The key research area ‘Cultures and Societies in Space and Time’ is based in particular on three research fields: Societal Transformations and Adaptations, Media and Forms of Cultural Articulation, and Transregional and Regional Studies. Researchers from the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences are working closely together in these three fields, using historical and contemporary approaches in individual and collaborative research to create knowledge that is relevant for understanding and overcoming problems and challenges of the present, and puts them in perspective. Great importance is attached to globality, interconnectedness, and comparison in diachronic and synchronic perspectives.
Three Research Fields:
The focus is on history, political science, law, literature, and empirical linguistics, on the examination of concepts of political, legal, social, and religious orientation, and on the analysis and reflection of the production and circulation of knowledge.
The comparative perspective and the great interest in interdisciplinary cooperation enables successful collaborative research, for example in CRC 948 ‘Heroes, Heroizations, Heroisms’, in RTG 2571 ‘Empires’, and in thematically focused research centres.
The methods of data collection, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and digital humanities developed and applied and the research in environmental humanities conducted in this key research area forge links to the natural and engineering sciences and are therefore connected to the key research area ‘Pathways to Sustainability’. A wide variety of perspectives as well as small and large disciplines are the prerequisite for this productive networking, which we understand as a strength and a driver of innovation.
The research strength of the priority area is demonstrated, among other things, by one Collaborative Research Centre, two Research Training Groups, two ERC Grants, and top rankings in national comparison (literary studies – 2nd place, history – 7th place, philosophy – 10th place, linguistics and ancient cultures – both 13th place according to the DFG Research Atlas 2021).
Current projects within the framework of the Excellence Strategy
- Cluster of Excellence initiative: Adaptive Futures – Emerging Technologies and Adaptive Governance: Risk, Uncertainty and the Common Good
- Cluster of Excellence initiative: Constitution as Practice in Times of Transformation (ConTrans)
- Cluster of Excellence initiative: De/Coloniality Now – Cluster for Reciprocal and Reflective Research
… of the research fields in ‘Cultures and Societies in Space and Time’:
| Societal Transformations and Adaptations | Transregional and Regional Studies | Media and Forms of Cultural Articulation |
|---|---|---|
| Centre for Security and Society (CSS), Center for Anthropology and Gender Studies (ZAG) , Centre for Medicine and Society (ZMG) | Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT), Center for Transcultural Asian Studies (CETRAS) | Herrmann Paul Center for Linguistics (HPCL), Medieval Studies Center (MZ), Center for Popular Culture and Music (ZPKM), Freiburg Centre for Music Research and Teaching (FZM) |
… of the research fields in ‘Cultures and Societies in Space and Time’:
| Societal Transformations and Adaptations | Transregional and Regional Studies | Media and Forms of Cultural Articulation |
|---|---|---|
| Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL), Walter Eucken Institute (WEI), Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) | ||
| Fraunhofer Ernst Mach Institute (EMI) | Freiburg University of Music | |
… of the research fields in ‘Cultures and Societies in Space and Time’:
