GRK 1718:  Presence and Tacit Knowledge

• Subject Area: Literary Studies
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 178036356

In international scholarly debates, temporal and spatial presence has been discussed within the confines of the European history of ideas, especially its aesthetic discourses. In contrast to these debates, the Research Training Group adopts a comparative approach and examines culturally divergent forms of the discursification of presence in different social fields. The guiding hypothesis for the Research Training Group is that tacit knowledge becomes palpable in its presentifications and that the experience and conceptualisation of presence is based on tacit knowledge. The doctoral programme introduces a new research approach that connects the concepts of presence and tacit knowledge with questions of cultural specificity and interculturality. This new approach is linked to cultural and social studies perspectives drawing attention to the reflection of the visual, material, and performative actualisations of phenomena of presence in different discourses. This research agenda is pursued within a structured programme of academic training and interdisciplinary mentoring (which includes regular work-in-progress presentations, soft skills workshops, seminars and conferences, and agenda-setting publications). The connection between intercultural expertise and theoretical inquiry in the context of area studies is the basis for the realisation of this research paradigm in individual projects and interdisciplinary cooperations within the Research Training Group.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Heike Paul
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Frank Adloff; Privatdozent Dr. Christoph Ernst; Professor Dr. Thomas Fröhlich; Professor Dr. Clemens Kauffmann; Professor Dr. Kay Kirchmann; Professorin Dr. Antje Kley; Professor Dr. Dirk Kretzschmar; Professor Dr. Michael Lackner; Professor Dr. Andreas Nehring; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schoberth; Professor Dr. Christoph Schumann (†)