Call for Applications: Research Methods in Fundamental Rights Workshop for PhD and Early Career Researchers

Call for Applications
Research Methods in Fundamental Rights
Workshop for PhD and Early Career Researchers, June 2025

The Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School is pleased to announce its 2025 Annual Workshop on Research Methods in Fundamental Rights, taking place from 16-18 June 2025 at the Hertie School, Berlin, Germany. The Workshop is hosted by the Hertie School as a member of CIVICA – The European University of Social Sciences.

The Workshop aims to provide doctoral and early-career legal researchers with an opportunity to reflect on diverse research methods in human rights research. Over three days, successful candidates will attend masterclasses with renowned faculty, who will provide guidance and reflections on the methods they have applied in key pieces of their own research. In additional sessions, participants will submit reflections on their own research questions and methods, and will receive individual feedback on their projects from the faculty and fellow participants.

Workshop sessions include: Introduction to research methods and research methodology in fundamental rights (Prof. Başak Çalı), Doctrinal analysis with a feminist lens (Prof. Silvia Suteu), Empirical (legal) methods for human rights researchers (Dr. Helga Molbæk-Steensig), Legal-ethnographic tools in human rights research (Prof. Marie-Claire Foblets), Normative Research in (Migration and Human Rights) Law (Prof. Violeta Moreno-Lax), Single and small N case studies: Logics of selection and justification (Prof. Başak Çalı), Tracing the processes of change in human rights research (Dr. Francesca Palmiotto and Dr. Silvia Steininger), and Using interviews to study legal processes and fields (Prof. Mikael Rask Madsen).

A keynote speech by Prof. Joseph Weiler will offer participants insights and advice on career planning and publications strategy for early career scholars.

We encourage applications from PhD and early-career legal researchers carrying out fundamental rights research employing any of the methodological approaches covered in the workshop.

Date: 16 – 18 June 2025

Location: Hertie School, Berlin, Germany

The workshop will be hosted in-person at the Hertie School. Participants will receive assigned
readings in advance of the workshop, as well as guidance on the preparation of their own workshop
presentations.

Participation fee: 250 €

The Centre for Fundamental Rights offers a stipend in the form of tuition waiver for up to three participants, subject to the availability of funds. Candidates who have no source of funding and wish to apply for a tuition waiver should indicate so in their application.

Subject to availability of funds, participants from CIVICA institutions may be eligible for either
partial or full reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs.

Application process:

Deadline for applications: 20 February 2025

Please submit your application by sending an email to fundamentalrights@hertie-school.org with the subject line ‘Research Methods in Fundamental Rights’. Applications should include one single pdf file, containing the following information:

• A CV
• A letter of motivation. Please indicate clearly the method(s) that you apply/are interested in applying in your research.
• An outline of your research project, including your research question, research methodology and current stage of the research (2 pages)

For PhD candidates a letter of recommendation written by their PhD supervisor should be sent separately by 20 February 2025 to fundamentalrights@hertie-school.org with the subject line ‘Letter of recommendation – Name of the candidate – Research Methods in Fundamental Rights’.

Successful applicants will receive a written confirmation of acceptance no later than 3 March 2025 and are expected to confirm by 20 March 2025.

A detailed programme and list of readings will be made available by 10 April 2025.

Each participant is expected to submit by 11 May 2025:

• A discussion paper with a short description of their research projects and a dedicated methodology section as well as a recorded 15-minute presentation.
• A short written assignment related to the readings for a minimum of four out of the eight methods sessions.

Please find the full call for applications here.