61 207 74 6 74

Starter scholarships of the Basel Graduate School of History

The Basel Graduate School of History (BGSH) is offering three 1-year starter scholarships (Start date: 1^st of April 2020).

Your tasks

The purpose of the scholarships is to support you during the starting phase of your doctorate. Within the first six months of your scholarship, you must develop a grant application for your doctoral project and submit it to the Swiss National Science Foundation, or another funding institution.

Your profile

The scholarships are intended for graduates who hold a Master’s degree or an equivalent qualification in History, and who are interested in carrying out research in one of the following areas: Medieval History, Early Modern History, Modern and Contemporary History, Eastern European History, African History, Jewish History, Global History. A high level of motivation is expected, with the ability to carry out a research project independently over the course of several years as an active member of the BGSH, and to contribute to academic debates both within and outside the Department of History. For further information on the fields of study at the BGSH see: https://bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch/about-us/research-fields/?L=1.

What we offer

The Basel Graduate School of History offers a structured graduate studies programme in history within an intellectually inspiring environment. Doctoral students at the BGSH benefit from a rich scholarly exchange, joint workshops and research seminars, and a vast international and interdisciplinary network. Moreover, the BGSH offers further instruments to pursue your doctoral project and supports the realization of own scholarly events. The 1-year scholarship amounts to CHF 30,000 and is paid in two tranches (with intermediate evaluation).

Application

Deadline for applications: 10 November 2019

The application is to be submitted electronically on following web page:

https://bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch/application

In addition, please email the following documents to the coordinator at the Basel Graduate School of History, Laura Ritter (laura.ritter@unibas.ch):

1. Covering letter
2. CV (including a list of publications, where applicable)
3. Outline of the dissertation project (max. 3 pages)
4. Degree certificate
5. One or two text samples (incl. master thesis or equivalent)

Please submit the documents in two separate pdf files:

– Documents 1 to 4: one single file with the title >[surname]-bew.pdf<

– Text samples: one single file with the title >[surname]-texte.pdf<

Applications can be submitted in German, French, or English. Applicants who are about to complete their studies can apply, provided that they can submit an official graduation certificate no later than 10 February 2020. Applications from doctoral students already enrolled at other institutions will not be considered. Holders of a starter scholarship must enrol as PhD students at the University of Basel.

Contact

For further information, please consult bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch or contact Laura Ritter at laura.ritter@unibas.ch / +41 61 207 74 6 74

Some impressions from our #Graines2019 (7th Graines summer school) at Charles University on Experts and Expertise in Motion.

The summer school with some 30 guests – students and staff – is in full swing. The spirit is high: presentations, workshops, excellent discussions – not easy given the conditions: 30 degrees plus but the setting is classy.

The range of topics is great: from engineers and architects, to Esperanto activists and turning sources into “data”, gun-dealers during the Spanish Civil War, expert knowledge and cigar-making in the European Atlantic, from networked German-Jewish invitation letters and letters of recommendation, to World Fairs experts…

Here are some of our #Graines2018 (Twitter) impressions from the Sciences Po, Reims campus, 6-8 June 2018. Reims may have a cathedral, but the Sciences Po campus is a cathedral in its own right.

Here we go: With Jakob Vogel introducing Global Europe.

And straight into Kapil Raj’s (EHESS) keynote – Calcutta, dogs, alcoholics…fascinating world.

And over to the students: 5-7mins speedy, punchy presentations.

Ok, global-transnational Europe…gimme a break. We are also here for coffee, are we not?

Over to Natalie Scholz (University of Amsterdam) for her keynote.

Research into local food culture, yummy! Gluten here we come.

Marketa Krízová (Charles University) taking us to early Latin America and European missions…and utopia.

Marketa Krizova (Prague)

On behalf of all participants, we would like to thank the Science Po team around Jakob Vogel and Thomas Gauchet for organising and hosting our 5th Graines Summer School at the beautiful Sciences Po campus at Reims, 6th to 8th June 2018.

Global Europe #Graines2018

Our summer school on “Global Europe. Connecting European History (17th to 21th Century) brought together some 30 scholars – staff, Master students, PhDs, postdocs – from Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, USA, Turkey, Germany, France, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, and Switzerland.

For 2.5 days we discussed themes, topics, and readings ranging from colonial encounters in 18th-century Calcutta, to versions of maritime history, early modern European missions and visions of Latin America, to “Eurafrica” and colonial as well as transnational connections to migration history and the globally connected village. Formats ranged from keynotes to reading groups, 5-mins speed-presentations by our PhDs to a sprint-pair-writing session on aspects that had arisen from discussions. The programme can be found here: GRAINES 2018 Programme Summer School.

Market Krizova (Prague)

Following two intense and packed days of keynotes, presentations and project discussions, students were asked to team up in pairs and pick any point of discussion or feedback and co-write for 2×25 mins as a team. The challenge was a multiple one: it was later in the evening, co-writing (with very limited time) is normally not what we do as historians, and English was not the native language for most participants. Yet the reflections were highly inspiring. Here are some tasters:

Celtic Revivalist Movements: From Comparative approaches to Interconnected Methodologies (Martina) 

 My PhD project seemed well defined before arriving to GRAINES summer school. My intention was to extract differences and similarities between Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Breton revivalist groups participating in Pan-Celtic Congress, and their approach and reasoning about Celtic Identity as label or tool, within the context of their goals. It should have been “classical” comparison, studying each of the groups more or less separately. However, discussions and the whole topic of the venue (Global and Transnational Historical Approaches) made me think not only about the interconnections between these groups, individual actors, but also external influences. I’ve realized that by applying this perspective I will be more likely able to formulate the aspects that influence the social group representation, and to see through the motivations of each of these groups or individuals. Microhistorical and transnational approach in combination with comparison could be a good starting point.

Neither Really Global nor Imperial? – How to Conceptualise Connectivity over Countries, Empires, Continents and Oceans (Tom & Merle)

Global and Imperial History, increasingly seen as overlapping, have been hotly discussed in recent years and its popularity among historians only seems to be growing. As a consequence, more and more attempts are coming up to specify the exact workings of such global and imperial connections. One of them is the article Global History, Imperial History and Connected Histories of Empire by Simon J. Potter and Jonathan Saha. We both think this could revolutionise our understanding of such connections. We will illustrate this with our respective projects.

Imperial violence in the fin de siècle period was ubiquitous and took very similar forms in many different empires, be they British, German, Dutch or otherwise.

PhD Presentations

This has had historians puzzling where this violence came from. Was it something that arose out of the specific conditions of colonial warfare that colonial troops saw themselves confronted with? For instance, most colonial wars sooner or later took the form of an asymmetric conflict. This might have led to imperial armies coming up with the same kind of solutions in different contexts. In this vein, Dierk Walter has argued that these armies had to ‘re-invent the wheel over and over again’. However, there were also many different forms in which knowledge on specific techniques of colonial violence was passed on. These forms included accounts of colonial wars, specific handbooks for prospective colonial soldiers, but also a mouth-to-mouth conveyance wherein soldiers with colonial experience, either on the spot in the colony, or within certain regiments, could teach persons new to colonial warfare about its specifics. Continue reading →

Global Europe. Connecting European History

Going against stereotypes:

• Historians are slow…. (and we love it! And there are good reasons!)
• Historians are lone wolfs… (and we love it, those days in archives and libraries… just leave me alone!)
• BUT let us be different (just for an hour), learn from Coding, Computer Sciences, Speed Dating (no kissing and hugging, unless you want to) – PAIR WRITING (driver and co-pilot)

What we need:

• Pairs of 2 – 1 Computer (needed per pair) – 1 Idea Sticker
• Either 2×30 mins or 1×60
• Create a Document with names – punchy title & punchy paragraph or two (send to bs50@st-andrews.ac.uk)
• Take 5 minutes to discuss your 1 or 2 points of writing

Goal, Format and Setup:

• Think: BLOG – as in Be prepared, Language matters, Opinion matters, Go for it
• Write a paragraph or two on ANY point of interest from “Global Europe” – a text, a point of discussion, what you learned, what you would like to share with others, which idea you take home… OR write the first page of your PhD!
• Questions? …. GO FOR IT! Have fun… but not too much, be productive

By Sophie Drescher

‘After the digital turn’ – the title of the GRAINES Summer School 2017 in Basel, Switzerland evoked images of a path into a new, largely unknown world, full of potentials and perils. It simultaneously conjured open doors in front and impenetrable walls behind every researcher – the death of the traditional historian, the birth of the digital historian. Scholarship has turned digital, there is no way back – but: is this true and do we like it?

The presented projects showed a fascinating diversity in scope, approach, and focus, and yet, whether they discussed databases and data collection, time machines, visualisation, or network analysis, they all connected over the same questions:

(When) is it useful to employ digital methods? What is the effect of using digital methods? And, parallel to the inherent problem of a historian’s work – quantity versus quality – the underlying question of limits, time costs, and frustration.

While many participants arrived with relatively set ideas as to their approval on digital humanities – ranging from “the next logical step in scholarship” to “I am more than sceptical” – every individual researcher allowed themselves and others an open discussion in which positions were repeatedly questioned, and even avid proponents of digital methods raised concerns and doubts as to their use and value.

As indeed, what is the use of a database that collects information just because it can? What is the use of a map that merely illustrates, a graph that adds nothing but colour to the written word? And how sustainable is our research in an ever-changing technical environment?

On a personal note, I arrived as someone feeling humbled by the seemingly endless opportunities of digital humanities, with a fear of technologies that seemed to require a completely different training than I had received. I left Basel as someone who supports the potential of digital methods, with a much more positive interest in employing new technologies than ever before.

Why? Because I realised that despite all the very real issues with digital methods (from ethical questions to the sheer amount of tinker time necessary to master the technical skills) they are simply a new way of doing our familiar work as historians. At best they open new ways of asking questions that a conventional approach might not uncover. At worst they waste time and energy in pointless activity without meaningful results. Databases ease the collection of data and allow for new quantitative approaches but they cannot select or answer our questions. Maps have been a selective representation for centuries, they do not change their inherent characteristics just because pencil becomes pixel.

Digital methods require critical engagement with both the techniques and the results. They require the skills every good historian has been trained in from the start of their studies. The trick to leave the fear behind and start to see the chance seems to be the realisation that a historian’s work still first and foremost happens in his mind – and that skill is open to everyone.

By Adam Dunn

The GRAINES Summer School for 2017 introduced a topic that for most historians is both exciting and confusing. The way historians have interacted, used and abused digital methods has tended in two directions. The first, a caution or fear of the unknown. Historians feel that they cannot learn the skills that are required to make best use of the digital humanities or they simply refuse. The second, is with open, uncritical, arms of the miracle technology that will eventually save the Historian’s Craft. The line between the two positions seems thin and difficult to walk. However, this Summer School did a perfect job of it.

The workshops, discussions and project led sessions were critical, engaging and informative. Sessions designed to teach showcase new skills, such as GIS or database software, did not just uncritically present their digital packages as one-size-fits-all deals, or as black boxes in which one could place their research questions and magically find them answered at the other end. Instead, they made us critically engage with the digital turn and to reflect upon why and how we use certain methodologies. One of the most important messages to take away is that the digital humanities must be subject to the same critical criterion of any historical methodology. Additionally, the digital humanities is not a device we can use to answer every question, instead it is useful only so far as we make it useful. A database for the sake of a database is nice but runs the risk of becoming nothing more than a pretty toy.

The project related sessions added a more personal touch and an excellent space to show the benefits of the digital humanities for a diverse range of specific topics or to air one’s concerns or struggles with these new methods. It was also a chance to showcase a wide range of tools that could, potentially, be of use to the historian and how they may go a certain way to answering research questions, or even of creating new ones.

From a personal perspective, I came to Basel having tried many of the digital methods and exploring their possibilities in relation to my topic. More often than not, I came away frustrated and unsure of what the digital humanities could offer me. However, after this intensive week of discussion and discovery I feel that I should give the digital humanities another chance. The help I have received has reinvigorated my desire to retry techniques, apply them in new ways and to ask different, more critical, questions of my method.