Start date September 1, 2026

eikones - Center for the Theory and History of the Image at the University of Basel

The center invites applications from outstanding junior and senior researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences for three one-year NOMIS Fellowships beginning September 1, 2026.

Since 2005, eikones has served as a center for graduate and postgraduate research on images. The center is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of images as instruments of human knowledge and cultural practices. It investigates the functions and effects of images throughout history and in our contemporary society from analytical and empirical perspectives.

The NOMIS Fellowship Program supports groundbreaking research projects related to how images act as models or paradigms in scientific and aesthetic contexts. We are interested in the fundamental ways images serve as instruments for making complex structures visible and accessible to interpretation. In both aesthetic and experimental settings, images often assume an exemplary character, aiding epistemic and learning processes. They fulfill evidential, didactic, and symbolic functions, and thereby produce different forms of knowledge. Relevant topics of research might consider, for example, the history and theory of imaging techniques in the natural sciences; the ideals and stereotypes that shape social contexts and political discussions; or the formation and dissolution of canons, iconographies, character types, and styles in the arts. On the methodological side, the projects should be rooted in a specific research field, and reflect on the relation between their individual discipline and image studies.

The fellowships will allow outstanding scholars and scientists to pursue their research free from teaching and administrative obligations. Fellows receive a generous salary, travel funds, conference funds, and access to excellent academic infrastructure. Applications will be selected based on scholarly achievement and promise, and relevance to the topic of images as models. Preference will be given to excellent young scholars with innovative approaches. Fellows are expected to be in residence at eikones in Basel and to participate in select institutional events.

Your profile

• Applicants must possess a doctoral degree.
• Applicants must have previously have published either a monograph (e.g. their dissertation) OR three articles in journals or collected volumes.
• Applicants from all academic fields whose research relates to images as models are invited to apply.
• Applications may be submitted in either German or English.