FoF3 Funded Measures Conferences and Seed Funding

The research priorities of Field of Focus 3 are strengthened by smaller measures, among other things. So far, these included conferences, but also start-up funding for research networks and projects. With the Excellence Funds, the Research Council also keeps opening up opportunities for exploring new interdisciplinary research topics. The measures listed below are all exploratory in nature. 

Seed funding “Artistic Alternatives to the Antigypsy Gaze”

(Funding in the key area Knowledge Research 2020-2022)

The group focuses on comparing antiziganism with other forms of racism, especially anti-Semitism, and highlights, among other things, the impact of the Holocaust on film narratives and visual representations. Since the early days of cinema, feature films about “gypsies” have been a pan-European phenomenon. They play a central role—in the sense of a counterpoint—in the construction and renegotiation of homogeneous national identities in Europe. The aim is to develop alternative concepts by exposing stereotypical patterns of perception, for example by analyzing successful artistic strategies that aim to deconstruct antiziganistic stereotypes through cinematic means. Close cooperation with non-university partners places a strong emphasis on transfer to civil society. Participation in a research group and the BMBF project “MeAviA – Mediale Antiziganismen” (Media Antiziganisms) has been secured, and Heidelberg researchers from disciplines as diverse as history, political science, medical history, art history, and Romance studies have also submitted an application for joint funding. 

Project lead: Dr. Radmila Mladenova radmila.mladenova@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

Seed Funding “Home(s)”

(Funding in the key area Cultural Heritage 2021-2024)

The interdisciplinary group began its work in 2020 under the direction of Christiane Wiesenfeldt and was able to secure funding from the DFG for a collaborative research center, which began its work in 2024 in collaboration with subprojects at five other locations. The joint work focuses on why and how home ('Heimat') occupies a natural part of the human relationship to the world. To this end, the diversity and dimensions of home are explored and analyzed using model theory from a historical and global comparative perspective. In addition to the complex semantics of the German term 'Heimat', the project examines concepts and practices of natural and sociocultural connectedness in a wide variety of social, media, and cultural contexts. In doing so, home is understood as a dynamic model that has been present from pre-modern times to the present day, observed and analyzed so that home can be operationalized for joint research efforts across many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Project lead: Prof. Dr. Christiane Wiesenfeldt christiane.wiesenfeldt@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

Seed funding “Objects of Attraction”

(Funding in the key area of Linguistic interaction and the physicality of cognition /Cultural Heritage 2021-2022)

The group “Objects of Affection” examined the conditions, mechanisms, and interactions involved in processes in which objects are endowed with special meaning by humans or are perceived as such: How, for example, does it happen that, out of the general “background noise” of the objects that constantly surround us, individual objects are perceived by us as being elevated or (perhaps subsequently also physically) elevated, for example, by being collected or presented as particularly precious? The group brought together researchers from a variety of disciplines, including art history, philology, philosophy, psychology, ethnology, and political sciences.

Project lead: Prof. Dr. Henry Keazor henry.keazor@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

Seed funding “Interreal Places”

(Funding in the key areas of transformation processes, Cultural Heritage 2021-2022)

The initiative “Interreal Places: Charged Geographies in Historical Perspective” explored geographically linked ideas that make a divine (or diabolical) sphere physically tangible. The project focused in particular on the impact of such “interreal places” on the society that constructs them. The emphasis was on a study of the pre-modern era from a transcultural, comparative perspective. Scholars from the fields of medieval history, prehistory and early history, and South Asian studies drafted a project outline and brought representatives of area studies together at the table.

Project lead: Prof. Dr. Romedio Schmitz-Esser (romedio.schmitz-esser@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de)

Conference “Embodiment of Reason”

(Funding in the key area of Linguistic interaction and the physicality of cognition 2023)

Embodiment theory has proven fruitful in many areas of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. However, the problem of how rational abilities are embodied has been little researched to date. The conference pursued two complementary approaches: the embodiment of reason and the reason of the body. The first approach examines how reason is conditioned, shaped, and constituted by physical experiences and how rational abilities enactively shape bodily existence in the environment and the social world. The second approach explores the practiced interaction with the environment, the joint creation of meaning with other people, and empathy towards others as levels of rationality that are inconceivable without physicality. The group cooperates with the TRN “Cognitive Science” and has reoriented its research questions within the framework of the TRN “Digital Animism” to focus on interactions with ‘quasi-subjects’. 

Project lead: Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Fuchs thomas.fuchs@urz.uni-heidelberg.de

Conference “Populist Movements and Democratic Leadership”

(Funding in the key areas of transformation processes / Friendship and Enmity 2024)

The conference, organized in March 2024 in collaboration between political sciences and Romance studies, examined the figure of the leader as part of a cultural narrative that views authoritarian interventions as necessary to restore order in times of crisis. Around the world, political leaders are using “populist strategies” to undermine important democratic institutions and procedures in the name of “the people.” In addition to experts on social change and political movements with a focus on Latin America and Southern Europe, the interdisciplinary conference also featured scholars who deal with the figure of the leader in the cultural imagination (including literature and aesthetics).

Project lead and Contact: PD Dr. Fernando Nina fernando.nina@rose.uni-heidelberg.de, Dr. Viktoria Hügel viktoria.huegel@univie.ac.at

Conference „Time and Language. Sciences in Dialogue“

(Funding in the key area of Linguistic interaction and the physicality of cognition/Knowledge Research 2024)

Depending on the academic discipline and cultural sphere, there are very different conceptualizations of time. The interdisciplinary conference addressed how these conceptions of time are reflected in different academic and linguistic cultures. The focus is on discipline-specific practices of defining and describing time, which are evident in language but also in other semiotic systems. The conference was conceived from a linguistic perspective, as all the disciplinary cultures represented at the conference use language and other sign systems to approach the phenomenon of time. Simultaneously, the disciplines have distinct research traditions and provide specific approaches to the phenomenon of time with their respective linguistic characteristics, whose linguistic and disciplinary implications have rarely been the subject of interdisciplinary discussion. The conference was hosted by the European Center for Linguistics (EZS), a collaboration between Heidelberg University and the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) in Mannheim.

Project lead: Dr. Katharina Jacob katharina.jacob@gs.uni-heidelberg.de, Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder ekkehard.felder@gs.uni-heidelberg.de, Prof. Dr. Vahram Atayan atayan@iued.uni-heidelberg.de

Autumn School: “The Issue of Climate Change”

(Funding in the key areas of transformation processes /Knowledge Research 2023)

Objectivity is a key challenge for knowledge communication in science and education. This is particularly true when it comes to major social issues such as climate change and its consequences. The interdisciplinary Autumn School 2024 for doctoral students and postdocs in teacher training and academia explored the question of how we can talk about climate change in an ‘objective’ way while ensuring that there is no unsubstantiated debate, but rather that content is conveyed and discussed ‘objectively’. Researchers from climate science, knowledge research, sociology, teacher training, and other disciplines came together. In addition to lectures with subject-specific information and professional experience reports, there were workshops on methodological and perspective awareness and opportunities for early-career scientists to exchange ideas with experts. The Autumn School was organized by the Heidelberg School of Education (HSE), a collaboration between Heidelberg University and Heidelberg University of Education.

Project lead: Dr. Dennis Dietz dietz@heiedu.uni-heidelberg.de