Overview

The early- and mid-career scholars’ representatives at DGPuK

Supporting early- and mid-career academics is one of the purposes of the German Communication Association as set out in its statutes, and the Association has intensified its activities in this field in recent years. In 2011, to the end of achieving greater structural institutionalisation of support for early- and mid-career scholars in DGPuK, and in response to a proposal by the Association’s working group on the issue, DGPuK created the office of early- and mid-career scholars’ representative. The amendment of the statutes officially incorporating this office took place in 2016. For the purposes of the Association, an ‘early- and mid-career scholar’ is defined as a DGPuK member without a permanent contract at his or her institution.

The early- and mid-career scholars’ representatives at DGPuK act as points of contact and connection between the various levels of academic seniority within the Association. They represent the interests of academics in the early stages of their careers in the field of media and communication studies in interaction with the Association’s steering committee and wider society and at the Association’s AGM. In addition to this, they seek to promote objectives linked to furthering the interests of early-career scholars in media and communication studies. Their principal day-to-day tasks in supporting and promoting this group of academics involve:

• providing information for early- and mid-career academics
• organising and holding regular events to support this group of scholars and raise their profile, including an early- and mid-career conference, special panels at the DGPuK annual conference, and workshops
• helping coordinate activities supporting early- and mid-career scholars within DGPuK and its various specialist and early- and mid-career working groups
• keeping in touch with other national and international organisations for emerging academics
• monitoring and regularly documenting the current situation of early- and mid-career academics in communication studies.

The representatives receive support from the members of DGPuK’s commission for early- and mid-career scholars, which is formed of the spokespeople of the Association’s various early- and mid-career networks and other members who are interested in providing support and encouragement to scholars at this stage in their academic lives.

Early- and mid-career scholars’ representative:
Manuel Menke
Department of Media and Communication (IfKW)
Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich
manuel.menke@ifkw.lmu.de

Deputy:
Julia Niemann-Lenz
Department of Journalism and Communication Research
Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media
julia.niemann-lenz@ijk.hmtm-hannover.de