The German Research Association launches a graduate research programme in Wuppertal
The graduate programme “Document – Text – Edition. Conditions and Forms of Transformation and Modelling from a Transdisciplinary Perspective” can benefit from the University of Wuppertal’s research focuses in the domain of publishing, as well as those areas covered by their partner, the Kirchlichen Hochschule of Wuppertal/Bethel. The graduate research programme covers the disciplines of printing and media technology, German studies, history, classical philosophy, philosophy, as well as evangelical theology across both universities.
The president of the University of Wuppertal, Prof. Dr. Lambert T. Koch, points out that the granting of funds for these programmes was great news in many respects, not just for the university management, but also for him personally. For one thing, every programme funded by the DFG represents a great achievement for a university, in terms of both enabling research and encouraging student progression. Yet in this case the achievement is particularly noteworthy due to the interdisciplinary nature of the topics studied, with specialists from a multitude of subject areas being involved in the programme. In essence, a topic which has been traditionally important to many disciplines will be advanced in such a way that it creates new possibilities for designing state-of-the-art technology.
The graduate research programme explores the subject-specific publishing of documents, combining the study of editing theory and theoretically relevant single editions. The editing domain is defined and then linked to how publications are used within (specialist) scientific fields, whilst also factoring in media-technological innovations developed in the digital era. The doctoral students will work together in a publishing workshop – a practical communication platform that exists in reality, as well as in a virtual space. The first stage of the graduate programme is oriented more towards compiling concrete findings within the subject areas involved, whilst the second stage focuses on establishing transdisciplinary aspects and conceptionally integrating them into digital publishing solutions that span across disciplines on a broader scale. The programme ultimately aims to establish a “grammar of editing”.
“In all areas of science that involve history and philosophy, various editions of texts form the relevant reference framework for research and teaching,” explains Prof. Dr. Jochen Johrendt, spokesperson for the Wuppertal graduate research programme. Within the scope of the new programme, students will first discuss the conditions and forms of publishing that vary from subject to subject. “A theologian would edit the very same document differently to a historian or German student, to name but a few of the disciplines involved,” according to historian Johrendt.
The graduate programme is organised into in three parts: within the “Document” section, students will initially investigate the topic of publishing itself within the subject areas involved, as to date, each subject’s conception has never been explicitly, and above all never adequately, addressed from a transdisciplinary perspective. In the second part, the “Text” will be dealt with as a product that arises from editorial premises and after the document has been worked on, factoring in how each discipline approaches specific knowledge and how the concrete editions are received in the process. The third part of the programme entitled “Edition/Publishing” builds on the discussions about differences in knowledge across subject areas to deal with transdisciplinary theoretical principles, whilst considering the concepts behind innovations in media technology during the digital era, rather than the equipment that will later be developed therefrom.
The researchers involved in the graduate programme are: historian Prof. Dr. Jochen Johrendt (University of Wuppertal, programme spokesperson), Ev. Theologian Prof. Dr. Martin Karrer (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal-Bethel, deputy spokesperson) as well as historian Prof. Dr. Armin Eich, philosopher Prof. Dr. Gerald Hartung, literary scholar Prof. Dr. Ursula Kocher, Germanist Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lukas, Ev. Theologian Prof. Dr. Claus-Dieter Osthövener, Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinrich Schmidt (electronic media), Prof. Dr. Christoph Schubert (classical philology/Latin), historian Prof. Dr. Tatjana Tönsmeyer (modern and recent history) and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Weise (classical philology/Greek).
The DFG has funded graduate research programmes since 1990, with a total of 189 currently in progress. Of that total, 30.7% conduct research into the fields of humanities and social sciences, 23.8% in life sciences, 30.2% in natural sciences and 15.3% in engineering. As soon as research begins, the 16 newly-funded programmes will be added to this total.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Jochen Johrendt
School of Humanities
Email ljohrendt[at]uni-wuppertal.de
