Activities & News
Literatur im Labor – Zur Zukunft von Lesekultur(en) im Rahmen der Reihe „Gespräche Gießener Geisteswissenschaften“ am 22.01.2025, 18.00 Uhr, Margarete-Bieber-Saal
Ein Aspekt, der besonders oft in Texten diskutiert wird, ist das Lesen selbst. Wie lesen wir aktuell und in Zukunft? Gibt es eine häufig konstatierte Krise des Lesens oder ziehen aktuelle Formate wie Booktalks oder Genres wie „Young adult fiction“ vielmehr wieder mehr jüngere Leserinnen und Leser an? Wie trägt die Lektüre zu Formen guten Lebens bei? Wie wird ein gutes Leben durch das Lesen zuweilen möglicherweise auch behindert, etwa dadurch, dass man liest anstatt sich um Themen wie Nahrungsaufnahme oder körperliche Bewegung zu kümmern? Welche Orte der Lektüre sind in besonderer Weise mit Formen guten Lebens verknüpft? Wie spiegeln Lektüreszenen in der Literatur Krisenszenarien wider, etwa dadurch, dass man nicht mehr liest, sondern stattdessen andere Medien konsumiert, oder sich so sehr der Lektüre hingibt, dass jegliche kritische Distanz zum Leben verloren wird?
Welche Emotionen und Affekte rufen Lektüren hervor und wie korrelieren diese mit Vorstellungen des guten Lebens? Welche anderen Modelle der Lektüre werden etwa in der Bildungsforschung mit Formen guten Lebens assoziiert oder in der klinischen Psychologie? Macht Lesen gesund, fungiert es als Medizin und ist überlebenswichtig? Wie wirkt Bibliotherapie? Welche Genres werden dagegen mit Gefahren für das gute Leben assoziiert? Über diese und viele Fragen mehr diskutieren Prof. Dr. Kirsten von Hagen (Romanische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft), Prof. Dr. Peter von Möllendorff (Klassische Philologie / Griechische Philologie), Prof. Dr. Annette Simonis (Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft) und Maries-Theres Stickel (Doktorandin der Französischen Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft), moderiert wird die Runde von Prof. Dr. Uwe Wirth (Neuere deutsche Literatur und Kulturwissenschaft).
➔ Wann?
am 22.01.2025 um 18.00 Uhr
➔ Wo?
Margarete-Bieber-Saal der JLU, Ludwigstraße 34, 35390 Gießen
→ see English version below
One aspect that is often discussed in texts is reading itself. How do we read now, and will read in the future? Does a crisis of reading exist, as is frequently stated, or are current formats such as book talks or genres such as "young adult fiction" attracting more younger readers again? How does reading contribute to forms of a good life? How does reading sometimes hinder a good life, for example by reading instead of taking care of issues such as food intake or physical exercise? Which places of reading are particularly linked to forms of good living? How do reading scenes in literature reflect crisis scenarios, for example by no longer reading but consuming other media instead, or by devoting oneself to reading to such an extent that any critical distance to life is lost?
What emotions and affects do readings evoke and how do these correlate with ideas of the good life? What other models of reading are associated with forms of the good life in educational research, for example, or in clinical psychology? Does reading make us healthy, does it function as medicine and is it essential for survival? How does bibliotherapy work? Which genres, on the other hand, are associated with dangers to the good life? Prof. Dr. Kirsten von Hagen (Romance Literature and Cultural Studies), Prof. Dr. Peter von Möllendorff (Classical Philology / Greek Philology), Prof. Dr. Annette Simonis (General and Comparative Literature) and Maries-Theres Stickel (PhD student in French Literature and Cultural Studies) will discuss these and many other questions. The panel will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Uwe Wirth (Modern German Literature and Cultural Studies).
➔ When?
22nd January 2025, 6 pm
➔ Where?
Margarete-Bieber-Saal (JLU), Ludwigstraße 34, 35390 Gießen
In case you would like to find out more about the event, you can read about the evening in the following newspaper articles.
Es gibt doch noch Hoffnung für das Buch , erschienen am 24.01.2025 in der Gießener Allgemeinen Zeitung:
https://www.giessener-allgemeine.de/giessen/es-gibt-doch-noch-hoffnung-fuer-das-buch-93534993.html
»Lutschbonbons« statt echter Lektüre? , erschienen am 24.01.2025 im Gießener Anzeiger:
https://www.giessener-anzeiger.de/stadt-giessen/lutschbonbons-statt-echter-lektuere-93532299.html
Political Narratives: Interdisciplinary and Transmedial Perspectives, 4-6 December 2024
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Political Narratives: Interdisciplinary and Transmedial Perspectives
This RCSC conference, organized jointly with the Focus Area "Cultural Narrative Studies" and the GCSC, will explore the powerful role of narratives in shaping political discourse, public meaning and societal change. From political speeches and social media storytelling to utopias, conspiracy theories and beyond, the conference will dive into how narratives influence today's multi-crisis world. Participants from a broad spectrum of disciplines will come together to discuss key concerns and concepts, including the rise of 'alternative facts' and the role of fiction in political counter-discourse. The event will take place from December 4-6, 2024. We will offer a hybrid option for the three keynotes, see conference programme below. Please join us via the following link: |
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Today’s cascading crises the world over are increasingly prompting questions of the good life, of its very possibility and forms – questions that have always been at the heart of literature. Not only is literature a privileged medium of cultural reflection, but it also offers a test ground whereon thought experiments of the good life can be formed, aesthetically realized, and critically interrogated. In this capacity, then, it seems more important than ever to read literary texts – in their formal heterogeneity and conceptual diversity – as a stage for the enactment and critique of the dominant models and good life ‘fantasies’ specific to our current age.
This conference aims to inquire into ideas of the good life in different cultures as well as in various literary genres and text types with a focus on modernity, i.e. starting from the 19th century and its economic orientation. Its focus lies not only on themes, but expressly also on aesthetic and literary forms of representation. It is part of the specific characteristics of poetic and fictional texts that they do not offer normative knowledge and ideas, but rather plural aesthetic representations and perspectives.
The conference is organized around three central areas of concern, the first being
(1) dominant, hegemonic and culturally specific models of the good life in different cultural contexts, such as the American Dream, the welfare state, neoliberalism, identity politics, or hedonism, to name just a few.
(2) The second area deals with the role of literature vis-à-vis these models, inquiring in theoretical and conceptual terms into the function of literature as a medium of cultural reflection by which to critically assess hegemonic models of the good life.
(3) The third area will trace specific narratives and counter-narratives of the good life and its dominant cultural models in exemplary analyses and case studies of a broad spectrum of genres and text types.
Find out more about the programme
here
This networking event is organized by the dean's office of faculty 05 in cooperation with faculty 04 and the RCSC as part of the latter's Open Research Forum. Focus areas are the smallest units of research collaboration beyond large ventures and the areas of potential (
https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/forschung/forschungsprofil/profilbereiche
).
This summer semester we are welcoming two inspiring visiting researchers at our centre:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Metelmann is Associate Professor at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, specializing in Social Imaginaries and Utopian Thought. Following up on his widely-received book Imagineering: Wie Zukunft gemacht wird (2020), he will continue work on various projects during his stay, including one on aesthetics and the Anthropocene.
Sarah Bird is an artist-scholar researcher and PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, focusing on relations with trees in the more-than-human world at a time of ecological crisis. She is currently collaborating with our centre on a site-specific installation for our conference "Arboreal Entanglements: Human, Nonhuman, More-than-Human" .
Kicking off their fellowship this summer semester, Jörg and Sarah will speak about their work at a "Meet Our Fellows" session on April 23, 4–5 pm in the Loggia area on the GCSC's 2nd floor. Everyone is invited to drop by for a chat, coffee, and cookies!
This two-day workshop at the Research Centre for the Study of Culture (RCSC) explores new narrative endeavours into Europe’s many competing or conflicting as much as shared histories. Specifically, it foregrounds historically marginalized and peripheral accounts, which stand to complete acts of narrating and rethinking Europe in the face of current crises by adding more plural, polyvocal accounts of ‘other Europes’ and ‘other Europeans’.
You can find the detailed program
here
For more information, please contact
Prof. Dr. Jan Rupp
.
5. August 2025, 10.30-13.00 Uhr – Online-Vortrag und Workshop
Web conference link:
https://webconf.hrz.uni-giessen.de/b/jan-6t1-ygz-nqi
Prof. Patryk Żywica : AI and the Digital Humanities – New Horizons
The application of artificial intelligence methods in the humanities—particularly in literary studies, intellectual history, and cultural analysis—opens up new analytical and methodological possibilities. This presentation will outline selected areas where AI tools are currently being employed in digital humanities research, with particular attention to recent developments at the intersection of computational and humanistic inquiry.
Examples will include the construction of multilingual text corpora and the use of advanced natural language processing (NLP) models for semantic and syntactic analysis of texts. Special emphasis will be placed on distant reading techniques, which enable the exploration of themes, emotional patterns, and discursive change across large literary datasets. Developments in stylometry, including the use of deep learning for style analysis and authorship attribution, will also be presented.
The presentation will also highlight AI applications relevant to the analysis and preservation of historical and archival materials, such as AI-supported optical character recognition (OCR), the extraction of structured information from texts, and the visualization of conceptual, character, and institutional networks through knowledge graphs. The potential for computer-assisted reconstruction of missing or damaged fragments of historical texts will also be discussed.
This talk is intended as a survey of current trends in the use of AI in humanities research. The examples discussed will illustrate how digital tools can complement traditional scholarly methods, supporting content analysis, archival accessibility, stylistic comparison, and the mapping of cultural and literary networks.
RCSC Workshop | Research Funding after the PhD: The DFG Grant Application (Eigene Stelle)
16.05.2023, 13:00-16:00 | GCSC (SR 109)
Dr. Alexander Scherr (postdoctoral researcher at the Department of English, JLU, and associated postdoc at GCSC) will hold a workshop on May 16th, with the aim to introduce the Eigene Stelle as a funding scheme for postdocs and to provide practical guidance for the application process. Attendees who are already working on a DFG application are welcome to join, as are postdocs and advanced PhD candidates who consider doing so as a future possibility. For more information, please contact
Prof. Dr. Jan Rupp (RCSC)
.
17.01.2023, 14:00-17:00
The
Eigene Stelle
–
a DFG grant
– is an attractive (albeit competitive) funding option for researchers after the PhD. It is attractive not only because it can serve to finance an individual position (for example, for a postdoctoral researcher) for at least 3 years. Its appeal is also due to the fact that successful funding applications are a major asset on the academic job market and increasingly important for researchers who consider a professorial career.
The workshop aims to introduce the
Eigene Stelle
as a funding scheme and provide practical guidance for the application process. Attendees who are already working on a DFG application are welcome to join, as are postdocs and advanced PhD candidates who consider doing so as a future possibility.
RCSC-MC: "Exploring subjectivity through qualiquantology: An introduction to Q-methodology"
Nov 25, 2024 from 02:00 to 04:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC100)
SR 126, GCSC, Otto-Behaghel Str.12, Gießen
This introductory master class, organized in cooperation with the RCSC Open Research Forum, will explore Q-methodology, a research technique designed to systematically study human subjectivity and the communicability of subjective viewpoints in the discourse on a particular topic through qualitative and quantitative methods. Participants will be introduced to the methodology's core steps: concourse definition, Q-sample development, P-set selection, Q-sorting, and factor analysis.The session will highlight a case study on time orientation and social self-construal beliefs in South African communities, examining how cultural beliefs influence climate change adaptation. The study reveals that while communities are aware of climate change, cultural perceptions of time, the social self, together with limited risk awareness, hinder adaptive actions. This case illustrates how Q-methodology can uncover subjective viewpoints and inform adaptation strategies by integrating cultural contexts. Attendees will gain insights into applying Q-methodology to research involving complex cultural dynamics, emphasizing its role in promoting epistemic justice by preserving authentic community narratives.
Dr Aïda Terblanché-Greeff (Botha), a Visiting Fellow at our centre this November, is Senior Lecturer at North-West University in Potchefstroom (South Africa) and has been a long-time collaborator with colleagues at JLU. Her research interests include African philosophy, social philosophy, cross-cultural studies (viz., psychology and philosophy) and environmental ethics.
RCSC/Open Research Forum: Anthropocence and Aesthetics
Jun 18, 2024 from 04:00 to 06:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
GCSC (KFR)
Presentation and discussion hosted by Prof. Dr. Jörg Metelmann and Prof. Dr. Daniel Cuonz in cooperation with the RCSC’s Open Research Forum
This event, organized in cooperation with the RCSC’s Open Research Forum, is hosted by Prof. Dr. Jörg Metelmann, Visting Fellow at our centre this semester, and his colleague at the University of St Gallen, Prof. Dr. Daniel Cuonz. The starting point of their presentation and book project, from which the title of this event is taken, is the question of how to understand the Anthropocene as a cultural epoch (and not as a geological age).
If the Anthropocene is a hyper-hyper-object because it is composed of capitalism and climate change (both hyper-objects according to Timothy Morton's term), then it can also be described as a colossal context that transcends cultural semantics. Some of the descriptive paradigms used so far, such as entanglement, latency or scales, would thus miss the actual problem. The search for narratives that make the Anthropocene narratable and thus comprehensible should also be met with skepticism. Shouldn’t the question of perception come before the question of narratability if we want to approach the subject-matter appropriately? What role do rhetoric and aesthetics play in this, what is the role of cultural studies, which is a method of reflexive meaning creation - but which cannot fall back on the well-known nature-culture dichotomy?
May 31, 2023, 15:30-17:30 | GCSC (MFR)
This semester’s RCSC Open Research Forum is coming up on May 31st, 3.30-5.30 p.m. Join us for a get-together and chat over coffee and tea in the GCSC’s entrance hall from 3.30 p.m. Starting from 4.00 p.m., presentations will include postmodernist fictions of the digital, vocabularies of migration, ritual landscapes at the Roman Empire’s edge, conflicting European histories, and future narratives. The RCSC Open Research Forum brings together researchers in the study of culture and offers a platform to discuss current projects and project ideas (working languages: German and English).
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Prof. Dr. Jan Alber |
"Reading Post-Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital: Narrative, Cognition, and Technology in the Twenty-First Century" |
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Dr. Pinar Gümüş Mantu |
"Vocabularies of Migration" |
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Dr. Julia Koch |
"Britain to Black Sea: Ritual Landscapes at Roman Empire’s Edge – Exploring Strategies of Resilience" |
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Prof. Dr. Katharina Stornig |
"Narrating (Other) Europe(s): Polyvocal Connections across Europe’s Competing Histories" |
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Dr. Jens Kugele,
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"Bouncing Forward: Future Narratives, Scenarios and Transformations in the Study of Culture" |
02.02.2023, 16:00-18:00
The RCSC’s Open Research Forum seeks to bring together researchers in the study of culture, providing a platform to discuss current projects and project ideas (working languages: German and English). Our concluding event in the winter semester, on February 2nd, 2023, 4-6 p.m. will feature collaborative research projects on sleep knowledge, on climate knowledge as cultural practice, on mythical forests in digital times.
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Prof. Dr. Hannah Ahlheim, Prof. Dr. Nicole Zillien |
“Schlafwissen: Zur Wissensgenerierung in Schlaflabor und Sleep Tracking” |
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Prof. Dr. Annette Simonis, Dr. Corinna Dziudzia |
"Archiv vergessener Autorinnen und Autoren" |
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Prof. Dr. Jörn Ahrens |
“Climate Knowledge as Cultural Practice and its Transfer into Politics of Transformation” |
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Prof. Dr. Kirsten von Hagen |
“Wald: Re-Mythisierung in Zeiten des Digitalen” |
30.11.2022, 16:00-18:00
The Research Centre for the Study of Culture (RCSC) carries on from a successful inaugural semester in the summer and continues its Open Research Forum on November 30th, 4-6 p.m. (c.t.). The event will feature presentations on a wide range of collaborative research projects, such as international cooperation on the Colombian peace process and labour migration from Greece to Germany, respectively, a conference project entitled “Memory, Affect and Narration” by the Research Areas “Cultural Memory Studies” and “Cultural Narratologies”, a research debate on ‘dangerous’ comedy and humour.
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Dr. Danae Gallo González |
“Dinámicas relaciones y prácticas de construcción de paz en la región del Pacífico colombiano: comunidades indígenas y afrodescendientes víctimas del conflicto armado interno y la Comunidad Misionera Femenina de María Inmaculada y Santa Catalina de Sena” |
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Prof. Dr. Uwe Wirth |
“Gefährliche Komik? Zwischen reinem Spaß und Real-Satire” |
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Prof. Dr. Nicole Immig |
Griechische Arbeitsmigrationen in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1960-1982)” |
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Aleksandra Sadowska, Iryna Tarku, Robin Schmieder |
“Memory, Affect and Narration”, conference project RA “Cultural Memory Studies” and RA “Cultural Narratologies” |
13.07.2022, 16:00-18:00
Following its Opening Symposium in June, the RCSC invites you to its first Open Research Forum on July 13th, 4-6 p.m. (c.t.). The RCSC’s Open Research Forum seeks to bring together researchers in the study of culture, providing a platform to discuss current projects and project ideas (working languages: German and English). The first such event will feature a presentation by JLU’s AG Koloniales Erbe (Prof. Dr. Bettina Brockmeyer, Dr. Alissa Theiß), an event series pitch by the GCSC’s Emerging Topic Research Group "Migration and (De)coloniality" (Paola Solís, Isabella Kalte) and a project presentation "Moderne, Laboratorium und Archiv: Eine Revision der 'vergessenen' AutorInnen der Moderne" (Prof. Dr. Kirsten von Hagen, Jana Keidel). Find the full programme here:
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Prof. Dr. Bettina Brockmeyer, Dr. Alissa Theiß |
AG Kololoniales Erbe |
| Paola Solís, Isabella Kalte | "Weaving Knowledge", event series project of the GCSC’s Emerging Topic Research Group "Migration and (De)coloniality" |
| Prof. Dr. Kirsten von Hagen, Jana Keidel | "Moderne, Laboratorium und Archiv: Eine Revision der 'vergessenen' AutorInnen der Moderne" |
22.06.2022, 16:00-18:00
Building on a strong track record in the study of culture, the newly-devised Research Centre for the Study of Culture (RCSC) offers a space for creative thinking and work with a view to mobilizing collaborative research projects. The RCSC Opening Symposium will feature presentations and exchange around a range of current and prospective research initiatives.
As a new venture, the RCSC is an extension of the GCSC, building on the latter’s status as a research centre of national and international reknown. Now combined under one roof, the GCSC/RCSC simultaneously serves as a dynamic hub and interface for the area of potential “Culture–Conflict–Security (Focus: Eastern Europe)” within JLU’s research strategy “The Liebig Concept”.
As an inaugural event, the RCSC’s Opening Symposium will look to promote dialogue and engender further collaboration in the study of culture (working languages: English and German). Presentations will include “Konfliktgemeinschaften” (“Communities of Conflict”, initiative for collaborative research centre) and “Formen guten Lebens. Literatur als Archiv, Kritik und Laboratorium” (“Forms of the Good Life: Literature as Archive, Critique and Laboratory”, projected research group).
We look forward to welcoming you!
Full programme available on the GGK/GCSC website
09.06.2022, 16:00-19:00
Most of you will have already noticed: the GGK/GCSC has moved at the turn of the year! Although the way from our previous building was not too far, the move means a quantum leap for us. Not only are all PhD students and staff under one roof for the first time; our new building also offers all kinds of new spatial possibilities for collaborative research and community interaction.
To explore these possibilities together with us and to really "warm up" our new house, we cordially invite you to the House-Warming Party, which will take place after the official inauguration ceremony, in which we will also take the opportunity for a short presentation of the newly established "Research Centre for the Study of Culture" (RCSC).