The Internal University Research Funding at JGU offers funding opportunities for active participation in meetings and conferences with your own presentation or poster. However, there are also many other reasons to go abroad during your doctorate – be it to participate in a summer school, conduct field research or collaborate with foreign researchers. This is what our Short Stays Abroad funding programme is all about.

Thanks to the support of the GSHS, I was able to spend four weeks in July 2025 conducting research at the School of Communication at Ohio State University. The time on site was extremely valuable for continuing existing collaborations – for example, we were able to complete our data collection, analyze the data, and begin planning the manuscripts. As part of a colloquium, I was also able to discuss parts of my doctoral project with the faculty and receive valuable feedback. The professional exchange with colleagues at the university significantly expanded my academic network and I returned to Mainz with many new ideas and perspectives.

Thanks to the support of the GSHS, I was able to attend the conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR) at the University of Copenhagen in July 2025. In my doctoral project, which focuses primarily on the corpus of the Attic orators, ancient legal rhetoric plays a central role. For predominantly Anglophone research in this field, the ISHR conference is the most important international forum for scholarly exchange. The program was therefore particularly valuable for me, as numerous contributions touched on key aspects of my work and provided insights into different methodological approaches and current research questions. Beyond the panels, I received valuable input for my work through conversations during breaks, over coffee, or at shared dinners, and made connections with researchers from around the world – contacts that will certainly last beyond the conference itself. Participation in the ISHR conference was thus a great professional and personal enrichment. My sincere thanks go to the GSHS for making this experience possible.

During my three-month research stay at Stanford University, I was able to make significant progress on my single-authored dissertation paper. Through intensive academic exchange with Prof. Maya Rossin-Slater and the presentation of my project in her seminar, I received valuable feedback that helped sharpen my research question and methodology. This was complemented by regular meetings with researchers in the fields of health and labor economics, as well as participation in numerous seminars and lectures by international scholars. In addition, I presented my research at two international conferences and was able to significantly expand my academic network. Overall, the stay was a great professional and personal enrichment for my doctoral studies, and I am very grateful for the support provided by the GSHS.