The Dahlem Humanities Center was founded in 2007 as one of five main focus areas at Freie Universität Berlin. In November 2019, the DHC became a permanent institution at Freie Universität Berlin. Its objective is to provide a common forum for research in the humanities at Freie Universität Berlin and to enhance the visibility of the humanities with a view to both academic and non-academic audiences. The DHC considers itself an interdisciplinary platform that serves as a hub for the unique range of research areas in the humanities at Freie Universität Berlin. In keeping with this idea, it forges new connections, engages with the general public, and promotes networking on an international level by means of different event and cooperation formats.

The highlight of the DHC’s activities is the annual Hegel Lecture. Internationally renowned scholars in the humanities – such as Judith Butler, Homi Bhabha, Hélène Cixous, Armin Nassehi, and Seyla Benhabib – have been among those invited to speak at Freie Universität Berlin. It hosts the Siegfried Unseld Lecture every two years in cooperation with the German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag. The lecture series contributes to the public dialogue between literature, media, and the humanities, and prominent international writers such as Ann Cotten, Volker Braun, Joanna Bator, and Andreas Meier have been invited to speak. The DHC organizes various events and discussion forums, including “Dahlem Humanities Center Lectures,” “Research in Dialogue,” and “Digital*Humanities im Gespräch” alongside the “Dahlem Junior Host Program,” a funding line that supports early-career humanities scholars interested in international cooperation.

You can find out more about the DHC and its activities at https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/dhc/index.html. 

Directors of the Dahlem Humanities Center

Professor Karin Gludovatz is the current director of the Dahlem Humanities Center. The professor of art history at Freie Universität Berlin is also a board member of the “Temporal Communities” Cluster of Excellence, which specializes in humanities research. She is a member of Academia Europaea, a faculty liaison of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation), and a member of the Minerva Stiftung’s Fellowship Committee.

Professor Anita Traninger is the vice director of the Dahlem Humanities Center. The professor of Romance literatures at Freie Universität Berlin is also a co-director of the “Temporal Communities” Cluster of Excellence, as well as a member of the Margherita von Brentano Center’s board of directors at Freie Universität Berlin.

Contact

Freie Universität Berlin
Dahlem Humanities Center (DHC)
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
14195 Berlin

Managing directors: Dr. Anne Schenderlein | Dr. Lisa Müller
Email: geschaeftsfuehrung@dhc.fu-berlin.de
Tel.: +49 30 838-67097