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GSC 1039:  Distant Worlds: Munich Graduate School for Ancient Studies

Subject Area Ancient Cultures
Term from 2012 to 2019
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 194523353
 
Final Report Year 2019

Final Report Abstract

Since its foundation in 2012, Distant Worlds, Munich Graduate School for Ancient Studies, has become an irreplaceable representative of Ancient Studies at LMU, Munich, in supporting the research of young academics in all fields of Ancient Studies. The School combines a flexible study program with a stimulating discussion environment for predoctoral, doctoral, and postdoctoral fellows within the framework of seven small groups known as ‘Focus Areas’. Each concentrates on a different topic that is relevant to all ancient cultures and representative of the basic forms and structures of these cultures: norms, elites, cultural models, and principles of coexistence. When conceived of as a whole, these areas form the basis of all ancient cultures and represent so called cultural axioms, which have yet to be revealed and interpreted. Our fellows come from various disciplines represented among seven faculties of the LMU and are at different stages in their research. This facilitates a lively exchange of ideas between scholars of diverse academic fields with equally diverse academic experiences. At the same time, the fellows are brought together by their shared awareness of the temporal and hermeneutic distance between their object of study and modern science. It is the primary aim of the School to understand this distance and to make use of this understanding. The professors engaged in the GSDW are known as Principal Investigators. In addition to acting as supervisors and mentors, they also offer courses in relevant fields of Ancient Studies and are actively and creatively involved in the design of the study programme. The study programme, which consists of seminars, courses lectures etc., strives to bring together the different disciplines within Ancient Studies and to support the doctoral students in pursuing their research with focus and intensity. Through the course of the study programme, methodological approaches from the disciplines involved are explained, applied, and developed. The concept and structure of the GSDW is rounded off by cooperation with partner institutions, which provide access to additional research material, internships, and workshops on diverse subjects, thus allowing the fellows to gain insights into and, if desired, work experience in museums and libraries. The innovative approach of the GSDW in promoting quality interdisciplinary scholarship based on LMU’s resources, its cooperation with external institutions, and its administrative organisation opens up new research horizons and builds up an extensive network in Ancient Studies. In this way, the School offers its participants ideal preparation for successful academic and non-academic careers. Based on the established Munich Center of Ancient Worlds (MZAW), it is planned to further develop the essential structural elements of this concept, the interdisciplinary cooperation among Ancient Studies and the high class promotion of early-career researchers, being combined with a stronger emphasis on the promotion of new joint research projects.

Link to the final report

https://doi.org/10.2314/KXP:1699149291

Publications

 
 

Additional Information

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