The Department of History and Cultural Studies is exceptionally proud of its successful junior researchers, including the Emmy Noether Junior Research Groups.The Emmy Noether Program supports researchers in achieving independence at an early stage of their scientific careers. Postdocs gain the qualifications required for a university teaching career during a DFG-funded period, usually lasting five years, in which they lead their own independent junior research group.

Until now the following Independent Junior Research Groups have settled at the department:

Kosmos/Ornatus. Ornaments as Forms of Insight - Persia in Comparison with France Around 1400

Project completed

This Emmy Noether Independent Junior Research Group aims to compare an Islamic and a Christian – the Persian and the French – visual culture and research the various functions of ornaments in each of these. The project follows the assumption that a simple notion of ‘decoration‘ falls short in both cases, as ornaments appear to be interpreted as depictions of order, in accordance with the Greek term ‘kosmos’. As such, ornaments are able to function as a modus in these contexts and represent a divine authority without actually depicting it.

The comparison of two lines of reception of this concept in the two largest monotheistic religions allows the determination of commonalities as well as differences (due to religious or cultural specificities) in the function of ornaments as forms of insight into the divine and knowledge of the world.

Person to contact: Vera Beyer, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität Berlin

The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the 20^th Century

Project completed

How have European imaginings of the cosmos and extraterrestrial life developed in correlation with the advances in the exploration of the universe? This project poses the question how so-called ‘Astroculture’ has developed to become an integral part of western modernity since the establishment of an international space movement in the 1920s. Can decidedly ‘European’ imaginations of space, even after the Second World War, be shown to exist? How can one explain the paradox of a widespread enthusiasm for space paired with a decade-long abstinence from space travel? And how come the notion of an imminent future in the stars became less important from the mid-1970s onward?

In an approach that is both transdisciplinary and transnational, this Emmy Noether Group’s work aims to contribute to the development of a historiographic field that, as of yet, exists only in very modest beginnings. By doing so, and through the analysis of scientification processes, we will connect to the virulent debates about the redefinition of a genuine European contemporary history and will make an original contribution to the historicization of the knowledge-based society.

Person to contact: Alexander C.T. Geppert, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin

LiVES. Living Conditions and Biological Living Standards in Prehistorical Southwestern Asia and Europe

An individual is able to achieve his or her genetically determined height only when given optimal net nutrition. Net nutrition consists of the part of a diet which is left over for the build-up and retention of body weight and mass after the use of the consumed energy for all other factors. These factors are bodily activity, the necessity to keep the body warm, and the fight against disease. As the human growth period ends (at the latest) with the closing of the last epiphysis around age 20, one’s reached height reflects the nutritional circumstances of one’s childhood and youth.

A diet’s protein content plays a special role in the development of tissues. The reasons for the rising average height of populations since the industrialization in western industrialized nations could be found in particular in the improved (net) protein intake. This is an example of how large enough samples of body height data, indicated as the “bio-logical living standard”, can be used in the economic sciences (since the work of John Komlos in the 1980s) in lieu of or to supplement indicators of wealth or economic status such as the gross national product etc.

This project, active since September 2011, consisting of two PhD students, one statistician, two student assistants and a director, and supported by the DFG Junior Research Group, aims to transfer this approach to Prehistoric Archaeology.

Person to contact: Eva Rosenstock, Institut für Präshistorische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin

Mythische Literaturwerke der altbabylonischen Zeit als wissenspraktische Artefakte

Ancient Babylonia’s mythical literary works are among the oldest specimens of world literature. These compositions do, however, not only represent intriguing stories of gods, but also a complex investigation of the empirical world. The independent junior research group explores the nature of the epistemic practices and discourses that may be connected with mythical epics and hymns of the early 2^nd millennium BCE. Intellectual concepts are reconstructed through the digitally assisted analysis of lexemes, phrases and Erzählstoffe (narratives). Which questions do they answer and how do other authors respond to these ideas? – these questions are of special importance. Finally, this approach makes epistemic practices tangible that, on the one hand, deal with the mythical literary works and, on the other hand, produce them through text composition and redaction.

Contact: Gösta Ingvar Gabriel, Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

FU Berlin Researcher Valeska Huber Receiving Prestigious National Award 

Organized by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preise belongs to one of the most important national academic awards for outstanding young researchers. The awarding ceremony will be held on 29. May in Berlin.

The history of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preise goes back to 1977, aiming to commend excellent young researchers with national recognition and incentives, in order to support them to fulfill their academic career paths. From 1980, it is named after the atomic physicist and former DFG-President Mr. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. Since then, this award has been seen as the most important prize for junior and young researchers nationwide in Germany.

This year, recipients of the prize were chosen by the committee from 140 nominees across all disciplines. ’’The extraordinary characters and qualitative performances of the selected candidates made the whole selecting process very pleasing and delightful’’, said Prof. Dr. Marlis Hochbruck, the president of the selection committee, Mathematician and DFG Vice President.

Till now, 10 young academics have been awarded due to their unique research projects, co-selected by DFG as well as BMBF in Bonn. The winners will receive 20,000 Euro each. Among them is Ms. Valeska Huber from Freie Universität Berlin.

Together with her researching fields in global history, Ms. Huber has always been crossing existing limits, posing new dialogues while holding up to the highest standards.
One of the example is her dissertation‘‘Channelling Mobilitie‘‘, a leading and pioneering study on the history as well as the Migration of the Middle East. By consistently combining local and global perspectives, she successfully mapped out the most important guidelines in global history.

Possessing of diverse international academic backgrounds, Ms. Huber received her fundamental education in London and Cambridge. She later had her PhD in Konstanz and has been actively researching in London and Harvard. Since 2017, she has been leading the Emmy Noether-Research Group in communications and information dissemination, especially in globally interconnected regions in Africa and Asia, which is also an important yet largely unexplored area on the academic stage.