Doctoral Training in Heidelberg
Heidelberg University is the most popular location for doctoral students in Germany: According to the Federal Statistical Office, there were 8,600 doctoral students at Ruperto Carola in 2020, followed by 8,400 at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and 7,300 at Technical University of Munich. These three universities consequently account for 13 per cent of all doctoral candidates in Germany. The Heidelberg located Research Training Group (RTG) “Authority and Trust” situated in the field of interdisciplinary American Studies is set to continue its successful work in a second funding period.
In 2020, a total of 192,300 candidates were working on a doctorate at German universities – 53 per cent men and 47 per cent women. A good fifth, i.e. 22 per cent (43,200) did not have German nationality. According to the Federal Statistical Office, almost all doctoral candidates were supervised by professors at universities, and only one percent at colleges of art, colleges of theology, universities of education and universities of applied sciences.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding of approximately 4.3 million euros for a period of four and a half years for RTG 2244, "Authority and Trust in American Culture, Society, History and Politics," which is located at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA). Prof. Dr Günter Leypoldt from the Department of English and Prof. Dr Ulrike Gerhard from the Department of Geography at Ruperto Carola serve as spokespersons for the second funding period, which will begin in April 2022. The Research Training Group is staffed by ten researchers from geography, history and history of religion, philosophy, literature and cultural studies, as well as political science and economics.
The research programme focuses on the emergence and transformation of authority in government and civil society, social institutions, urban spaces, culture and religion, as well as shifting configurations of trust within the United States and in the overarching sphere of transatlantic relations. “The topicality of this issue is still evident,” Prof. Leypoldt emphasises, referring to the most recent crises of authority and trust in the United States, which, he says, have had consequences for the position of the country as a global power. An analysis of these crises also promises “fundamental insights into the relationship between authority and trust in modern societies”. The spokesperson of the Research Training Group further underlines that the RTG will continue its work with a sharper profile, strengthened by more research on economic history (Prof. Dr Welf Werner), social philosophy and philosophy of religion (PD Dr Magnus Schlette) and on ethnicity and migration in urban areas in Anglo and Latin America (Junior Professor Dr Soledad Álvarez Velasco).
The second funding period, which starts in April 2022, comprises two training rounds with ten doctoral candidates each and six “research students” who can gain insights into research practice as graduate assistants. In addition, two post-doc positions will be located at the Research Training Group.
