"Thinking Without Banisters"

The German-American Hannah Arendt was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century. The first complete critical edition of her writings is now being published by Freie Universität Berlin. In cooperation with an international research team, Professor Barbara Hahn of Freie Universität Berlin initiated the first complete critical edition of the works of Hannah Arendt to open up Arendt’s work to a broader international audience. Two volumes have been published so far, and 15 more will follow. In addition to the print edition, an online edition is being planned that will be freely accessible to interested readers.

In the context of accelerating climate change, species extinction, and rising fears about the outcomes, the project “Touching Plants,” part of the Collaborative Research Center “Affective Societies: Dynamics of Social Coexistence in Mobile Worlds,” examines affective dynamics between humans and plants in the Botanic Garden and the Botanical Museum (BGBM) in Berlin. Based on ethnographic research, the project explores the affective distinctions between human and plant – distinctions that have underpinned the institutional thinking of the Botanic Garden and the Botanical Museum (BGBM) since their foundation – and examines the potential of everyday affective encounters between the species to confirm or confound this institutional distinction.

Researchers from the Institute for Animal and Environmental Hygiene at Freie Universität Berlin and the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) at RWTH Aachen University are collaborating on the topic of alternative personal protective equipment. The testing is being conducted as part of the EIT Health project ViruShield, funded by the European Union, with the objective of discovering alternative filter materials for face masks. This is important in light of the current difficulties in obtaining masks and the globally imbalanced supply chains for personal protective equipment.