A project of the Lichtenberg-Kolleg - The Göttingen Institute of Advanced Study and the Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt.

This new project aims to open up a range of additional and new perspectives, exploring the history of Anne Frank and her diaries within the framework of more comparative European, if not global cultural, intellectual, literary and political history. 

Seventy years after the end of the Second World War our knowledge about the war and the Holocaust is based upon a wide variety of sources and a rich range of historiographies. Amongst the first sources to be published, and quickly acquiring a rather unique status, were the diary notes of Anne Frank. Around the world many children and teenagers have read and are still reading editions of Anne´s diaries, either at school or in private. 

Anne Frank’s notes have been aligned with a wide range of moral debates—on refugees, on asylum, on human rights. From a historian’s perspective this is not without problems. Over the decades countless publications, oral histories and autobiographies relating to the Holocaust have become available, enabling us to read and study Anne Frank’s diaries in the context of these sources. So far much research has focused on important issues such as the authenticity of the diaries, a key topic of the debates of the 1970s and 1980s, on aspects of Anne Frank’s family history and on the issue of who was responsible for the betrayal of the inhabitants of the Secret Annex.

For the new Junior Research Fellows, the institute will provide the opportunity to bring their research to a more advanced level after their doctorate and to prepare themselves for their professional future as academic teachers, researchers and administrators. 

The JRF programme will combine research and professional training and will assist Fellows in:

• Turning their thesis into a monograph
• Learning about publishers and publishing
• Starting up a new research project
• Learning about funding opportunities (and about how to apply)
• Developing the skills needed in the life of academic teaching and administration.
• Teaching at undergraduate level. These teaching opportunities are to be developed in close cooperation with the Göttingen associate members of each research group who will act as mentors.

Eligibility

Candidates are eligible during the five-year period following the successful completion of their Ph.D. The Ph.D. defence should take place no later than 31/01/2014. Extensions to the five-year rule are allowed for applicants whose academic career has been interrupted for maternity leave or illness.

Please provide information on circumstances in the application. Successful candidates will be asked to provide supporting documents. Göttingen graduates are encouraged to apply although candidates from outside Göttingen with equivalent qualifications will be favoured.

Candidates of all nationalities are eligible for the JRF. The Fellowships are awarded for 18 months and fellows are required to live in Göttingen for the duration of their Fellowship in order that they may take an active part in the programme and in the academic activities of their department. 

The tax-free scholarship consists of:

• A basic grant of between 1.365,- and 1.518,- Euro per month (according to the University of Göttingen Guidelines for Research Fellowships)
• 203 Euro as a research and publication allowance per month
• 600 Euro per months as allowance for accommodation
• There is a dependents allowance of 400 Euro per month for the first dependent child living with the Fellow in Göttingen. For every additional child the allowance is 100 Euro per month.

Fellows are entitled to these allowances if they are not receiving any similar allowance from another source, and on presentation of birth certificates.

A school or university certificate is required for dependent children in full-time education and over the age of 18. 

Selection Criteria and Procedure

Fellows are selected on the basis of their research excellence and potential, their academic career interests, and the availability of Göttingen faculty to provide mentorship. Research excellence is assessed on the basis of the candidate’s contributions (publications, PhD thesis, etc.) and other supporting evidence (i.e. letters of reference and research plan). 

Academic career interests are assessed on the basis of the CV and other supporting evidence (i.e. letters of reference), with the aim of assigning the JRF to those candidates, satisfying the research excellence criteria and committed to an academic career, who can benefit the most from the JRF Programme, oriented towards the early stages of the post-doc academic career. 

To apply, the application should be sent directly to lichtenbergkolleg@zvw.uni-goettingen.de.

It should contain a CV and the "Research and academic career statement" (all preferably in PDF format). Two confidential letters of reference (also in PDF) should be sent directly by the referees to the same email address.

More information and application details can be found here http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/418200.html.