http://www.ifk.ac.at/fellowships-en.html

Aims

The IFK Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften was founded
in Vienna in 1993. It is an independent institute for advanced study that
aims to support and develop the intellectual enterprise of transdisciplinary
cultural analysis and the study of culture.

To achieve this objective the IFK focuses its work on the following areas:
  a.. Offering young scholars possibilities to undertake research, do
projects, and hold discussions through its Junior Fellowship
  b.. Internationalizing the humanities in Austria by hosting renowned
scholars as Visiting Fellows and Research Fellows
  c.. Extending the reach and utility of the study of culture by developing
and supporting new Research Foci
  d.. Promoting a problem-oriented, method-conscious, transdisciplinary,
self-reflexive, intellectual culture by its sponsorship of Lectures &
Conferences
  e.. Communicating the best and most innovative research results by
publishing Papers
The IFK's International Advisory Board judges fellowship and project
applications and advises the Director and the Board of Directors on the
design and realization of its many outstanding academic program.

Vision

To further the development of the relatively new discipline of cultural
studies, it is important to thematize the realm of culture (art, literature,
architecture, sciences, media, life-styles, and the culture of everyday
life) in a comprehensive manner. Culture cannot be grasped merely
historically as the memory of a society in which the past and conflicting
interpretations of it are deposited. It is equally important to understand
culture as a realm of discourse regarding the future of a society. Culture
may be understood as a dynamic process that produces and interprets meanings
and pragmatic orientations. This process gives expression to political,
social and economic conflicts and thereby permits their negociation. The
task of cultural studies is not only to analyse the "interior" of given
aesthetic, literary, and popular practices, but also to assay their external
conditions.

Culture as the sum of life-forms and life-styles of human beings,
differently determined according to place, society, ethnos and history, is
not self-referential. Rather, its articulations are products as well as
snap-shots of the societal processes enveloping them. Consequently, cultural
studies can also be understood as a project of deciphering cultures as
textures of the social; that is, as the other side of the social. In this
reading culture is neither one factor (among others) nor a hermetic sphere,
but rather it suffuses the whole texture of social life. For research and
debate this implies:
  a.. that culture(s) and its/their manifestations are not to be
misconceived as something that occurs in a social and economic vacuum, but
that is anchored in social life and receives
  b.. that culture(s) and its/their material and symbolic products have to
be referred back to the "lived experience" of their creators that mirrors
economic, social and political conflicts concerning power; inequality;
ethnic, gender, or religious dominance and marginality; cultural climates
(such as crises), etc.
  c.. that culture(s) and its/their manifestations have to be analyzed with
respect to their institutional framework, i.e., their economic foundation
must be thematized.
  d.. that cultures have to be grasped in their longue duree of developments
in the history of mentality. That is, it has to be taken into account that
cultural creations presuppose the transmission of competences, skills, norms
of taste, etc.
  e.. that cultures have to be seen in the context of so-called "innovative
milieus"; one has to examine to what extent innovation or stagnation in
everyday life, in the arts and sciences, are connected with particular
combinations of geography, structures of communication, institutions,
economic trends and crises, educational institutions, and relations of
power.
  f.. that, last but not least, cultures have to be understood also as
contingent phenomena, i.e., as chance products and chance processes.

The IFK is currently attempting to realize this approach in its research
focus The Metropolis in Transition.

Taking as its point of departure the multiplicity of cultures, cultural
studies can be conceived only as a plurality of disciplines. Its specific
innovative moment cannot consist in a one-sided commitment to one method and
one paradigm; rather, it consists in the productive exchange with and in the
critical discussion of different concepts of theory and method. The IFK
attempts to foster this approach through its research focus The History of
Cultural Studies. To be sure, this exchange is not an end in itself, but is
supposed to contribute to the internationalization of research and to the
comparison of cultures so that geographical as well as intellectual
limitations of local cultures of knowledge can be transcended.

Visiting Fellowships are preferably awarded to internationally recognized
scholars who would like to pursue their own research and are interested to
cooperate with Austrian colleagues. Applications will be peer-reviewed by
IFK's International Academic Advisory Board.
Application deadline for the academic year 2005/2006: 31 July 2004

Research Fellowships are preferably awarded to Austrian Postdoctoral
scholars and scholars who would like to take a paid leave from their
university. International applicants have to present an equivalent research
project. Applications will be peer-reviewed by IFK's International Academic
Advisory Board.
Application deadline for the academic year 2005/2006: 31 July 2004

Junior Fellowships are preferably awarded to young Austrian doctoral
students who are not older than 35 of age and hold an academic degree in the
humanities or social sciences. The final selection will be based on personal
interviews with the candidates.
Application deadline for the academic year 2004/2005: 10 January 2004

Cooperations:
Urban Fellowships: jointly awarded by IFK and the City of Vienna