Proposals for the Winter Term 2026-27
Off University and the Memory Studies Association are inviting proposals for an online course in Memory Studies to be taught by scholars at risk.
The course should take an interdisciplinary approach to the intersection of memory studies and gender. Topics may include studies of wars or social conflicts that have escalated into violence and its related traumatic, resistant and conflicting memories, incorporating a gender perspective. Comparative analysis at global or regional scales are welcome, including comparisons of how opposing sides in the same conflict remember and narrate events. The course may cover critical approaches to official memory politics as well as grassroots initiatives and activism. It may be delivered in English or another language, in line with its transnational perspective. Course proposals should reflect recent discourse in the field, advocate diversity in the canon, and encourage creativity and active student participation.
The course will be taught on the Off University online learning platform during the 2026 winter term (14 weeks, October 2026 – February 2027). Renumeration is 4000€ as a teaching honorarium. Off University’s online-learning platform Moodle offers a virtual classroom including chat options, video live streaming, virtual blackboard, file sharing and a whole range of collaborative learning activities. Over the last nine years, we have organized 83 interactive online courses certified by universities with recognized ECTS credits which can be transferred to a home university after completion. Off University courses are open for everybody to join, not only those enrolled at a university.
This online laboratory will be organized together with and funded by
the Memory Studies Association.
Application Requirements for Courses:
- Being politically (1) persecuted and/or displaced and (2) unemployed and/or in material need
- Ability to teach a self-organized undergraduate or graduate course in your field of research
- Holding (at least) a master’s degree
- Instructors are required to act in accordance with the Off University Code of Conduct, which can be found here in German, English and Turkish.
Application Materials for Courses (in English)
As course proposals will be selected by an international team of scholars, please submit your application material in English only. The language of instruction can be a different language.
This link leads you to a questionnaire that asks:
- About your experience in teaching an online course and your knowledge on interactive e-learning methods. Please describe your approach to interactive online teaching and the research focus of the proposed course (max. 500 words)
- A short statement about your situation with regard persecution and material condition and/or immigration status (max. 500 words)
- Two-page course outline (14 weeks) or an example of a previous course taught on the topic. The outline should describe objectives, planned learning outcomes and assignments.
- Full-CV with detailed past teaching and research experience
What we care in teaching
Off University is committed to an academic life that connects teaching and research. We therefore encourage applications for courses that involve the course participants in the instructor’s actual research activity. This can be achieved through, for instance, collective data collection and analysis that involves the participants in an intellectually demanding way, the participants’ critical evaluation of instructor’s draft research papers or the involvement of participants in future publications or other ways of knowledge dissemination (blogs, wikis, films, conferences etc.). We offer advice on how to integrate research activities into future courses and will help scholars to further develop this teaching approach.
Non-cis-male and disabled scholars are strongly encouraged to apply and will be given priority when qualifications meet requirements.
Application Process
Your security as a scholar is our first priority. We therefore save your data only on our own servers and only communicate with you in secure ways: via the messaging app Signal and Proton Mail. In order to notify you about the outcome of your application, please leave your Signal-handle, the number you use on Signal or a proton mail address only.
Please complete the questionnaire and upload your CV and your course proposal HERE.
If you have questions, please reach out to us only via Signal with the user name @offuniversity.17 or our proton account mail@offuniversity.org.
All applications should be submitted by April 13th, 2026 at midnight (Central European Time).
You will be notified via Signal or Proton mail by May 3rd, 2026 about the outcome of your application.
