Expertise on North America
The Graduate School of North American Studies offers dissertation grants and stipends for researchers at the postdoctoral level.
Image Credit: David Bosold
The doctoral degree program at the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS) builds on the well-established structures of the Kennedy Institute for North American Studies.
Image Credit: David Bosold
The Graduate School of North American Studies offers doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers a wide range of topics, e.g., the polarization of the U.S. political system, religious movements, foreign policy challenges, cultural identities, the crisis of the economy, or recent developments in literature, film, and art in North America.
News from Dec 16, 2014
The doctoral degree program at the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS) builds on the well-established structures of the Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, where experts from literary studies and cultural studies, from sociology and political science, from history and economics have been collaborating in pursuing interdisciplinary research and teaching since 1963. They analyze social and cultural developments in the United States and Canada.
Research at the graduate school is characterized by in-depth delving into a specialized field while simultaneously exchanging information across disciplinary boundaries. In addition to methods courses in the respective major field, the curriculum includes interdisciplinary seminars on specific topics.
During the entire doctoral program, the graduate students are team-taught by professors with expertise in different fields. The language of instruction and communication is English. Each year an international graduate student conference devoted to an interdisciplinary topic is organized by the students in the program.
The Kennedy Institute offers excellent study conditions for the doctoral researchers at GSNAS. The library is the largest of its kind in Europe. Close-knit contacts with outstanding American universities, networking with related institutions at Freie Universität, and the visiting scholars’ program at GSNAS provide the students with further intellectual and practical support.
The Graduate School of North American Studies annually offers up to 10 scholarships for graduate work, which are advertised internationally. For researchers at the postdoctoral level, four research positions for a period of two years are provided every other year. In each case, the application deadline is January 31, annually for the scholarships and in alternating years for the postdoctoral positions.
In addition to the Graduate School of North American Studies, there are six other graduate schools at Freie Universität Berlin that are funded through the German Excellence Initiative: