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Literary Studies

The Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School is the only graduate school focusing exclusively on literary studies that was successful in the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. Image Credit: Marcus Reichmann.

The Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School is the only graduate school focusing exclusively on literary studies that was successful in both phases of the national Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.

News from Dec 10, 2015

The Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School supervises theoretically and conceptually outstanding doctoral dissertation projects with a specifically philological focus which apply comparative methods. Its research areas include the relationship between literature and other types of texts; the correlations between literature and other media; as well as the correlations between literature and discourses of knowledge.

The doctoral degree program “Literary Studies” offers intensive and individual supervision of the thesis as well as coursework and provides excellent working conditions, in particular with regard to the Philological Library . Applicants must have a completed degree (M.A. or equivalent) with above-average grades in the humanities, preferably literary studies. To facilitate international exchange, the Graduate School has exchange programs with many prestigious partner universities in Europe, East Asia, and North America.

The Graduate School awards up to ten doctoral scholarships per year. Scholarships are awarded for a maximum duration of three years. 

In addition to the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, there are six other graduate schools at Freie Universität Berlin that are funded through the German Excellence Initiative.

• Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies
• Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies
• Berlin Mathematical School
• Berlin School of Integrative Oncology
• Graduate School of East Asian Studies
• Graduate School of North American Studies

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• Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
• Current Events

Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies

Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies (FSGS) is a structured doctoral program which was funded through the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments since 2007 to 2019. The Graduate School is part of Freie Universität Berlin and has gained Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as an important cooperating institution in 2012. 

Junior scholars may apply with a research project in literary studies. As of 2018, FSGS awards PhD positions as well as 9-month project grants to develop doctoral projects. PhD candidates completing their research within the Cluster of Excellence 2020 “ Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective ” are also members of FSGS.

As particularly well-structured doctoral program at Berlin’s universities, the FSGS has been honored by the Einstein Award for Doctoral Programs 2017.

The Graduate School promotes and supervises theoretically and conceptually outstanding PhD projects in the field of Literary Studies analyzing texts of European and Non-European origin. The Graduate School strives for the advancement of genuine research perspectives of Literary Studies which cross single-language borders and challenge the technologies of globalization, last but not least by locating past and present phenomena of cultural practice within a broad historic horizon.

The languages of instruction are German and English.

The research areas covered by FSGS include:

• Literature as a textual practice
• Literatures in a transnational perspective
• Literature and knowledge
• Literature, (inter-)mediality, and the arts

Doctoral and postdoctoral students combine comparative text, media and cultural approaches with theoretical questions and identify connections between literary texts and cultural processes. Fields of research include the relationship between literary texts, the interconnections between literary texts and processes of linguistic reasoning, rhetoric and poetics, correlations between literature and other aesthetic media, as well as the mutual interdependence of literature and the discourse of knowledge. Doctoral candidates also take part in activities such as research colloquia with renowned visiting academics, seminars on methodology and literary theory, and courses and workshops in the field of transferable skills.

Prof. Dr Jutta Müller-Tamm Dr Anja Hallacker Freie Universität Berlin

literature, textaul practice, transnational perspective, intermediality

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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Phd studies, enrollment office for phd students.

• Office location:

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Referat Studierendenservice Unter den Linden 6 10117 Berlin

• Contact person:

Ms. Olga Vorobyeva

• E-mail: [email protected] *

Due to in-house training, the Enrollment Office will be closed on October 16th and 17th, 2024.

Consultation hour by phone Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00 a.m. Phone: (+49) 30 2093-70330

*If you are already enrolled or registered at HU Berlin, please submit your full name, your enrollment or registration number, your date and place of birth.

If you are not aiming for a degree at HU and only want to complete a few semesters as part of your guest/research stay at HU , you cannot apply for enrollment at the enrollment office. Please contact the International Office with your questions regarding the enrollment process: [email protected]

I. Beginning your doctoral studies: Admission, enrollment and registration

Please find general information for doctoral candidates at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) on our Doctoral Candidates Portal .

Please contact the PhD office of the faculty at which you would like to do your doctorate. Notice that there are no fixed deadlines for applying as a doctoral candidate. You get all necessary information on the application procedure directly there. Please find corresponding contact details on the websites of the faculties .

Please submit your application for admission exclusively to the PhD office at the faculty of your choice. Your application must contain all specified documents. Please note, if you have a non German university degree, your documents will be checked for equivalence with the German education system before the application procedure. Any coordination that may be necessary for this process is carried out between the faculty’s PhD office and the department for student services internally. We kindly ask you, do not send any documents to the enrollment office for doctoral studies before you received your admission by the faculty of your choice.

Please submit the enrollment form for PhD studies [ PDF ] and all the required documents as soon as possible, but no later than four weeks after you received the letter of admission from your faculty. If you are employed at HU and prefer to be only registered, please choose the registration-form for a doctorate [ PDF ]. Please send the filled out and signed form with all required documents to the following address

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Referat Studierendenservice Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin

or drop them into the mailbox at the Student Service Center (SSC) in the main building of  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin (Opening hours: Mon - Fri, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.).

To keep the four-week deadline for enrollment/registration it is sufficient to submit the documents during this period to the enrollment office for PhD students.

Enrollment forms submitted digitally (e.g. as e-mail attachments) cannot be accepted for your enrollment.

You can only enroll for PhD studies after you have received your formal admission in a doctoral-study-program from the PhD office/PhD board of your faculty.

Enrolled doctoral candidates do have a student status and receive a student card (Campus-Card) but cannot receive the semester ticket for public transport. Enrolled PhD students have to pay the semester fees. Enrollment as a doctoral candidate is not contingent upon employment as a staff member at the HU Berlin.

However, if you are employed at HU, you have two options:

Either you enroll or you register for PhD studies. Registration is only possible as long as you are an employee/staff member at the HU Berlin. In case of registration, no fees or contributions have to be paid. But you do not have a status of a student at HU Berlin and cannot receive a Campus Card.

Differences between enrollment and registration for PhD studies

Please enroll for PhD studies within four weeks after receiving the letter of admission from your faculty and submit the following documents:

- the completed and signed enrollment form [ PDF ] incl. details on your educational biography,

- a simple copy of your admission letter from the PhD board,

- the payment confirmation of the semester fee (e.g. a simple copy of the bank transfer). You will find detailed information about the amount of semester fee which has to be paid for your enrollment below under "How much semester fee do I have to pay to be enrolled for PhD studies?".

- a simple copy of the de-registration certificate from your last German university (does not apply if you have never been enrolled at a university in Germany),

- a simple copy of your university entrance qualification (in most cases the secondary school certificate and/or university entrance examination),

- simple copies of your previous university degree certificates (German and/or foreign certificates),

- proof of a scholarship (if applicable).

How much semester fee do I have to pay to be enrolled for PhD studies?

Enrollment for the summer semester 2024 (01.04.2024 – 30.09.2024)

In the summer semester 2024, PhD students are not entitled to use the Deutschlandsemesterticket.

When enrolling from the beginning of the re-registration period for the winter semester 2024/25 (in the months of June, July, August and September 2024), we ask you to transfer the semester fee for the winter semester 2024/25.

Enrollment for the winter semester 2024/25 (01.10.2024 - 31.03.2025)

With the new Deutschlandsemesterticket contract, which was negotiated between the student body of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, represented by the Referent_innenrat (legally AStA), and the transport companies and comes into force on October 1st, 2024, the purchase of the Deutschlandsemesterticket is mandatory for PhD students.

For further information about the Deutschlandsemesterticket, please see this page:

https://www.hu-berlin.de/en/studies/admission/enrolment-office/dst/deutschlandsemesterticket

Exemption from the enrollment fee (currently €50)

PhD students who receive a scholarship (e.g. from the DAAD) as part of funding programs that are financed exclusively or predominantly from public funds from the federal or state governments and who submit a proof of this for enrollment can be exempted from the fee for enrollment and re-registration, currently 50 € per semester, in accordance with Section 2 Paragraph 7 of the BerlHG ( § 2 Abs. 7 BerlHG ).

Please find detailed information about the composition of semester fees and contributions here:

https://hu.berlin/rueckmeldung

If you are employed at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and have chosen to register as a PhD student, please submit the following documents within four weeks after receiving the letter of admission from your faculty:

- the completed and signed application registration-form for PhD studies incl. details on your educational biography [ PDF ],

- a proof of employment at HU which contains the begin-date and the end-date of your employment (e.g. a copy of your employment contract),

- simple copies of your previous university degree certificates (either German and/or foreign certificates).

Please note that the enrollment office will not send you a confirmation that your documents have been received . The application deadline is met if your documents for enrollment or registration have reached the enrollment office within one month after your admission for PhD studies.

After we have received your documents, we will check them carefully. If any documents are missing, you will be informed by email or via mail and we will give you a deadline for submitting the missing evidence.

If you submitted all the required documents in full, you will receive a confirmation of completed enrollment/registration by e-mail. In addition, we will provide you with further information (in case of enrollment: e.g. how to create the Campus Card (student ID) or to activate the student HU account).

Please note that the processing of your application for enrollment or registration for PhD studies usually takes at least two weeks after the enrollment office has received all the required documents. Before the start of the semester or shortly after the semester start, there may be longer processing times.

II. During PhD studies: Re-registration, semester fees and semester ticket

Yes, re-registration for the next semester is mandatory. In order to retain your status as a doctoral student and to be able to complete your PhD studies, you must re-register within the re-registration period. Please note the information on the main deadlines for re-registration in your AGNES account and on our website for re-registration .

If you have appropriate reasons, you can apply for a leave of absence as a PhD student by using our application form [ PDF ]. For further information please visit our website .

However, the leave of absence has no influence on the standard processing time of your doctoral studies and your processing time will not be automatically extended for the duration of your leave of absence.

Please complete the extension form ("Bescheinigung über die Verlängerung der Regelbearbeitungszeit der Promotion" [ PDF ]) and have it signed by your PhD supervisor. Then send the signed form to the PhD office of your faculty. Please note that the PhD office may need additional documents from you. Contact the office for more information and procedure details.

If your request has been approved by the faculty’s PhD board, the PhD office will forward the signed form to the enrollment office for doctoral studies.

As a registration for PhD studies is only possible for the duration of your employment at the HU Berlin, you have to enroll as a PhD student after your employment relationship has expired. Please submit the application form for enrollment for PhD studies to the enrollment office. In addition, please submit a proof of payment of the semester fee and an informal letter in which you inform us that you are currently registered for doctoral studies.

The amount of the semester fee depends on the date on which you apply to enroll for your doctorate.

If you apply for enrollment after the first month of the semester, the semester ticket fee only has to be paid pro rata from the month of enrollment.

If you enroll in the last three months of the semester (July - September and January - March), we ask you to transfer the semester fee for the enrollment semester as well as the re-registration fee for the following semester.

Please try to re-activate your HU account for students via our Computer and Media Service (CMS) to solve this issue. If this is not possible, please contact the enrollment office for generating a new PIN letter for re-activating your HU account for students.

Please note that a new PIN can only provided via a PIN letter send to you by mail.

III. Finishing your doctoral studies, de-registration

If you do not re-register for the upcoming semester, .e.g. not paying the required semester fee, you will be automatically de-registered (“Exmatrikulation”). If you would like to be de-registered before the end of the semester, please submit the application for de-registration [ PDF ] to the enrollment office for doctoral studies.

Please contact the PhD office of your faculty and clarify whether the enrollment is necessary to defend your thesis and proceed accordingly. If the regular processing time for your doctorate has expired, and you have submitted your thesis and you need to be enrolled in the upcoming semester, ask the PhD office to inform the enrollment office about this. After the enrollment office has received the confirmation from the PhD office and your payment of the semester fee has been received, we will re-register you.

IV. Legal bases

Fächerübergreifende Satzung zur Regelung von Zulassung, Studium und Prüfung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (ZSP-HU)

Sections 59 and 60 regulate form, procedure and conditions of enrollment and registration as a doctoral student at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

V. Additional information

Doctoral regulations of the faculties

https://hu.berlin/promord

Humboldt Graduate School

https://www.humboldt-graduate-school.de

International Scholar Services

https://hu.berlin/issprom

Financing the PhD studies

https://hu.berlin/promfinanz

https://www.daad.de

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