The Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University is an institute for advanced study, funded by the German Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) since 2024. Each academic year, a new group of international and interdisciplinary fellows joins the centre to pursue research. For the centre’s third year (October 2026 to September 2027), we are pleased to invite applications for up to twelve fellowships with a duration of ten to twelve months (beginning in October 2026).
THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME AT THE KÄTE HAMBURGER CENTRE
Questions about reparation and irreparability are at the heart of CURE’s research programme, taken up by fellows and members of the KHK CURE team from a range of disciplinary perspectives.
Many harms and damages, such as the destruction of cultural heritage in colonised regions, the trauma of war, or the consequences of climate change, cannot be undone. Such irreversible harms often trigger complex processes of negotiation that can reshape reflexive forms of cultural identity and newly imagined or created life worlds. They raise the question of how to build a shared future in which we and others can live despite a past scarred by violence, injustice, and the destruction of natural environments. Economic and legal compensation is often a prerequisite for dismantling asymmetrical situations and structures. But it is most often the case that enduring wounds suffered by individuals, and the harm done to their lifeworlds, can be addressed only through cultural and social practices.
The Käte Hamburger Centre CURE is dedicated to studying such cultural practices of reparation. We define reparation as a process of shaping the future through an awareness that past damage can never be fully undone. Repairing something always means that the traces of destruction remain – whether visible, felt, or understood – and thus gesture toward a fragility of the self. We view cultural practices of reparation as encompassing a broad range of responses to the awareness of damage: oral and written forms of narration, poetry, linguistic and non-linguistic rituals, music, visual art, films, theatre, exhibition practices, historiography, and other forms of scholarship or knowledge production. These practices aim to develop possibilities and scenarios for the future that reach beyond interests grounded in identitarian claims and the restitution of a supposedly original identity, even in the face of enduring harms. Our goal at the centre is to collaboratively develop theoretical approaches to such practices.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS AND SELECTION CRITERIA
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL FELLOWSHIPS:
Applications may be submitted by scholars in cultural studies and the humanities who have completed a PhD (submitted and defended) by the application deadline. Applicants must also be actively engaged in research or artistic practice (including independent artists or scholars).
Artists who hold a doctorate and have experience in academic collaboration are also encouraged to apply for an academic fellowship.
CURE is expressly committed to diversity and welcomes applications regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion/worldview, disability, age, or sexual orientation and identity.
Those without a completed doctorate, as well as members of Saarland University, are not eligible to apply.
Applications should outline an independent research project that is relevant to the research agenda of the centre and will be pursued during the fellowship. The project should align with at least one of the centres’ three thematic fields – ‘history’, ‘experience’, and ‘nature’ – and relate to the third of the four designated themes for the following academic years:
- 2024/2025: Theory
- 2025/2026: Society
- 2026/2027: Bodies
- 2027/2028: Things
Within the theme of ‘bodies’ in cultural practices of reparation, for instance, research might address issues such as bodily perception, embodiment and its performative forms, performance art, therapy, and lived practices, including questions related to experiences of individual injury or trauma.
Applications are invited only for the fellowship year running from October 2026 to September 2027. Further information on the centre’s thematic fields and annual themes can be found on the centre’s website: https://cure.uni-saarland.de/forschung/forschungsprogramm/.
Our selection process places particular emphasis on proposed project’s academic quality, originality, and conceptual alignment with the centre’s shared research agenda. We also consider applicants’ qualifications, motivation, and career stage. Fostering a diversity of academic cultures additionally plays a role in the final selection of fellows.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE UNIGR FELLOWSHIP:
One of the fellowships will be awarded as the University of the Greater Region (UniGR) fellowship to a scholar with a completed doctorate (submitted and successfully defended by the application deadline) who is currently employed at one of the following member institutions: University of Trier, University of Liège, University of Luxembourg, University of Lorraine, and RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. In addition to the general requirements, applicants for the UniGR fellowship must also be currently employed in an academic position at one of these universities at the time of application and provide proof of employment with their application.
Staff members of Saarland University are not eligible to apply.
The selection process for the UniGR fellowship runs in parallel with the other fellowships and is carried out by the Academic Advisory Board.
INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION
The centre will welcome up to twelve fellows a year. Fellows are expected to live in Saarbrücken and to devote their fellowship both to collaborative work within the centre and to their independent research project. They take part in centre’s events – colloquia, working groups, conferences, workshops, and the like – and contribute actively to the centre’s own publications. With approval from the Executive Committee, fellows will also have the opportunity to organise workshops or to collaborate in teaching or other academic events with our research and cultural cooperation partners. Longer absences from the centre for extended research trips or stays are not possible.
Saarland University is distinguished by its close ties to France and its strong European focus, with programmes and partnerships such as the Cluster for European Studies (CEUS) devoted to the topic of ‘European World(s): Projections, Reflections, Transformations’, the European university alliance Transform4Europe (T4EU), and the international university network University of the Greater Region (UniGR).
DURATION AND CONDITIONS
Fellowships are usually awarded for ten to twelve months, always starting on 1 October.
The fellowship guidelines of Saarland University provide two funding options.
- Fellows who take unpaid leave from their home institution (or are independent scholars or artists) during the fellowship will receive financial compensation in the form of a stipend (at least 6,100 to 7,200 euros per month before taxes, depending on their qualifications).
- If a fellow chooses to keep their current salary and benefits, KHK CURE will pay their home institution the equivalent salary for a teaching replacement during the fellow’s time at the centre.
Accommodation in modern apartments is provided free of charge, and accommodation for families can also be arranged if required. Similarly, the expenses for traveling to and from Saarbrücken will be reimbursed once pursuant to the Saarland Travel Expense Act (SRKG). Fellows will be provided with a fully equipped workspace at the centre.
Insurance and all other (living) costs that may be incurred must be covered by the fellows themselves.
APPLICATION DEADLINE AND MATERIALS
Applications must be submitted by 15 December 2025 using the form available on the centre’s website. Please include
- the CURE application form with abstract
- a letter outlining your motivation for applying (max. 1 A4 page)
- a CV (max. 3 A4 pages)
- a publication list
- a project outline with bibliography (max. 5 A4 pages), showing its connection to CURE’s research programme and how your research relates to at least one programme area and the annual theme
Please use minimum font size 11 and line spacing 1.15.
Applications may be submitted in German, English, or French.
Please do not include photographs.
You should receive a confirmation email after submitting your application. If you do not, please contact cure@uni-saarland.de.
CONTACT
We will notify applicants by the end of April 2026. Until then, please avoid inquiries about the status of your application.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact the centre by writing to cure@khk.uni-saarland.de.
As part of your application for a fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University (UdS), you will be submitting personal data. Regarding our use of personal data, please see the university’s privacy policy in accordance with Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding the collection and processing of personal data. By submitting your application, you confirm that you have read the UdS policies on data privacy and protection.
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