CfA: Carson Fellowships

The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society invites applications for its 2013-2014 class of postdoctoral and senior fellows. The fellowship program, directed by Christof Mauch (LMU Munich/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) and Helmuth Trischler (Deutsches Museum) is designed to bring to Munich a cohort of excellent scholars who are working in the environmental humanities and related disciplines.

The Center will award fellowships to scholars from around the globe and from a variety of disciplines. Research and writing of applicants should preferably pertain to one (or more) of the topics that will be at the core of the Center’s 2013-2014 research agenda:

• Ecological Imperialism
• Environmental Ethics, Politics, and Movement
• Natural Disasters and Cultures of Risk
• Environmental Knowledge and Knowledge Societies

Applications that deal with past topics of the Center will also be considered. These include:

• Transformation of Landscapes
• Resource Use and Conservation

The program is a writing fellowship program; the Carson Center does not sponsor field trips or archival research. Fellowships will usually be granted for periods of 6, 9, or 12 months but they can also be granted for 3 months or be broken up into individual 3 month periods. Fellows are expected to spend their fellowship in residence, to work on a major research project, to attend the weekly lunchtime colloquium, and to present their research at the Center.

The Carson Center will pay for a replacement of the successful candidate at his or her home institution; alternatively it will pay a fellowship that is commensurate with experience and current employment.

The deadline for applications is 31 January 2013. Applications should include a cover letter, an abridged curriculum vitae (5 pages maximum), project description (3,000 words maximum), research schedule for the fellowship period, and the names of three scholars who might serve as references. While applicants may write in either English or German, we recommend that they use the language in which they are most proficient.

Please note that these fellowships are for postdoctoral scholars, i.e. applicants need to have completed their PhD by the time at which their fellowship would begin. Applicants who are in the process of completing a PhD may apply as long as their fellowship begins after graduation/completion of the PhD. If in doubt, please apply; the selection committee changes every year, and there is no penalty for applying twice, or even three times.

Applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application within approximately two months of the deadline given above. Please send applications (electronically only) in PDF or Word format via e-mail to carsoncenter@lmu.de.