Call for Applications: Junior Scholar Colloquium
From Relations to Politics: Pathways Toward a Planetary Praxis
Call for Applications
Junior Scholar Colloquium
Panel on Planetary Thinking, Justus Liebig University Giessen
18.-20. November 2025
Castle Rauischholzhausen | Schlosspark 1 | 35085 Ebsdorfergrund | Germany
Click here to download the PDF version of the Call
The relations humans cultivate with their planetary home call for fundamental reconsideration. Prevailing extractive modes of living off — rather than with — the Earth have shaped ecosystems, societies, and politics in ways that threaten the conditions necessary for a habitable planet. Conventional scientific paradigms and governance frameworks still struggle to understand and engage with the interconnectedness of societies’ and Earth's dynamics.
The Panel on Planetary Thinking at Justus Liebig University Giessen invites the university’s doctoral candidates working on planetary projects to apply for participation in a Junior Scholar Colloquium which inaugurates the concluding conference of the international Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program (2022–2025).
Participating scholars gain the unique opportunity to present their dissertation projects in a transdisciplinary setting and to engage in dialogue with internationally renowned scholars and artists whose work contributes to the burgeoning field of planetary thinking. Moreover, they get involved in three days of hands-on exploration of how relations—between humans, nonhumans, and planetary forces—can serve as the ground for future forms of politics. Through conceptual experimentation, artistic exploration, and academic exchange, participants will collaboratively open pathways towards enduring human-planet relations.
Colloquium Format:
The Junior Scholar Colloquium will take place on the morning of 18 November 2025 and bring together up to eight doctoral candidates from JLU’s participating graduate centers (GCSC/GGK, GGS, GGN, GGL). Within two discussion panels, participating scholars will:
- present their dissertation project in a max. 10-minute talk;
- receive a 5-minute response by a fellow or a member of the Panel on Planetary Thinking’s managing team;
- take part in a 20-minute open discussion with other colloquium and conference participants.
In addition to providing feedback by experts from different career stages and research fields, its aim is to explore how ongoing doctoral research adopts a planetary perspective and/or may benefit from doing so in transdisciplinary exchange.
Application Guidelines:
JLU’s doctoral students not affiliated to any graduate center are welcome to apply as well. Applicants are asked to submit a one-page motivational letter explaining how their dissertation project engages with planetary thinking and how it is situated in an inter- or transdisciplinary context alongside with an academic CV. Please submit these documents as one single PDF titled “NAME_PROJECT” to panel@planet.uni-giessen.de by 1 August 2025. Decisions will be announced by 1 September 2025.
Conference Participation & Funding:
Selected participants will join the full conference program from 18 to 20 November 2025. They will be hosted free of charge by the Panel on Planetary Thinking, which includes transportation from Giessen to castle Rauischholzhausen, full board, and accommodation in single rooms of the castle’s guest house.
Conference Philosophy:
Rather than responding only to pressing challenges, this conference invites participants to engage a broader horizon: How might we ask better questions, build new knowledge, and develop practices that nurture enduring human-planet relations? We look forward to a thoughtful, open, and inspiring exchange that lays groundwork for researching planetary world-making. Accordingly, the program is organized from grounding to processing to consolidating human-planet relations through 10 pathways: cooperation, localization, embodiment, recognition, communication, interaction, contemplation relations, negotiation, invention.
This is a rare opportunity to engage with cutting-edge planetary scholarship and to shape the evolving field of planetary praxis. Please find the Conference Agenda below for your reference.
We look forward to receiving your applications!