GRK 2899:  Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond

• Subject Area: History ; Art History, Music, Theatre and Media Studies ; Literary Studies ; Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies ; Social Sciences
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501797735

The IRTG "Belongings: Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond", a cooperation between the Hebrew University, Leipzig University and the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow, offers an ambitious qualification program for outstanding international doctoral candidates. Five research clusters (Practice, Ownership, Text, Memory, Stage), each one headed by a team of Pis from both places representing multiple disciplines, are brought into fruitful dialogue within the training group to gain a comprehensive and multifaceted picture of Jewish material cultures in Europe and the areas of Jewish (forced) emigration from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The IRTG seeks to implement new tools to analyze European Jewish life and ist entanglements with the non-Jewish surroundings by focusing on the realm of objects and materiality. Ist members will consolidate, enrich, and advance this emerging research field with theoretically and empirically innovative projects. A total of 22 international doctoral students divided in two cohorts of four years each are envisioned to participate in this program. The proposed Qualification Program aims to ensure that candidates successfully complete their PhDs within this span, build a vibrant international research network, and are well prepared for a career in academia or other related professions. Through a structured mentoring and an assortment of course works, language training, seminars, workshops, a colloquium, a summer school, and an international conference, the program guarantees the conceptual and methodological quality of the projects, supporting the cohesion of the group and supporting the students in all phases of their research, writing, and career development. Beyond disseminating ist findings to an international academic audience and the interested public as well as fostering the academic cooperation between Israel and Europe, the IRTG - the first of ist kind in Israel and Germany in the Humanities - aims to establish and strengthen Leipzig as a hub for unique research excellence in the study of Jewish history and culture in Germany.

• DFG Programme: International Research Training Groups
• International Connection: Israel
• Applicant Institution: Universität Leipzig
• Participating Institution: Leibniz-Institut für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur - Simon Dubnow (DI)
• IRTG-Partner Institution: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Yfaat Weiss
• Participating Researchers: Professorin Dr. Anna Artwinska; Professor Dr. Dieter Burdorf; Dr. Elisabeth Gallas; Professor Dr. Dirk van Laak; Dr. Enrico Lucca; Professorin Dr. Maren Möhring; Professorin Dr. Tanja Zimmermann
• IRTG-Partner: Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Benjamin Pollock