21st EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students
Venue: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Date: 27–29 August 2025
Project director: Prof. Dr. Stefano Romagnoli (Sapienza University)
Language for applications and during the workshop: English
Application deadline: 15 January 2025
To apply please visit our application portal.
The European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) invites doctoral students in all fields of Japan-related research (humanities and social sciences) to apply for the 21st EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students (27–29 August 2025). The workshop will take place at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. The EAJS will cover the costs of travel (up to 400 EUR within Europe, up to 500 EUR from outside of Europe) and accommodation for the duration of the workshop for a group of 18-20 doctoral students.
The EAJS Workshops for Doctoral Students aim to create a multidisciplinary European network of advanced graduate students and senior scholars in Japanese Studies. The informal setting of the workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to work intensively together to improve individual projects and engage in deep discussions on common themes and methods. Through presentations and focused sessions, participants give and receive critical feedback on dissertation projects, fieldwork plans and preliminary findings. Participants will be required to submit a report outlining their dissertation project prior to the workshop. Moreover, they will be asked to read the work of their peers and prepare for workshop presentations, thus linking their own work to the broader international field of Japanese Studies. Students will also get extensive opportunity to discuss their projects with a senior scholar in their respective field.
Eligibility
Graduate students working on a dissertation topic related to Japan, regardless of citizenship, who are enrolled at universities in Europe, and students of European nationality who are enrolled in graduate programs outside Europe are eligible. Doctoral Students from European universities that do not have major centers of Japanese Studies are especially encouraged to apply. Applications are particularly welcome from graduate students in the early fieldwork phase through the middle stages of dissertation writing. First-year Ph.D. students are encouraged to apply for this workshop at a somewhat later stage. All applicants are expected to have studied the Japanese language and to use materials written in Japanese as sources for their dissertations. Applicants are expected to provide evidence of Japanese language ability in their applications.
Application and Selection Process
The EAJS uses an online system to manage submissions for its workshop for doctoral students.
Your application must include:
- A curriculum vitae;
- A short cover letter (maximum 250 words), indicating why you wish to attend the workshop as well as the current state of progress of the doctoral work;
- A summary of the dissertation project (maximum 500 words), explaining topic, relevance, research question, methodology, and current stage of the dissertation project.
These documents must be submitted via the application portal by 15 January 2025. Selected candidates will be notified by March 2025.
(If the link above does not work, please enter the following URL in your browser to reach the application portal: https://forms.gle/M4nSd8uxSosjS6ju9).
The evaluation of the applications will be carried out by the EAJS Council. The final selection of participants will then be made in consultation with the workshop director.
Selected candidates will be required to send a project report (about 5,000 words) to the project director by 31 May 2025.
This project report should have the following structure:
1) Title and author
2) Abstract with keywords
3) Current state of research (empirical findings and theories) and research gap(s)
4) Research question of project and its relevance respectively own motivation
5) Theoretical framework, methodology of project, and schedule
6) Hypotheses and/or preliminary results
7) (Possible) difficulties in realizing research project
8) Quoted literature
The project report must be in accordance with best academic practice (language, referencing, etc.). It will be the basis for short presentations on the individual research projects, for group presentations and discussions, and for the individual supervision.
Each applicant who receives a request to send in a full project report will be accepted. However, an extension of the deadline for the project report will not be possible since all project reports need to be sent to all participants and the senior advisors. Selected candidates who fail to submit their project report by the deadline will not be admitted to the workshop.
All selected candidates will furthermore be required to submit a short report (250-300 words) on their participation in the workshop by 15 September 2025.
Reports by participating scholars will be published on the EAJS website as well as in the EAJS Bulletin.
It is not necessary to be a paid EAJS member at the time of applying, and holding a membership at the time of applying does not affect the likelihood of its success. However, successful applicants need to be registered EAJS members by the time of the workshop.
For all enquiries please feel free to contact us via email at office[at]eajs.eu.
