Six of nine participants of the BGHS Shortcuts-Programme 2017 (from left to right): Beatrice Adam, Mira Claire Zadrozny, Janina Jaeckel, Tabea Schroer, Susann Pham Thi, Marianne Hösl - Foto: Thomas Abel

Nine young researchers from across Germany – Janina Jaeckel, Julia Rüdel, Mia-Alina Schauf, Tabea Schroer and Mira Claire Zadrozny as well as Shortcuts scholarship holders Beatrice Adam, Marianne Hösl, Charlie Kaufhold and Susann Pham Thi – took part in the Shortcuts-Programme at the BGHS from September till December 2017. The goal of the Shortcuts-Programme is to actively support female young researchers – graduates in history and the social sciences – during the transition from successfully completing a master's degree to beginning a doctorate.

Important components of the programme include the Shortcuts-Colloquia in which project outlines are discussed and developed further. Multi-day writing workshops with a writing trainer as well as information sessions on the status of doctoral researchers and workshops on applying for academic positions and financing doctorates are helpful as well.

Mira Claire Zadroznys project is mages of Ruins. (New) Comparative Viewing in Mid-19th Century Paris. She highlights the broad course programme: “Peer-Coaching, workshops and time for contemplation by the structured programme were very useful. As especially valuable, I saw the production of an academic poster. I experienced the time at the BGHS as a huge boost of motivation.” Owing to the extensive work to her topic, she eventually came to a conclusion which in most times surfaces much later: “My personal triumph of the Shortcuts-Programme 2017 was that I could evaluate my topic and so realized that it was improper for a dissertation.”

For Marianne Hösl the colloquiums and writing workshops were especially important for her personal progress: “Particularly helpful were the writing workshops and both colloquiums where our projects were discussed in a constructive way. This fuelled me always with new incentives to improve and refine my project.” Marianne Hösls research is about Clients of the probationary services in Bavaria in the context of social inequality - explorig the structures, effects and interdependencies between their health and life situations.

Another important aspect to her was the constant communication between the Shortcuts-Participants within peer coachings and the meeting with doctoral researchers of the BGHS: “Both between the Shortcuts and in general in the BGHS existed a good working atmosphere and there were many opportunities to commute professionally and privately with other doctoral researchers. Therefore I got a good impression how it is to study at a graduate school.”

The shortcuts had their own workplace at the BGHS, which enabled them to work on their exposé in a suitable and quiet atmosphere. This factor highlights Marianne in her conclusion: “I appreciated my own workplace and the comprehensive library in the same building very much. The total package worked well together. Additionally the whole BGHS team (IT support and administration as well) was always helpful and ready to assist when problems emerged.

Prospect

After four months of intensive work, the project specifications are completed and the Shortcuts now labour at different places on their dissertations. Susann Pham Thi has during her time at the BGHS applied and successfully received a scholarship at the University of Manchester and will write about Vietnam Between Activism and Oppression: Analysing and Developing (New) Forms of Protest in a Post-Socialist Context. Charlie Kaufhold obtained a scholarship at the Hans-Böckler junior research group “The relevance of accessory prosecution. The NSU lawsuit at the OLG Munich from the viewpoint of the accessory prosecution lawyer” (dt.: Die Relevanz der Nebenklage. Der NSU-Prozess vor dem OLG München aus Sicht der Nebenklage-VertreterInnen) where she will work on the coverage of the NSU.

Mira Claire Zadrozny and Tabea Schroer have applied for a doctoral position at the BGHS. Tabea Schroer wants to graduate at the BGHS with the topic New, old inequality? - Boundaries among students of Grandes Écoles in times of internationalization.

More about the Shortcuts-Programme at the BGHS under:
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/bghs/Personen/Fellows/shortcuts.html