Hosts and Guests 2024
Jay Bernstein invited by Esther Neuhann (October 2024)
Esther Neuhann
Im Zentrum des Besuchs steht der Manuskript-Workshop über das neue Buch von Jay Bernstein mit dem Titel: Of Ecocide and Human Rights. Political Morality for the 21st Century.
In dem Buch analysiert Bernstein im ersten Schritt inwiefern die Zerstörung der Natur („Ecocide“) immanenter Teil unserer liberal-kapitalistischen Lebensform ist. Im zweiten Schritt skizziert er, inwiefern Menschenrechte als philosophische Idee und rechtliche Praxis, obwohl sie das normative Zentrum einer liberal-kapitalistischen Lebensform darstellen, als Mittel der Bekämpfung des Ecocide umgedeutet werden können.
Jay Bernstein ist Professor für Philosophie an der New School for Social Research in New York, USA. Zuletzt ist von ihm erschienen: Torture and Dignity. An Essay on Moral Injury (2015).
Esther Neuhann, Dr., ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Philosophie der FU Berlin und derzeit Vertretungsprofessorin (Praktische Philosophie) an der TU Dresden. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in der Politischen, Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, Fichtes Praktischer Philosophie und der Feministischen Philosophie.
Erik Born and Dariya Manova invited by Sophie König (February 2024)
Erik Born, Dariya Manova, and Sophie König
Im Februar 2024 sind Dariya Manova (Wien) und Erik Born (Ithaka, NY) zu Gast bei Sophie König am Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Literatur. In einer Projektwoche wird gemeinsam zum Thema der Strahlen- und Wellenphänomene in der Literatur und Theorie der Weimarer Republik gearbeitet. Im Rahmen dieses Austausches findet zudem der eintägige Workshop „Unheimliche Allianzen. Strahlen- und Wellenphänomene in Literatur und Künsten der Zwischenkriegszeit statt“, zudem externe und interne Gäste geladen sind.
Die Literatur und Künste der Zwischenkriegszeit zeigen sich fasziniert von physikalischen Phänomenen, deren Wirkkraft zunächst unsichtbar bleibt, bis sich an einem Gegenstand oder Körper ihre konkreten Effekte zeitigen: Radiowellen und elektromagnetische Wellen, Röntgenstrahlen oder das strahlende Radium scheinen allgegenwärtig. Das Faszinosum speist sich maßgeblich daraus, dass die Wellen und Strahlen immateriell sind. Sie durchdringen mühelos physische Gegebenheiten, ‚senden‘ bzw. strahlen pausenlos und unmittelbar. Dabei rückt in Texten verschiedener Gattungen häufig ihre materielle Eigenmächtigkeit in den Fokus und sie werden als Aktanten skizziert, die eine unheimliche Allianz mit dem Menschen eingehen, der sie schließlich nutzbar macht, um Töne über den Rundfunk zu senden, Körper zu durchleuchten oder Waffen zu bauen. Die de facto heterogenen Phänomene weisen damit, folgt man den literarischen Imaginationen, eine Strukturhomologie auf, die ihre gemeinsame Betrachtung im zeithistorischen Kontext nachvollziehbar, im historischen Rückblick sogar notwendig macht. Ihre Untersuchung wirft damit nicht nur neues Licht auf das komplexe Verhältnis von Mensch, Physik, Medium und Natur im Spiegel der Literatur, sondern fragt auch nach der Wirkung von mit agency ausgestatteten Strahlen- oder Wellen auf und in Texte(n). Damit sollen nicht nur historische Erkenntnisse zum Umgang mit immateriellen, unmittelbaren Übertragungstechniken im Fokus stehen, sondern es stellt sich die Frage nach den medientheoretischen Umbrüchen, die mit ihrer Erschließung einhergehen.
Dariya Manova ist Ass.-Professorin an der Universität Wien und hat in ihrer Dissertationsschrift „Sterbende Kohle“ und „flüssiges Gold“. Rohstoffnarrative in der Populärliteratur und Publizistik der Zwischenkriegszeit (Göttingen 2021) unter anderem damit begonnen, das Radium und seine Bedeutung für die Epoche aufzuarbeiten und literaturwissenschaftliche Ansätze zu seiner Erforschung zu formulieren.
Erik Born ist Ass.-Professor an der Cornell University, NY, und arbeitet zurzeit an einem Buchprojekt zu Wireless Futures: Speculative Media in German Modernity, in dem er unter anderem zur Kabellosigkeit von Medien, wie dem Radio, und ihrer medienarchäologischen Geschichte forscht.
Sophie König ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie der FU und forscht unter anderem zu Literatur und Theater der Moderne und insbesondere der Weimarer Republik. In diesem Kontext hat sie zuletzt auch zu literarischen Imaginationen von Radiowellen publiziert.
Alan Crivellaro invited by Tina Beck (February 2024)
Alan Crivellaro and Tina Beck
Holzanatomische Untersuchungen an ägyptischen Objekten sind nicht nur aufgrund der mangelnden Vergleichsdaten und Publikationslage erschwert. Mikroskopische Untersuchungen, die die Entnahme von Proben und deren anschließende Aufbereitung zur Auftragung auf Objektträger vorsieht, sind zeitaufwendig und kostspielig, und werden von Museen nur in Ausnahmefällen unterstützt. Aus diesem Grund ist ein Fokus auf makroskopische Untersuchungsmethoden unerlässlich, da diese keine Probenentnahme vorsehen. Durch die interdisziplinäre Kooperation zwischen dem Holzanatomisten und Ökologen Prof. Dr. Alan Crivellaro (Università degli Studi di Torino) und den Ägyptologinnen Tina Beck (Freie Universität Berlin) und Monika Zöller-Engelhardt (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) soll die bestehende Forschungslücke bezüglich der Bestimmung der ägyptischen Hölzer geschlossen werden. Im Fokus der gemeinsamen Untersuchung stehen Hölzer ägyptischer Objekte aus dem 3. Jht. v.Chr., insbesondere menschliche Figuren sogenannter Holzmodelle, Opferträger:innen sowie Holzstatuen. Ziel der interdisziplinären Untersuchung ist es, die makroskopischen Bestimmungsschlüssel der betreffenden Hölzer zu definieren und einen Leitfaden für die Bestimmung der Holzarten für andere Forschende zu erstellen. Im Hinblick auf dieses Forschungsziel werden während des einwöchigen Forschungsaufenthaltes von Alan Crivellaro im Februar 2024 in Berlin gemeinsam menschliche Figuren aus Holz aus dem Neuen Museum Berlin untersucht und damit erste Daten für den Leitfaden gesammelt und ausgewertet.
Tina Beck hat an der Freien Universität Berlin Sozial-und Kulturanthropologie und Ägyptologie studiert und ist seit 2015 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des Ägyptologischen Seminars. Seit 2011 arbeitet sie mit dem Asyut Project in der altägyptischen Nekropole von Assiut, zunächst mit einem sozial- und kulturanthropologischen Schwerpunkt und seit 2012 als Ägyptologin. Ihre Dissertation zu Holzstatuen des antiken Ägypten der Ersten Zwischenzeit und des Mittleren Reiches (2205-1630 v. Chr.) hat sie 2023 abgeschlossen. Im Rahmen dieser Forschung hat sie fokussierend auf die Holzstatuen die Mensch-Ding-Beziehungen im Bestattungsritual untersucht und hierbei insbesondere das Zusammenspiel von Materialität, Kontext und Stil der Holzstatuen betrachtet. Ihr zukünftiges Augenmerk liegt weiter auf Holzobjekten des alten Ägypten insbesondere auf deren Materialität, mit einem Fokus auf Holzanatomie und damit verbunden den unterschiedlichen Herstellungsprozessen.
Alan Crivellaro is a wood technologist with over twenty years of experience in research and teaching activities related to woody stem anatomy. He pursued his studies in wood science and forestry at the University of Padova (IT) between 1999 and 2007, completing his PhD on the wood, bark, and pith anatomy of trees and shrubs from the island of Cyprus. His PhD was co-supervised by Prof. Fritz H. Schweingruber. Alan has worked as a postdoc and as a teacher at various universities and research centers in Italy, Switzerland, Estonia, Romania, and the UK between 2012 and 2021. He has been a wood science professor at the University of Torino (IT) since 2022, focusing his research and teaching activities on wood identification and properties. Alan is known for his talent in explaining complex and seemingly complicated subjects, which has attracted broad interest within and outside the scientific community.
Daniela Fugellie (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) invited by João Romão (May-June 2024)
In April and May, Daniela Fugellie (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) and João Romão will work together to develop a joint grant proposal for a research project that aims to map the musical and cultural activities of German communities in Chile during the Nazi period. Based on their shared research interests in the use of music for cultural diplomacy and identity formation, they will explore the activities of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut (DAI), which between 1933 and 1945 invested in mapping the cultural and social life of German communities abroad ("Volksdeutsche" as they were called) in order to expand the political influence of the NSDAP both within these communities and in the countries where they settled. The German communities in Chile that are the focus of this project proposal were formed in the late nineteenth century, and their identity was largely shaped by the Prussian colonialist and imperialist project. These communities mourned the defeat of this project in the First World War and saw in the Third Reich the hope of rehabilitating "Germanness," which they identified as the cultural trace of the greatest nation of all: Germany. Their musical activities served two purposes: the monumentalization of the colonial past, especially by celebrating the figure of the German colonizer of Chile, Bernhard Eunom Philippi (1811-1852); and the preservation of the German language, especially through the emphasis on choral music. The DAI paid particular attention to the cultural activities of these communities in South America, which, because of their supposed isolation, were seen as a source of "untouched" Germanness. The hundreds of files documenting the social, cultural, musical, educational and political activities of the German communities in Chile will serve as an entry point to critically examine processes of identity formation in imperialist (and fascist) contexts, as well as the internationalist motivations of such political mobilizations, and the transformations of these fabricated identities when in contact with other local cultures, in this case Chilean.
Regula Foster, Matteo Martelli, Gerasimos Merianos, Lucia Raggetti and Cristina Viano invited by Leonie Rau and Alexandre Roberts (May 2024)
Leonie Rau and Alexandre Roberts
With support from the Dahlem Junior Host Program, Leonie Rau and Alexandre Roberts are jointly organizing a workshop entitled “Chrysopoetic Recipes and Chemical Theory in Medieval Greek and Arabic Texts,” as well as a related lecture and reading sessions. The two-day workshop will be held in May 2024 at the Freie Universität Berlin and will bring leading historians of premodern science to Berlin to join participants from the FU, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and Humboldt University. The workshop will be open to all interested members of FU. It will be preceded by three reading sessions with interested students and researchers on selected relevant primary and secondary sources; and by a lecture by one of the guests, Cristina Viano (CNRS/Sorbonne University, Paris).
This workshop and related events will investigate Greek and Arabic texts containing or concerning recipes for making gold (chrysopoeia) and will ask how and why their authors, readers, and users understood such recipes, as texts (genre), as procedures (what precisely they were meant to accomplish), and as examples of natural phenomena calling out for explanation (why and in what sense they worked). Metallurgical recipes have heretofore been mined above all as sources for the history of technology, allowing historians to reconstruct developments in techniques, the use of particular ingredients, and the capacity to manufacture certain products. Much less explored is what such recipes can tell us about the theoretical frameworks by which artisans, authors of recipes, and natural philosophers interpreted the phenomena produced by the procedures that these recipes describe.
Leonie Rau is a Doctoral Fellow at the FU’s Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies and the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) “Knowledge and Its Resources,” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Her dissertation examines Arabic recipe collections as resources of knowledge. Where previous research has treated culinary, medical, metallurgical, and other recipes separately, Leonie’s project looks at Arabic recipes as a whole and examines their structures and functions as vehicles of both everyday and specialized knowledge.
Alexandre Roberts is Associate Professor of Classics and History at the University of Southern California (in Los Angeles, California) and is spending the current academic year (2023-2024) as a Visiting Researcher at the Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin working on his second book, entitled Chemistry and Its Consequences in Byzantium and the Islamic World.
The guests invited from outside of Berlin are:
- Regula Forster, Professor (Chair) for Islamic History and Culture, University of Tübingen, Germany
- Matteo Martelli, Professor (Professore ordinario) of History of Science and Technology, University of Bologna, Italy
- Gerasimos Merianos, Senior Researcher, Institute of Historical Research, Athens, Greece
- Lucia Raggetti, Professor (Professoressa ordinaria) of History of Science and Technology, University of Bologna, Italy
- Cristina Viano, Directeur de recherche de première classe, Centre de recherches sur la pensée antique «Léon Robin», CNRS/Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Reading sessions: early Summer Semester 2024
Lecture (Cristina Viano): April 22, 2024
Workshop (with all other guests): May 23-24, 2024
Laura Banella und Francesco Giusti invited by Nicolas Longinotti (June 2024)
Laura Banella, Francesco Guisti, and Nicolas Longinotti
Sociological research has demonstrated how communities enact mechanisms to claim internal coherence and distinguish themselves from the outside. Lyric poetry can act as a privileged community-building mechanism in different respects: it can entail forms of protest within the same Gesellschaft, the creation of new languages within and beyond the national, the conquest of gendered spaces within traditions, the agonistic claim involved in imitation. Through lyric poetry, various forms of community formation can not only claim their coherence and consistency, but also powerfully demarcate boundaries and establish differences. The recent scholarly debate on lyric poetry has proposed transhistorical approaches based on the lyric genre’s unique performative features, potential of circulation, re-use and re-enactment of models and gestures. The workshop “Lyric Communities, Conflict and Assent” to be held on 27-28 June, 2024 in Berlin, and organized by Laura Banella (University of Notre Dame), Francesco Giusti (University of Oxford), and Nicolas Longinotti (Freie Universität Berlin), sets out to explore the potential of lyric poetry in imagining and enabling communities when representing conflict, enacting moments of tension, and creating outsiders, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era from a global perspective.
The workshop continues the inquiries undertaken at the workshop Rethinking Lyric Communities in the Early Modern, held at Christ Church (Oxford) in 2023, which discussed transhistorical and transnational communities addressing questions of exegesis, the circulation of manuscripts and printed editions, and forms of collective writing and performance. In June, we aim to focus on the double-edged dimension of community formations, arguing that enabling communities involves internal and external conflicts to circumscribe and exclude other collective formations. The complex dynamics between conflict and assent will be explored through the transnational re-creation or epigonal re-use of traditional forms, the emergence of minorities in the public sphere and in national literary traditions, the transcription and publication of oral performances, and the emergence of queer identities. (In cooperation with: Center for Italian Studies - University of Notre Dame; Dahlem Humanities Center; EXC 2020 Temporal Communities; Italienzentrum – Freie Universität Berlin; Oxford Berlin Research Partnership.)
Laura Banella is an assistant professor in Italian at the University of Notre Dame (USA) and a Research Fellow of the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in medieval Italian literature. Her research has focused on Dante and Boccaccio and on the ways in which the books transmitting their works construct 'authority' and 'canonicity' (13th-16th c.). She has also worked on reception, the history of literary criticism, Renaissance literature, and the female auctor. For more info, visit her profile here.
Francesco Giusti as a Career Development Fellow and Tutor in Italian at Christ Church and Associate College Lecturer at Worcester College and St John’s College at the University of Oxford. He received his PhD at the Italian Institute of Human Sciences in Florence and Sapienza University of Rome in 2012, and thereafter held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of York, the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, and the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, and taught at Bard College Berlin. His research focuses on the Italian poetic tradition and its modern and contemporary ramifications, but his work extends into other genres and media, as well as theoretical dimensions. Over the years Giusti has written on Dante, Petrarch, Francesca Turini Bufalini, Giacomo Leopardi, Guido Gozzano, Eugenio Montale, and Giorgio Caproni, among several others, also exploring questions of temporality, gender, and performance. For more info on his new project on 'gestural communities,' please click here.
Nicolas Longinotti is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. After BA and MA studies at the Università degli Studi di Milano, with exchange stays in Spain and Germany, Nicolas obtained his PhD at Freie Universität in June 2023. His dissertation dealt with Petrarch's community building and its reception in 15th-century Italy. His current project explores the use of lyric poetry in to create communities and conflicts in early modern South America. He has co-organised conferences on literary appropriation, lyric theory, and Petrarch and his reception. He has written various articles on these topics and recently edited a digital edition of Francesco Acciapaccia's commentary on Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta for the Taylor Editions of the University of Oxford.