On 24 October, the academic year 2024/25 was officially opened at BerGSAS. This winter semester, eleven doctoral researchers began their PhD studies at Humboldt-Universität Berlin or Freie Universität Berlin. The doctoral students are funded by DAAD scholarships in the Graduate School Scholarship Programme, by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and by the state of Berlin (Elsa Neumann scholarships) or are employed as research assistants at the universities. Special mention should be made of the fact that one doctorate is carried out in a binational doctoral program (Cotutelle) between the EPHE Paris and the FU Berlin.

In addition to an introduction to the structures of BAK and BerGSAS and technical information that is part of the start of studies, there were a number of smaller excursions around the welcome event on 24 October: On 17 October there was a visit to the Central Storage Facility of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Friedrichshagen, on 23 October to the Berlin Heritage Authority (Landesdenkmalamt Berlin – LDA) and on 30 October there was a guided tour of the depot of the Papyrus Collection of the Egyptian Museum.

We warmly welcome the newly admitted doctoral students: Anna Bahcivanoglu, Konstantinos Bilias, Viola Cambi, Anna Demeter, Kirill Fessenko, Bjarne Kortmann, Yixin Lu, Eleonora Mercati, Michel Rallo, Roman Tikhonov, Mostafa Tolba and Jan Wagenführ.

We wish all doctoral researchers an interesting, successful and enjoyable doctoral program at BerGSAS.