Interfaces of the Study of Culture and Life Sciences
"What a body can do?” This question posed by Ben Spatz (2015) not only inspired the reactivation of the research group "Interfaces of the Study of Culture and Life Sciences" in January 2025 but continues to guide its focus. Building on an earlier phase of the group dedicated to the Medical Humanities, we now pursue questions of embodiment, in exploring how knowledge and culture are created in and through bodies.
Our research follows an embodied perspective on culture, which approaches the relationship between culture, life, and corporeality through two interrelated trajectories. First, culture is embodied: it emerges and acts through bodily practices, affects, and perceptions, and is materially situated. Second, embodiment is cultural: the ways bodies are experienced, disciplined, and understood are themselves culturally shaped and historically contingent. From this perspective, we understand embodiment as a process in which questions of cultural studies and life sciences meet, as an interface where the living becomes cultural and the cultural becomes alive.
At the same time, we approach embodiment not only as an object of research but also as a method that intertwines theory and practice. Guided by the wish to make research itself a bodily and shared experience, we create a space for exchange and collaborative exploration. We meet in an open, present atmosphere, share food, combine movement and conversation, and cultivate a living space where joy and research come together.
Questions we are exploring include:
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What does it mean to do research through the body?
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How can embodied epistemology be approached and applied differently?
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Whose bodies are made visible or invisible in processes of knowledge production?
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How can artistic or performative practices serve as methods of embodied inquiry?
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How do technological and algorithmic environments shape or extend embodied experience and knowledge?
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Current Members
- Alexandra Stuhlmann (speaker)
- Burcu Bacanak Sahin
- Frederik Peper
- Luis Guillermo Zazueta Beltran
- Isabella David
- Siyu Li
- Sophie Wagner
- Stefan Wahlen
Former Members
- Dominique Autschbach (former speaker)
- Dr. habil. Michael Basseler
- Katja Berndt (predoctoral programme)
- Silvia Boide (former speaker)
- Benjamin Brendel
- Philipp Brockkötter
- Dr. Burcu Alkan (former speaker)
- Dr. Tom Clucas (former speaker)
- Susanne Christ
- Maaike Hommes (former speaker)
- Sebastian Jung
- Jennifer Kappe
- Hannah Klaubert
- Dr. Jens Kugele
- Melanie Kreitler (former speaker)
- Jacob Lundgren (former speaker)
- Fabian Pindus (former speaker)
- Dr. Wibke Schniedermann
- Marija Spirkovska
- Verena Suchy (former speaker)
- Meike Wiegand
- Andrea Züger