New York / Berlin, October 2009: The Graduate School of the Research Cluster ”Languages of Emotion” at FU Berlin, the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies and the Graduate School of North American Studies award 10+ PhD-Scholarships each starting in October 2010. 

Funded within the Excellence Initiative of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Graduate School of the Cluster “Languages of Emotion” has as its aim the supervision of exceptional dissertation projects pertinent to the research of the Cluster. The graduate school offers intensive and individual supervision of the thesis as well as a structured course of studies. The research of the cluster is dedicated to the complex interrelations between the use of signs/symbols, the transfer of emotions, aesthetic practices, mental dispositions and affective modes of constructing both personal and social identities the cluster.

The graduate school focuses on the following research areas:
- the relations between affective phenomena and various representational media (lan-guage, sound, image);
- the artistic practices and poetics of (re)presenting/ shaping emotion;
- correlations between emotional and linguistic competencies (and their disorders)
- modes of emotion modelling at the level of cultural codes and patterns of social be-havior and identity.

The Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies is the only graduate school focusing solely on literary studies to have been successful in the "Excellence Initiative". It has as its aim the supervision of exceptional dissertation projects in the field of Literary Studies, examining European, American, Arabic and Asian literary texts, within the doctoral degree program “Literary Studies”. The program offers intensive and individual supervision of the thesis as well as coursework. Applicants must have a completed degree (M.A. or equivalent) with above-average grades in the humanities, preferably literary studies. German and English are the favoured working languages in the international doctoral program.

Doctoral candidates take part in activities which support them in their research within their individual disciplines, at the same time placing this research in an interdisciplinary context. These activities include research seminars with renowned visiting academics, seminars on methodology and literary theory, as well as courses and workshops in the field of transferable skills.

The Graduate School of the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies invites applications for the academic year 2010/2011. Six academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences collaborate in offering a structured curriculum. The doctoral program is interdisciplinary in its approach and focuses on those social transformations impacting the United States and Canada at the beginning of the 21st century. Areas of emphasis include domestic and foreign policy, economic development, ethnic identity and relations, as well as recent transformations in media, art, literature, culture, and religion. The language of instruction is English.