The BGTS offers a structured 3-year doctoral programme and provides a curriculum with standardized elements for all doctoral researchers. The curriculum includes theory, research design, methods, transferable skills classes and workshops as well as university didactics and English academic writing seminars. Furthermore, rotating colloquium sessions give doctoral researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their projects with different Principal Investigators, postdoctoral researchers and fellows, and other doctoral researchers.

The goal of the doctoral programme is to help doctoral researchers unravel the manifold contestations and transformations in economy, politics, and society, in national and international law, over the course of history and across various areas of the globe. SCRIPTS intends to equip them with the intellectual means to meet the normative and analytical challenges associated with these contestations and transformations. A rigorous academic training combined with training in practical and transferable skills embedded in an international network prepare the doctoral researchers for careers in a number of fields.

Course programme and specialisation

Doctoral researchers can pursue different specializations corresponding to their respective disciplinary and regional focus either at the BGTS itself, at partner institutions, such as the Hertie School, or at the respective cooperating graduate schools. They are able to participate in selected courses and workshops at the graduate school or programme, such as Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (BGSMCS), the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS), the Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS), the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS), and the doctoral programmes in Latin American Studies and Global Intellectual History.

Affiliation and institutional network

SCRIPTS constantly strives to provide doctoral researchers with a positive working environment to help them successfully pursue their research. To this end, a main priority is the further development of a strong network with our partner institutions. The BGTS has its headquarters at Freie Universität Berlin where the offices as well as the directors and the management are located. Doctoral researchers will be affiliated with their supervisory institution, but the courses forming the curriculum may also take place at partner institutions. Overall, each doctoral researcher should be integrated into the greater research community by close cooperation with partners like the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the WZB Social Science Center, the Hertie School and others. This provides doctoral researchers the unique opportunity to experience more than one of Berlin's excellent research institutions and to build a large network at an early stage of the academic career.

Career options

Many alumni of the BGTS and the predecessor school, the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies (BTS), are successfully pursuing careers in numerous prestigious universities, think tanks, political and governmental institutions, consulting and in civil society. Employers include Charles University Prague, Freie Universität Berlin, LMU Munich, Radboud University, University of Gothenburg, University of Oxford, and University of Zurich as well as organizations such as Oxfam America, the European Commission, and the KfW Development Bank.

Contact

The Berlin Graduate School for Global and Transregional Studies (BGTS)
Boltzmannstraße 20, 14197 Berlin
Room EG E225, E225a and E225b
bgts@scripts-berlin.eu
+49 30 838 71550 Early Career Ombudsperson

SCRIPTS maintains an honorary ombudsperson who provides doctoral researchers and postdoctoral fellows confidential consultation on challenges encountered in research projects, supervision, mentoring, or other issues.

Prof. Dr. Florian Waldow
florian.waldow@hu-berlin.de