Postgraduate studies at the IGES
IGES scholars supervise doctoral research projects across all disciplines represented in the institute (history, history of art, literature, translation studies, political science).
IGES has a strong tradition of providing an intellectually stimulating and supportive home to its vibrant community of postgraduate researchers. Our doctoral researchers are in close intellectual exchange with each other, with senior IGES scholars and with the Graduate Centre for Europe (GCfE).
The IGES belongs to a dynamic worldwide network of twenty Centres for German and European Studies supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). IGES students network and interact with their counterparts at other DAAD Centres at postgraduate conferences, at summer schools and on study trips. IGES students also have the opportunity to conduct research at other DAAD Centres, and many benefit from DAAD scholarships to carry out research in Germany. IGES funding is available to attend academic conferences and conduct fieldwork.
The IGES has an outstanding track record of successful PhD supervision. Many current and former IGES students have secured research council funding for their doctoral study. IGES graduates are regarded as highly employable by the academic and business communities.
If you would like to discuss your postgraduate research proposal informally with us, please get in touch with Dr Jost-Henrik Morgenstern-Pomorski (J.Morgenstern-Pomorski@bham.ac.uk) or with the IGES scholar thematically closest to your field of interest. We are also delighted to help you formulate an application and funding proposal.
The IGES and the Department of German Studies at the University of Birmingham are part of a DAAD-sponsored UK postgraduate training consortium, providing summer schools for postgraduates in German Studies together with the Universities of Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, and Oxford, and the IGRS in London.
IGES supervisers
Thomas Brodie would be delighted to hear from students intending to work on any aspect of Modern German history, as well as those with thematic interests in the histories of religion, war and memory in any European context since 1800.
Charlotte Galpin Charlotte Galpin is particularly keen to supervise projects on European and national identities, European public sphere and media, Euroscepticism, EU citizenship and social movements, the role of Germany or Britain in Europe, Brexit, and gender and feminist approaches to these topics.
Elystan Griffiths supervises postgraduate projects on German literature of the period 1750-1850, with a particular interest in how social and political tensions manifest themselves in German culture. He is also interested in German-language film and has supervised doctoral research in this area.
Armin Grünbacher is happy to discuss supervision of postgraduate research in the areas of German post-war social, economic and political history.
Jonathan Gumz supervises postgraduate research in the fields of the history of the late Habsburg Empire and of modern Central and Eastern Europe as well as the history of war in the 20th century to the present, of international law and of state collapse.
Timothy Haughton is particularly keen to supervise students wishing to study the domestic politics of East-Central Europe, party politics and political campaigning.
Julian Hoerner is keen to (co-)supervise PhD students on topics relating to political behaviour and public opinion, Germany and the European Union, the far-right in Germany, and the impact of the past and culture of memory on contemporary German politics.
Sara Jones explores how memories of dictatorship are negotiated across borders in political, cultural and social processes. Sara would welcome applications from candidates interested in post-socialism, memory politics (especially of Central and Eastern Europe) and cultural policy under state socialist dictatorships.
Deema Kaneff is happy to supervise doctoral research that uses ethnographic methods on a variety of topics, including migration and citizenship, cross-border trading and identity, as well as post-socialist reforms and emerging inequalities.
Katharina Karcher is happy to supervise students with a research interest in political violence and terrorism, gender and conflict, feminist protest and European women’s movements, Feminist Theory, 1968 and its legacy, political extremism and contemporary German culture and politics.
Simone Laqua-O’Donnell is particularly interested in gender history, the history of children and childhood, the history of migration and the history of modern missions.
Nicholas Martin welcomes applications from prospective postgraduate students keen to research modern German intellectual history and/or the cultural history of war and political violence in twentieth-century Germany. He is currently supervising 4 PhD students. He has supervised 8 PhD projects to successful completion.
Julian Pänke is happy to supervise postgraduate students in the following areas: EU-rope’s external relations, the European Neighbourhood Policy, German foreign policy and Berlin’s role in Europe.
Klaus Richter supervises postgraduate students exploring the modern history of Central and Eastern Europe (especially of Poland, the Baltics, the Russian Empire), of Germany’s relation with Eastern Europe, and the history of nationalism and ethnic conflict.
Corey Ross is happy to offer postgraduate supervision in a number of areas, including various aspects of European and global environmental history since the late 19th century, the history of the media and publicity in twentieth-century Europe, and the social and cultural history of Germany since the late nineteenth century.
Graham Timmins is available to supervise in areas related to the external relations and foreign policy role of the European Union with specific reference to EU-Russia and German-Russian relations.