“We are extremely pleased about the news,” say Michi Knecht and Ingo H. Warnke, the new spokespersons of the research training group. They represent the subjects of cultural studies and interdisciplinary linguistics at the University of Bremen. “The training group will play an important role in understanding contradiction in complex societies.” The interdisciplinary collaborative research platform “Worlds of Contradiction” with its around 100 members has been working on this topic for several years.
Professor Jutta Günther, Vice President Research at the University of Bremen, congratulates Michi Knecht, Ingo Warnke, and their team: “At the University of Bremen, very commendable interdisciplinary foundation research takes place in the humanities and the arts. I wish the early career researchers and everyone involved in the research training group insightful research with a high level of social relevance.”
In the first cohort of the DFG research training group entitled “Contradiction Studies – Constellations, Heuristics, and Concepts of Contradiction,” twelve PhD positions of three years, twelve associated PhD positions (PhD students with their own funding), and one postdoctoral position of four years will be filled. In 2022, the program plans to start with up to 30 early career researchers.
About the “Contradiction Studies” Research Training Group
“The world is full of contradictions” is a common saying. However, in many areas, such as science, law, and, fundamentally, in logic, the absence of contradiction is a high value. This is where the group's interest comes in: They ask how individuals actually deal with the tension between the contradictions of co-existence, the demand for an absence of contradiction, and the practices of dissent. What are the political, social, and symbolic functions of contradictions?
The research training group emerges from the Bremen collaborative research platform Worlds of Contradiction (WoC). It examines various constellations, concepts, and ways of dealing with contradictions with a view to the preconditions, processes of negotiation, and limitations to absence of contradictions. Even though there are many different ways of dealing with contradictions, paradoxes, spaces of dissent, with irreconcilable arguments and incompatible positions, we still know too little about worlds of contradiction. The research training group is dedicated to this innovative interdisciplinary field of research within the newly established Contradiction Studies.
Twelve researchers from the University of Bremen are cooperating in the research training group. They cover the range of disciplines from empirical cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, interdisciplinary linguistics, literary studies (Romance studies, North American and post-colonial literatures, older German literary studies), law to human geography, political science, Eastern Europe history, philosophy, and religious studies.
The research training group will be part of a broad network, and three renowned Mercator fellows will guarantee a high degree of internationality.
Further Information:
www.woc.uni-bremen.de/projects/dfg-graduiertenkolleg (in German only)
www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2021/pressemitteilung_nr_45/index.html (in German only)
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Michi Knecht
Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research, Faculty 09
University of Bremen
Spokesperson Research Training Group
Spokesperson Worlds of Contradictions (WoC) collaborative research platform
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-67640
Email: knechtprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Prof. Dr. Ingo H. Warnke
Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research, Faculty 10
University of Bremen
Spokesperson Research Training Group
Spokesperson Worlds of Contradictions (WoC) collaborative research platform
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-68290
Email: iwarnkeprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
