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Aktuelle Informationen
Deutsches Historisches Institut London:
Postgraduate Students' Conference
Next year's postgraduate students' conference will take place from the
afternoon of Thursday 15 to lunchtime on Saturday 17 January 2009. If
you are interested in attending, please register with the Secretary (email:
abellamy(at)ghil.ac.uk ) before 1
November 2008 and include the following details:
• full contact details (including email address and telephone number,
• the exact title of your project,
• the date you started your project,
• the name, address, email address and phone number of your university
and supervisor,
• confirmation whether you have undertaken research in Germany.
Please note that all 2nd and 3rd year students are encouraged to present
a paper on their PhD project. Applicants will receive a registration acknowledgement
as soon as possible.
12th Postgraduate Students' Conference 2008.
The German Historical Institute London held its 12th postgraduate students'
conference on 10-12 January 2008. Its intention was to give postgraduate
research students in the UK and Ireland working on German history an opportunity
to present their work-in-progress, and to discuss it with other students
working in the same field. The Institute also aimed to present itself
as a research centre for German history in London, and to introduce postgraduates
to the facilities it offers as well as to the Institute's Research Fellows.
In selecting students to give a presentation, preference was given to
those in their second or third year who had possibly already spent a period
of research in Germany. Twelve projects in all were introduced in plenary
sessions held over two and a half days. Sessions were devoted to the early
modern period, the nineteenth century, the First World War, the Weimar
Republic, the Third Reich, the 1930s/60s and the GDR. Most of the papers
concentrated on the twentieth century. Participants gave a short summary
of their work containing general ideas, leading questions, sources, and
initial findings, and this was followed by a discussion.
As well as discussing their subjects and methodologies, the participants
exchanged information about practical difficulties such as language and
transcription problems, how to locate sources, and finding one's way around
German archives. Information about institutions that give grants for research
in Germany was also exchanged. The German Historical Institute can offer
support here by facilitating contact with German archives and providing
letters of introduction which may be necessary for students to gain access
to archives or specific source collections. In certain cases it may help
students to make contact with particular German universities and professors.
The German Historical Institute also provides scholarships for research
in Germany (see above).
The coffee and lunch breaks offered ample opportunity for informal contact.
In the closing discussion, participants were asked to express any criticisms
and make suggestions for how the next postgraduate student conference
could be improved. The idea as such proved its worth over the two days
of the conference. The suggestion that separate conferences should be
held on specific periods or themes was rejected by the majority of participants,
who valued the broad range of topics and the chance to look beyond their
own historical horizons. It was also pointed out that the discussion of
methodological problems spanned all the sessions, and could be treated
most effectively in the plenary sessions.
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