About Us
The Graduate School is a joint project by Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO). As a part of Freie Universität Berlin’s Department of History and Cultural Studies, our offices are situated on Freie Universität Berlin’s campus in Berlin Dahlem.
Texts
Image Credit: gallica.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France
Objects
Image Credit: Alina Kokoschka
Practices
Image Credit: Ulrike Freitag
Our research fellows investigate the plurality, changeability, and global connectedness of Muslim cultures and societies past and present. In a comparative way, they examine concepts, practices, and institutions variously understood as Islamic.
Geographically, the Graduate School covers a broad spectrum: in addition to the Middle East, our research focuses on sub-Saharan Africa; Central, South, and Southeast Asia; and the Muslim diaspora in Europe and North America.
The Graduate School systematically connects cultural, historical, and social-scientific approaches to research. This is reflected in the multidisciplinary composition of researchers and research projects. We offer supervision of doctoral projects in the following disciplines:
- Arabic Studies,
- Asian and African Studies,
- Central Asian Studies,
- Gender Studies,
- History,
- Human Geography,
- Islamic Studies,
- Iranian Studies,
- Ottoman Studies,
- Political Science,
- Semitic Studies,
- Social and Cultural Anthropology,
- South and Southeast Asian Studies,
- Southeast European History,
- Turcology.
Research projects at our Graduate School address in particular strategies of dealing with diversity, difference, and distinction in a wide range of fields, be they religious, cultural, ethnic, social, economic, or political. They do this through one or more of the three focal areas of texts, objects, and practices.
Texts
Texts form an important nexus through which diversity is negotiated within Muslim communities and societies. This negotiation occurs at all stages of textual production as well as during the reception and re-use of textual material. We understand the concept of text in a broad way: orally transmitted, written, or alternating between both modes.
Objects
Objects can be used as key points of entry into understanding the ways in which Muslim communities deal with diversity and difference. This includes analysing material culture with reference to its discursive function as well as investigating the role of objects in social interactions.
Practices
Our research in this area explores broader questions of power relations and the way these might affect various actors’ approaches to dealing with diversity. Possible research topics include perceptions of difference, individual strategies of dealing with diversity, and practices of enacting difference and hybridity.
We support our doctoral candidates with a research-oriented curriculum. Our courses are designed to balance specialised research in a given field of study with multidisciplinary training. Our three-year modular programme offers supportive structures and provides sufficient time for field or archival research and writing. Berlin boasts excellent libraries and manuscript collections as well as two museums that house important collections relevant to our area of study. This setting offers a particularly inspiring environment for researchers focusing on Muslim cultures and societies.
With more than 50% of our fellows coming from abroad, we offer a diverse and international environment for your doctoral studies. Our primary language of communication is English.
Doctoral candidates are supervised by a multidisciplinary PhD committee and are enrolled at either Freie Universität Berlin or Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, depending upon the affiliation of their primary supervisor.
Our programme offers excellent academic training and supervision, support structures for professional and personal development, and membership in a diverse and international group of doctoral researchers. Our alumni work in academia, political and cultural institutions, and civil society organisations.
Since the founding of the BGSMCS in 2008, a total of 199 fellows has been admitted. Additionally, 63 Postdocs and 50 visiting fellows stayed with the BGSMCS. Just over half (57%) of the 199 fellows come from abroad. The largest groups are from Turkey, India, and Egypt. 43% fellows come from Germany. 106 fellows have completed their dissertations. The average time to submission of the dissertation is 4.8 years, including parental leave for around a quarter of our fellows. The ratio of men to women is balanced (51 % female; 45% male, 3,5% divers). Most fellows were/are enrolled in Islamic Studies (39%). Cultural and Social Anthropology is very strongly represented (18%) and is in balance with Political Science (17%), Arabic Studies (12%), and History (10%). Islamic Theology, Central and South Asian studies, Turcology/Ottoman Studies, African Studies, Gender Studies are each represented by around 4%. Research areas with strong regional representation include the Arab world, but also other regions such as Nigeria, Europe (Balkans) and South/Southeast Asia. For subject-related reasons, many research projects are contemporary in nature, with historical perspectives in many cases reaching back to the 19th and 20th centuries. But earlier eras are also represented. There are various places of employment for graduates as professor, lecturer, research assistant in academic institutions e.g. Cairo University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia University, Federal University von Jos, Nigeria, Leiden University, Orient-Institut Beirut, Oxford University, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Universitas Islam Negeri Syaria Hidayatullah, Indonesia, University of California, Berkeley, University of Central Asia, Duschanbe/Tadschikistan, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Universities in Hamburg, Tübingen, Göttingen, Konstanz and Bayreuth, München, as well as in cultural or governmental institutions. (As of 07/2026)
Since 2025, the Einstein Foundation Berlin has funded two doctoral scholarships in the framework of the Einstein Visiting Fellowship for Mohammed Bamyeh.
Since 2018, the Gerda Henkel Foundation has funded two doctoral scholarships for doctoral students in our programme each year.
Since 2019, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is supporting a postdoctoral position at the Graduate School.
In 2018, 2019 and 2023, supervisors of the Graduate School won the Dahlem Research School Award for Excellent Supervision.
The Einstein Foundation Berlin has awarded our structured doctoral program with the Einstein Award for Doctoral Programs "Summa Cum Laude" in 2018. Funding from the prize money runs from 2019 to 2021.
From 2016 to 2024, the DAAD has provided us with two doctoral scholarships a year for international doctoral students through the Graduate School Scholarship Programme.
The Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies was funded by the German Research Foundation from 2007 to 2019 through the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.
