Emmy Noether Grant and Junior Professorship

Transcription

1 Emmy Noether Grant and Junior Professorship GAIN-Workshop, Washington D.C., April 17,2010

2 GAIN Workshop, Washington D.C., April 17, Overview: I) Basic facts: Emmy Noether Junior Research Group and Junior Professorship II) Chances and challenges of being an Emmy Noether Research Group Leader III) Junior Professorship as a path to scholarly independence within the German University system IV) Personal experiences: application procedure, formative phase of the research group, team building and intellectual challenges, future prospects

3 I) Basic facts: Emmy Noether Junior Research Group and Junior Professorship Personal data: Isabel Heinemann, PhD 39 years Married, husband is Professor in Applied Mathematics, also Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU) three children (six, five, and three years of age) Working part time (70%) as a Emmy Noether (EN) Research Group leader due to small children

4 Academic career: 1993 Licence d Histoire, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France 1996 Master of Arts in History and German, Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, Germany 2001 PhD in History, Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg, Germany Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftliche Assistentin), Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, Germany 2009 Emmy Noether Junior Research Group Leader and Junior Professor, Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, Germany

5 DFG Emmy Junior Noether Research Group Family Values and Social Change: The US-American Family in the 20th Century Field: Modern and Contemporary History Host Institution: Westfälische Wilhelms Universität (WWU) Münster, Germany Duration: 4/2009 4/1014 (evaluation after 3 years) Positions: Research group leader (5 years, full time), 3 PhD students (3 years, part time (50%), research assistant (3 years, part time) Budget: total Euro (including Euro for archival research, workshops, publication costs (to be spent within 5 years) Equipment: Office Space (3 rooms) and technical equipment (computers e.a.) provided by WWU (transfer payments of the DFG)

6 Junior Professorship in Contemporary History University affiliation: Department of History, WWU Duration: 8/2009-8/2014 (evaluation after 3 years) Teaching load: 2 hours/week (one course or seminar) Rights and obligations: PhDs, BA and Master exams, commissions, contribution to proposals for the next phase of the Initiative of Excellence Budget: Euro per annum (for office costs, additional research assistants et al.) Tenure track: no tenure track option included

7 II) Chances and challenges of being an Emmy Noether Research Group Leader Chances: Generous funding for personnel and direct costs Building up one s research group due to one s own research interests Outstanding independence (financially, scientifically) Contacts to other EN Group Leaders during the EN yearly meetings Seminars for EN Group Leaders organized by the DFG: teaching and management skills, project management, budget administration Great support for EN Group Leaders by the DFG Prestige of the EN P 5 years perspective GAIN Workshop, Washington D.C., April 17,

8 Research Group on US-American Family Values Andre Anika Anne Claudia

9 Research Topics of our Working Group on Family Values Isabel Heinemann (Habilitation): Family Values and Social Change. The US-American Family in the 20th Century Anne Overbeck (PhD): The Discourse in African-American Motherhood in the 20th Century Claudia Roesch (PhD): The Discourse on Mexican American Families Andre Dechert (PhD): Representations of the American family in T V series and Hollywood films

10 Challenges: Recruiting of qualified and enthusiastic PhD students and merging them into a team (advise of other EN colleagues: take your time while recruiting!) Negotiations with University adminstrations, deans, future colleagues Positioning of the EN Research Group at the new host institution Explaining the relatively new ENP to future colleagues ENP limited to 5 years

11 III) Junior Professorship as a path to scholarly independence within the German University system Peculiarity of the Geman University system: the label Professor gives you formal independence Junior professors formally have the same rights and obligations as full professors (Exams, administration, recruitment) The teaching load is 4 weekly hours during the first three years, 6 during the last three years Evalutation after three years Limited to 6 years, tenure positions are rare

12 Advantages of holding a Position as Junior Professor while being an EN Group Leader: Having one s own Phd candidates as EN Group leader gets formally easier Masterstudents can be attracted to the research group Teaching load can be limited (in accordance to DFG requirements): 2 weekly hours of teaching instead of the normal 4 or 6 hours Additional funding for research literature, technical equipment (not covered by the DFG) can be negotiated with the Department / the University

13 IV) Personal experience: Combination of EN Research Group and Junior Professorship ideally provides scientific, financial and economic independence Application procedure: Applied in July 2008 and was granted my EN Research Group in March 2009, started with the Group in April 2009 Negotiated the establishment with the University adminstration, received encouragement from the History Department University adminstration strongly encouraged me to transform my position as EN Group leader into a Junior Professorship (which I started in August 2009)

14 Formative phase of the research group: Requested prospective PhD candidates to hand in a short proposal for their planned dissertations Based on the exposés I chose two excellent PhD students, a third PhD student first became research assistant and then joined the team after his exams Negotiated office space with the University and additional funding with the History Department First PhD started half a year after establishment of the EN Research Group, the two others followed suit Exchange with senior EN Fellows (at the yearly meeting) proved helpful

15 Team building: Team spirit: we are all part of the same team Weekly team meetings to discuss projects and theoretical framework Organized three international workshops focussing on the topic of the Research Group, invited senior experts from abroad and other doctoral students First workshop (two more follow in the course of this year), it proved very team-building and inspiring Attended a seminar for EN Group Leaders organized by the DFG on personal management in order to prevent mistakes

16 Intellectual Challenges: How to pursue one s own research and coordinate the research group at the same time Coaching the PhD students Positiong the research group at the Department, at the University, within the framework of (inter)national scholars

17 Future Prospects: International conference within the end of the project, to give PhD students the chance to present and discuss their findings Funding for the PhD students after the 3 year EN period (in case they are not complete done with their thesis when their EN funding stops) Finding a permanent position Bringing the whole project to a big success and ensuring national/international visibility of our findings

18 To sum up: I received the EN Grant at a crucial point in my career: It helped me to establish myself indepently at the WWU where my husband had just accepted a position It allowed me to set up my own working group (after having been an assistant professor (Wissenschaftliche Assistentin) for some years It facilitated my return to scholarship after the birth of our third child and to reduce to part time, which means that I can stretch the duration of the EN Grant over the period of 5 years accordingly

19 Thank you for your attention and good luck for your proposals! I am looking forward to your questions!