For PhD candidates in cultural studies: research in areas thematically related to Viennese, Austrian, and Central European traditions and/or interdisciplinary and comparative cultural studies
For more information on the Fulbright awards available to US students in Austria can be found on the global Fulbright website.
The application must be completed on the IIE website. Please be sure to read all of the information about the grant available below before you begin your application.
Special application instructions
In your online application, Step B, Section 3a Award Name, please select "ifk Award" from the drop-down menu to be considered for this grant.
The ifk Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften | Kunstuniversitaet Linz in Wien (ifk International Research Center for Cultural Studies | University of Art and Design Linz in Vienna) collaborates with Fulbright Austria (the Austrian-American Educational Commission) to offer one Fulbright-ifk Junior Fellowship in Cultural Studies.
This fellowship is specifically designed for US PhD candidates working on an interdisciplinary research project with a focus on cultural studies. Academic subjects include the humanities, social sciences, and art. Research projects can but do not have to relate to the current research focuses of “cultures of translation,” “different work," or "situated in the global." (Visit their website for more information on these focuses.)
The ifk is an interdisciplinary center for advanced study and offers a privileged working environment that includes 17–20 international and Austrian fellows of different career levels who spend four to nine months there. The fellowship can be easily combined with close working relationships to researchers at other Viennese institutions. The ifk is located in front of the main building of the University of Vienna. Among other things, Fulbright-ifk Junior Fellows benefit from access to its libraries as well as the resources of the Austrian National Library.
Fulbright-ifk Junior Fellows will be provided with a desk—including an iMac, internet connection (also WLAN), and an IP phone number—in a shared office with up to four other ifk Junior Fellows (PhD students). The fellows are expected to attend the weekly fellow lectures (mostly on Mondays) and to participate in the weekly meetings (dissertation workshop or fellows meeting). They will have the opportunity to give a presentation themselves in front of a large international audience at the ifk and on Zoom. Participation in additional academic and social programs of the ifk is optional.
Fulbright proposal types
Independent study/research: Yes
Graduate degree enrollment: No
Benefits
PhD candidates in cultural studies whose field of specialization is thematically related to Viennese, Austrian, and Central European traditions and/or the ifk's interest in the promotion of interdisciplinary and comparative cultural studies and the humanities are welcome to apply.
Applicants for Fulbright-ifk grants will also be considered for traditional Fulbright student grants.
Accepted degree levels
Master's
PhD
Foreign-language proficiency
Required: Advanced level of German
German-language proficiency is necessary to fulfill the Fulbright Program's bilateral mandate of promoting mutual understanding, to negotiate the challenges of everyday life, and to fulfill university admission requirements. Advanced proficiency is essential to facilitate participation in the ifk’s array of colloquia and other activities for Junior Fellows; thus, all applicants must submit "Form 7: Language Self-Evaluation" and "Form 8: A Foreign Language Evaluation by a qualified language instructor." Both forms are available on the Embark online application system.
Affiliation
Prospective applicants are encouraged to identify appropriate individuals at the ifk to provide on-site guidance.
Dependents
Dependent support is not available.
ifk fosters active interactions between junior and senior scholars. This openness between professors and doctoral students is something I’d love to see encouraged more in America.
-Nathan Stobaugh, 2018–19 US Fulbright student, ifk International Research Center for Cultural Studies | University of Art and Design Linz in Vienna
Aviv Hilbig-Bokaer was the 2023–24 recipient of the Fulbright-ifk Junior Fellowship. Aviv's affiliate was ifk, and his research project was entitled Ambivalent Liaisons: Sexuality Between Pathology and Criminality in Viennese Modernism. Want to learn more about Aviv's experience? Watch the interview to learn more about his time in Austria and at ifk.
Aviv Hilbig-Bokaer
ifk
Ambivalent Liaisons: Sexuality Between Pathology and Criminality in Viennese Modernism
Arielle Friend
Sigmund Freud Museum
The Childhood of Psychoanalysis: Reflections on Language, Education, and Crisis
Daniel Friedman
ifk
Peripheral Formalisms: Female Writers in Post-1945 Austria
Elisabeth Fertig
ifk
Sage Ich/Say I: Austrian Women Poets on the Radio, 1945‒2000
Matthew Johnson
ifk
The Whirl of Language: German and Yiddish Literature after 1900
