Application and Admission Process
Individual doctorate
To apply for the individual doctorate, you must demonstrate that you have a Master's degree (or equivalent) with excellent grades in one of the disciplines represented by one of the LAI professors. As a first step, you should contact an LAI professor with the intention that he or she will supervise you. Make sure that your discipline matches the one represented by your potential supervisor. You can find the list of disciplines accepted at our institute here. You and your supervisor will need to sign a supervision agreement (the format of the supervision agreement will vary depending on the discipline and department).
It is the applicant's responsibility to obtain a scholarship. If you are not employed at Freie Universität Berlin, you must register online at the Admissions Office of Freie Universität Berlin within four weeks of your admission. If you do not register, your admission will be cancelled, and you will have to reapply.
Structured doctorate
With their membership, the selected doctoral students commit themselves to fulfilling the requirements of the Dahlem Research School (attending a series of courses and seminars and participating in the structured programme). Applications for admission to the structured doctoral programme may be submitted twice a year, by 1 February for the summer semester and by 1 August for the winter semester. The following documents must be submitted with the application:
- Letter of motivation stating the reasons for admission to the doctoral programme
- Confirmation of supervision by an LAI professor (including honorary or associate professors)
- Doctoral project including work plan and bibliography (minimum seven pages).
- Curriculum Vitae
- Confirmation of scholarship
Once you have received the letter of confirmation, together with the other documents listed above, you should send your application to the Doctoral Programme Coordinator:
Dr Lasse Hölck
Freie Universität Berlin
ZI Institute for Latin American Studies
Boltzmannstr. 4
14195 – Berlin
Germany
These documents may also be submitted electronically to: promotion@lai.fu-berlin.de
For more information on the LAI's teaching staff, please visit the Disciplines section.
International Research Training Group (IRTG) "Temporalities of Future”
The steps to apply for the structured doctoral programme of the International Research Training Group "Temporalities of Future" are different. In the case of the IRTG, a call for applications will be published at the end of the term of each cohort, with the next call scheduled for autumn 2024.
Students working on their dissertation within the framework of the IRTG "Temporalities of Future" simultaneously participate in the structured doctoral programme. For more information on the structure, requirements and timing of the call for applications, please visit the IRTG’s "Temporalities of Future" page.