topic Academia

The DGIA Foundation is now the Max Weber Foundation

The Max Weber Foundation - German Humanities Institutes Abroad was founded on 1 July 2002 as the Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA). It is a federally funded foundation under public law. The foundation maintains ten institutes in the cities of Beirut, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Warsaw and Washington D.C., with around 270 employees. Institutional funding is provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the yearly budget in 2011, including third party funding, was approximately 38 million euros. Funding has nearly doubled since the foundation's inception.

Through its globally operating institutes, the Max Weber Foundation is able to support communication and networking between Germany and the host countries or regions. By promoting scientific dialogue and merging academic as well as non-academic employees from various countries with different cultural backgrounds, the foundation is able to strengthen the internationalization of research in humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies.

Each year, the Max Weber Foundation provides more than 250 scholarships for university students, graduates, and post-docs at its institutions. As such, it is the largest humanities scholarship provider following the DAAD, the DFG, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Scientific work at the institutions is carried out and influenced particularly by projects of the young researchers who work at the foundation for a limited time. The mobility of these researchers is a high priority for the foundation. The integration of the institutes into the research cultures of the host countries and regions provides employees with excellent opportunities for professional development and advancement.

The Max Weber Foundation supports the global networking of research, funding and intermediary organizations and thus contributes to strengthening Germany's position in the international research and higher education landscape. It creates forums mostly in the host countries, but also in Germany, which provide the opportunity for the institutes to present their research.

Since April 2012, the Max Weber Foundation, together with the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, has continued the successful series Geisteswissenschaft im Dialog (Humanities in Dialogue, or GiD). GiD has promoted interdisciplinary exchange between science, culture and society for nearly 20 years. The series helps provide the humanities with a distinct voice in the discussion of socially relevant and pioneering topics. Deutschlandfunk is its media partner.

The Max Weber Foundation supports new paths in uncharted, interdisciplinary and transnational research in the fields of humanities, social sciences, and cultural studies. With the establishment of transnational research groups in new regions, funding opportunities for the institutes abroad have increased.  As of 2013, a research group in New Delhi will be dedicated to social and educational policy in India since the 19th century. The German Historical Institute London will be the coordinator on the side of the foundation. Project partners include the King's India Institute at King's College in London and the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CEMIS) at the Universität Göttingen, as well as several partners on the Indian side, including the Centre for Historical Studies, the Centre for Educational Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the non-university Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

With its newly created international research funding prize, the Max Weber Foundation, in cooperation with the Historisches Kolleg in Munich, will be promoting internationally-oriented humanities research. In order to intensify international academic exchange, the foundation supports the development of information technology infrastructure. The publication platform affiliated with the foundation, perspectivia.net, makes humanities texts in a variety of languages available and, through its Open Access Principle, provides global, barrier-free access to literature. Since 2012, the foundation has worked to take advantage of the potential offered by the Internet and especially Web 2.0. A BMBF-funded social media format has created a virtual infrastructure that will more strongly link academics at the various institutes with each other, but also with Germany's scientific community, while providing them with a new and contemporary forum for the presentation of their research. Exemplary of this modern direction is the foundation-wide blog "Max Weber in the World," which was established as part of the international conference "Max Weber in the World" in honour of the Foundation's ten year anniversary.

Links

1. The Max Weber Foundation
2. Institutes:
   • German Forum for Art History Paris
   • German Historical Institute London
   • German Historical Institute Moscow
   • German Historical Institute Paris
   • German Historical Institute Rome
   • German Historical Institute Warsaw
   • German Historical Institute Washington D.C.
   • German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo
   • Oriental Institute Beirut
     
3. Geisteswissenschaft im Dialog (GiD)
4. Max Weber Blog
5. Perspectivia.net
6. Research Group New Delhi