The BGHS was proud to host Simone Diender, Ahmet Gencturk und Saara Hämäläinen as Visiting Fellows for the Summer Term 2015. The doctoral researchers from Finland, the Netherlands and Turkey used their time in Bielefeld to work intensively on their dissertations. In addition to the grant they were given, each had an office space and access to the BGHS infrastructure. During the Summer Term, the Fellows took part in the BGHS degree programme and presented their research at Bielefeld University and BGHS conferences, workshops, and seminars. These presentations gave them the opportunity to connect with professors and doctoral researchers at the BGHS and build up their academic networks.

Saara Hämäläinen who works as a sociologist at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence on changes of family structures and poverty, discussed her research project at the 7th Annual Seminar of the BGHS. She presented a comparative study on financial consequences of partnership dissolution in Germany and the UK. During the discussion she got good ideas and information which she will use for her research.
Ahmet Gencturk, a historian from the Panteion University in Athens who works on the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, was very impressed by the quality of the scientific environment at the BGHS. For him, the time at the graduate school was a great opportunity to get insights of the German world of Academia. He will recommend the programme to his colleagues in Athens and in Turkey.

Not did only the stay of the three visiting fellows at the BGHS advance the academic exchange but also the social and cultural exchange with BGHS members, promoting international dialogue among our graduate students. After a fruitful period of hard work and exciting experiences, two of the Visiting Fellows sadly said goodbye to the BGHS and returned to their universities at the end of July, where they continued to work on their dissertations and academic careers.

Only Simone Diender has decided differently: because of the great experiences at the BGHS and the excellent working environment, she decided to stay here for some weeks in Bielefeld to work on her thesis about Expert Power and the Obligations of Work, Prayer, and Parenthood in the US from 1923 until 1970, before she flies back home to her university in Waltham/Massachusetts.

For further information on the Visiting Fellows and the Visiting-Fellow-Programme, please see: www.uni-bielefeld.de/bghs/Personen/Fellows/visiting_fellows.html, www.uni-bielefeld.de/bghs/Ausschreibungen/visiting_fellowships.html .