Call For Applications

Call for applications for 12 funded PhDs commencing on 1 February 2027. The information provided on this page is intended to help prospective applicants prepare their application materials. Expressions of interest to the University of Melbourne can be submitted here. Information on how to apply to the University of Potsdam is provided here. The deadline for applications at both institutions is 12 July 2026.

What is the IRTG Cultures of Repair?

The International Research Training Group (IRTG) Cultures of Repair is a doctoral training programme jointly convened by members of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Potsdam, Germany and the Faculty of Arts at The University of Melbourne, Australia. Co-funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and The University of Melbourne, the IRTG aims to facilitate doctoral degrees within the framework of a focused research programme and a structured training strategy.

We understand Cultures of Repair

• as practices of care, maintenance, and re/pairing that sustain social, cultural, and ecological life, while critically engaging with modernity’s entanglements with violence, exploitation, and environmental degradation;
• not as the restoration of an intact past, but as a generative, future-oriented practice that creates new relations, imaginaries, and modes of survival;
• as an analytical concept, an interdisciplinary method, and a transformative practice.

Doctoral Projects need to speak to at least one of the IRTG’s three Research Areas: Environments of Repair, Reparative Readings, and Repairing Relations.

Programme Timeline

The programme will run from February 2027 to July 2030. Doctoral researchers in the programme will enrol at either the University of Potsdam or the University of Melbourne as their home institution. As part of the joint qualification programme, they will spend one full year at the respective partner institution: doctoral researchers enrolled at the University of Potsdam will undertake a research stay at the University of Melbourne from July 2027 to June 2028, while doctoral researchers enrolled at the University of Melbourne will spend a year at the University of Potsdam from July 2028 to June 2029. Researchers who successfully write and defend their PhD thesis will receive qualification from both institutions

What does the IRTG offer?

• six PhD positions at the University of Potsdam (65% TV-L13) and six PhD scholarships at the University of Melbourne
• international supervision in the fields of anglophone literary studies, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, gender studies, queer studies, media studies, and history
• a structured qualification programme built around two years of co-location, including one year in Melbourne and one year in Potsdam. The programme includes jointly taught research seminars, colloquia, summer schools, and workshops at both institutions, complemented by targeted training in areas such as research integrity, academic publishing, and public engagement
• a jointly awarded PhD degree from the University of Potsdam and the University of Melbourne upon successful completion of the programme
• dedicated support for incoming international doctoral researchers with travel, visa, and housing-related matters through the University of Potsdam Welcome Center and the University of Melbourne’s International Student Support services