The University of Bremen’s Institutional Strategy supported by the Excellence Initiative contains a number of measures designed especially to promote innovative and creative research. A Creative Unit (M5) is one such measure. What form does the research in a Creative Unit take? This question is answered by a film clip that presents the work of the Creative Unit “Homo Debilis – Dis/ability in the Pre-modern”.

Interdisciplinary research

“Our work simply wouldn‘t be possible without an interdisciplinary approach”, says History professor Claudia Nolte, lead investigator in the Creative Unit. Her interdisciplinary team is building a picture of how physical and mental impairments were dealt with in everyday life in the pre-modern, i.e. 500 till 1800 a.d.: The researchers include historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians and representatives of inclusion education. Swantje Köbsell, lecturer for inclusive education and a member of the Creative Unit, points out the topicality of the subject: “Looking back through history we can see that attitudes to disabled persons never remain static, but are rather changing all the time.” In the Creative Unit students attending various seminars have been actively engaged in setting up an exhibition on disability in the pre-modern.

Making room for innovation potential

In the official definition, Creative Units are “Groups of researchers who join together to develop new lines of research.” This offers especially researchers in the humanities an alternative to working in large collaborative research units. The smaller format offers them an opportunity to unfold their productivity and innovation potential on a long-term basis. Such a concept involving small research groups lends itself particularly well to advancing young researchers. Postdocs can easily be brought in. In this way the University of Bremen makes room for innovative and creative research – small clusters of excellence beyond the mighty high-profile research areas.

A showcase of excellence

One and a half years after the great rejoicing at the University of Bremen’s success in the Excellence Initiative the measures contained in the Institutional Strategy are in full swing – albeit largely unnoticed by the general public. The film clips produced by the University Press Office in cooperation with ZMML open the window on the University’s research activities. Two more clips are currently work in progress. These will shed light on one of the University’s Graduate Schools and the University of Bremen’s Graduate Center.

Watch the clip on our youtube channel

More information on the Excellence Initiative at the University of Bremen