After the Enlightenment: Histories, Debates, and Reinterpretations (Turin Humanities Programme, 2026-2028 Research Cycle)

Fondazione 1563 is pleased to launch the sixth call for applications to award up to 4 two year fellowships for advanced studies on After the Enlightenment: Histories, Debates, and Reinterpretations.

The Director of Studies for this programme (2026-2028) will be Elisabeth Décultot, the Director of the IZEA Interdisciplinary Centre for research on the European Enlightenment studies and Humboldt Professor for modern written culture and European knowledge transfer at the Institute of German Literature, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.

For information and questions please email: info@fondazione1563.it

Applicants are invited to submit research projects of a maximum of 3000 words, plus bibliography. Projects are expected to engage with one or more aspects of the general research framework After the Enlightenment: Histories, Debates, and Reinterpretations.

Candidates are invited to propose projects examining how the concept of the Enlightenment has been constructed, adapted, contested and (re)appropriated in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries—that is, after the historical period conventionally associated with it.

The project will focus on the diverse issues surrounding the construction of the concept of the Enlightenment during this period, potentially in connection with related notions such as civilisation, colonisation, Eurocentrism, public space, and secularisation (among others).

It will pay particular attention to the interplay between national, transnational, and global dimensions of the Enlightenment, privileging both comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives.

The subject potentially encompasses all disciplines within the humanities, including history, art history, cultural history, history of science, philosophy, European and nonEuropean literature, political science, and many other fields.

Details of the research framework can be found here: https://turinhumanitiesprogramme.fondazione1563.it/research-projects/research-project-2025/

In addition to the research proposal, applicants must submit their Curriculum vitae et studiorum and:

• an article-length piece of writing, published or unpublished, which demonstrates innovative thinking (written in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish) and
• the contact information of two scholars familiar with the applicant’s work and willing to act as their referees (one of whom can be their PhD supervisor); only the referees of shortlisted candidates will be contacted by the Fondazione 1563.
  
  Successful candidates will carry out their individual research projects under the supervision of the Director of Studies. They will also collaborate to the organization of activities such as seminars, conferences, exhibitions and summer schools, during which they will be invited to share their research projects with a wider community of academics as well as students and the general public.