AutoReduction
ICI Fellowships 2026–28

The ICI Berlin announces 12 post-doctoral fellowships for the ICI Focus ‘AutoReduction’ of the ICI Core Project ‘Reduction’

‘Shock and awe’ is typically a state of reduced capacity to act, move, or resist. Under very special conditions it can be experienced as vitalizing, but in the current conjuncture, it is most readily associated with military or terrorist strategies directed at foreign enemies or, more startingly, turned inward in the hands of disaster capitalism and aspiring autocrats. The effect of dumbfounding paralysis is even more potent with actions that appear themselves self-destructive: when subjects wilfully demolish what used to secure their prestige and power; when rising authoritarian regimes are supported in anticipatory obedience; or when climate change seems to be deliberately accelerated through arms and technology races. How can one not feel utterly disoriented, when it seems as if the world is so clearly oriented towards its own destruction?

There is certainly much to be said for focusing on the ongoing devastation of large parts of humanity, rather than remaining dumbstruck by the prospect of an all-encompassing apocalypse. Yet, it seems equally important to challenge the apparent self-evidence of a rationality based on competitive self-assertion, and to allow for forms of critique that show the manifold ways in which such rationality can become self-defeating. Can one make productive the paradox of such a critique, which does not take an external position and instead proceeds from within, seeking to make the paradigm of self-assertion implode into more benign forms of autoreduction such as self-restraint and self-questioning? To what extent might stupefaction in the face of frenetic destruction also have to do with the possibility of recognizing in it a self-destructiveness that is turned outward and in its denunciation a conservative trope of patronizing normalization?

Inviting projects from all disciplines and fields, the 2026–28 focus ‘AutoReduction’ is interested in a critical exploration of processes and narratives countering the apparently inevitable primacy of self-conservation and growth. It addresses both reductions that could be said to happen by themselves — automatically, as it were, unwittingly for systemic or mythical reasons — and those in which subjects actively reduce themselves. What is the role of scale; of materiality and phantasy; of class and privilege; and how does it get racialized, gendered, and sexualized?

ICI Berlin especially welcomes applications from individuals who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in research. The committed exchange between fellows is a central aim of the Institute. Applicants should be interested in a theoretical reflection on the conceptual and intellectual basis of their projects and in discussing it with fellows from other disciplines. In particular, fellows will be expected to participate in the weekly colloquia, bi-weekly informal meetings, and other activities of the Institute, to contribute to a common publication, and to be resident in Berlin for the duration of the fellowship.

The fellowships announced are for the academic years 2026–28 (14 September 2026 – 14 July 2028). There is no age limit, but applicants should have obtained their PhD within ten years of the date of appointment. The stipend is 2600 EUR per month. Interested applicants should read the full announcement on
www.ici-berlin.org/fellowships-announcement

Application deadline:
5 January 2026, 14:00 (CET)