11/20/2024
“Applied Humanities: Genealogy and Politics” is a newly established Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and located at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The Center explores the sociopolitical significance of the humanities in historical, contemporary, and global contexts. In Western modernity, applied research has traditionally been viewed as a universally valid body of knowledge, based on laws and often exploitable for practical gain. In contrast to this view, the Center explores the untapped potential of humanities disciplines to shape and transform society. In this sense, “applied humanities” comprises a global-historical array of practices that transcend disciplinary boundaries and are embedded in political, cultural, and economic frameworks. Beyond merely utilitarian ends, the applied humanities fulfill emancipatory, politically critical functions—for instance, provisioning a particular body of knowledge, developing and transferring particular skills and techniques, reflecting on and recontouring social structures and ways of life, and shaping public discourses.
Lecture Series:
November 21, 2024:
Anna Echterhölter (University of Vienna) Pacific Patterns of Justification: Demanding and Translating Rights (1884–1914)
Response: Viktoria Tkaczyk
December 5, 2024:
Emmanuel Ngue Um (University of Yaoundé 1) Inclusion, Participation, and Responsibility in African Applied Linguistics
Response: Anke te Heesen
January 16, 2025:
Andreas Rötzer (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) Publication Formats and Sociopolitical Intervention in Times of AI
Response: Alrun Schmidtke
February 13, 2025:
Christine von Oertzen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) Description, Review, Narration: At-Home Observation of Infants in Scientific Discourse
Response: Lisa Blum
Location
Georgenstrasse 23, 10117 Berlin, room 607 (6th floor) 5:00 p.m.
Registration
Please register by email at your earliest convenience: appliedhumanities@hu-berlin.de