Apply Now: Berlin Symposium for Early Career Researchers 2025
Dear Research Network, Colleagues and Friends,
Please see the enclosed invitation to attend a research symposium for Early Career Scholars. We think this will be particularly interested to scholars whose work interrogates the issue of belonging when scholars of color enter "White spaces," when their bodies are interpreted as "brown and illegal" when moving across geographies, and when they use assert their research findings across disciplines.
The British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation invites applications from early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of belonging. The event will be held in Berlin, Germany, May 7-9, 2025. All costs associated with visas and traveled are covered by the organizations.
The Misogynoir to Mishpat (M2M) Research Network © 2025
The British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation are inviting applications for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences to attend a research collaboration symposium on the broad theme of belonging which will be held May 7-9, 2025 in Berlin, Germany.
Aims
The symposium aims to incentivise and establish international engagement and collaboration between early career researchers based in Germany and the UK from a broad range of disciplines, encouraging the exchange of ideas across both disciplinary and national boundaries. The symposium will bring together around 15 early career researchers from the UK and 15 from Germany from across the humanities and social sciences to discuss key questions around the theme of belonging. In advance of the symposium, participants will be able to discuss their research and exchange ideas among themselves, begin to discuss the session themes and make connections for possible future activities.
Conceptions of belonging, both legal-material and imaginary-symbolic, interact with senses of identity, shaping the way in which individuals, communities and societies understand themselves and interact with the world around them. What does it mean to belong to a community, a society or a state? How is this sense of belonging – or exclusion from it – produced, maintained, expressed and represented?
This symposium will seek to bring a highly interdisciplinary lens to address these questions, exploring ideas of belonging and identity in relation to borders and boundaries, both physical and ideological. It will explore the way that heritage and memory are conceptualised, how literatures of place and origin narratives are developed, and the role that emotion plays in perceptions and conceptions of belonging. Identities are often defined and reinforced in relation to a proximate other; this symposium will also consider the implications of this for how communities engage or have engaged with both internal and external forces.
It is expected that the symposium will include a series of sessions focusing on:
Mutability of belonging
Natures of belonging
Representations of belonging
Each of these sessions will draw on the broad range of disciplines and expertise present to re-evaluate our understanding of belonging, the forces that affect this, the ways it is manifested, and the ways that this can be harnessed for both good and ill.
The symposium format will allow for extensive discussion and debate, with considerable time set aside for this and wider networking opportunities. In order to incentivise long-term collaboration and networking, seed funding will be made available for which participants can apply. These collaborations must be international in their makeup and can be either partnerships or groups. Time will be set aside on the final day of the symposium for a ‘sandpit’ style session in which participants write up their proposed collaboration and submit applications by the end of the session.
Eligibility requirements
For the purpose of this symposium, early career is defined as being within a ten-year period from the award of a doctorate. Participants must be based at research institutions in the UK or Germany.
Attendance is mandatory for the entire symposium. If this is not met it will result in a participant not being eligible for the seed funding available.
Participants must be able to travel during dates and times and on trains chosen by the British Academy.
UK-based attendees may only participate in two British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposia in any 24-month period.
Selection criteria
Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
Proven research interest and/or experience in the symposium’s theme
Commitment to interdisciplinary engagement and research
Value of symposium to applicant’s career development
Application process
Applicants should provide a completed application form submitted online using the British Academy's Grant Management System (GMS), Flexi-Grant®.
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 15 January 2025 at 17:00 (GMT). We will seek to notify successful applicants by the end of February.
Logistics
The symposium will take place in Berlin, Germany, from 7-9 May 2025. The costs of travel, visas and accommodation for participants will be covered. Participants should attend the entire symposium programme and be available to travel on transport options chosen by the British Academy.
All travel to and from the symposium will take place by train on Wednesday 7 May. Where necessary, the Academy will provide accommodation on the night of Tuesday 6 May in either Brussels or London to facilitate early arrival at London St Pancras or in Brussels. Departure from Berlin will take place on Saturday 10 May.
Contact details
For further information please contact Hannah Moscovitz: h.moscovitz@thebritishacademy.ac.uk