GCSC - International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture

Interested in pursuing a PhD in the Study of Culture?

If you are currently studying a Master of Arts or teacher training and are interested in pursuing a scientific path, we warmly invite you to apply for our “Predoctoral Programme for the Study of Culture”.
Coordinated by the GCSC and the faculties 03, 04 and 05 at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (JLU), the programme aims to prepare interested students for a Phd with regards to content and organization. The Programme can be completed parallel to ongoing studies, since it aims to support applicants in the phase of transition from their final degrees to doctoral studies.
It offers a series of interesting workshops from October 2023 until February 2024 and open exchange with other applicants as well as doctoral candidates, allowing insights in the GCSC’s research-oriented doctoral programme.
To apply, please send a covering letter, a CV, a project sketch, as well as a transcript of Records to [email protected] until July 31st, 2023.

We are looking forward to your application for our 8th round of the Predoc Programme!

For more information please visit our website:
www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/ggkgcsc/predoc

Out now: KULT_online 66 (November 2022)

We are very excited to announce the publication of KULT_online´s 66th issue, featuring articles dealing with a wide range of different topics:
The issue contains two articles from the field of historical science, which on the one hand deal with an anthology about the political future of the 20th century and on the other hand illuminate the complex role of journalism and theory reception in the context of media and intellectual history in the FRG.

Cultural studies approaches are also represented in this issue. Various contributions deal with the relationship between Jewish self-perception and the perception of others, the complexity of cultural and political exchange between the USSR and the USA in the 1950s and early 1960s, and memes. This topic is rounded off by a contribution on the concept of post-migration, which deals with the complexity of the present, and by a review of an intersectional-feminist perspective on solidarity.

Another topic deals with literary and sociological publications that review the depiction of traumatic sexual experiences of children in modern Irish literature and deal with individual (in)abilities to act in the context of democratic processes in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The issue concludes with a review that takes a critical look at design and questions its downsides and weaknesses at various levels.

Find the entire issue here: https://journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-online/

Out now: We are delighted to announce a brand new publication of our very own Elizabeth Kovach, Jens Kugele, Ansgar Nünning and many more |researchers which gives an insightful exploration of "passages" as contexts and processes.

“The study of literature and culture is marked by various distinct understandings of passages – both as phenomena and critical concepts. These include the anthropological notion of rites of passage, the shopping arcades (Passagen) theorized by Walter Benjamin, the Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade, present-day forms of migration and resettlement, and understandings of translation and adaptation. Whether structural, semiotic, spatial/geographic, temporal, existential, societal or institutional, passages refer to processes of (status) change. They enable entrances and exits, arrivals and departures, while they also foster moments of liminality and suspension. They connect and thereby engender difference.
Passages is an exploration of passages as contexts and processes within which liminal experiences and encounters are situated. It aims to foster a concept-based, interdisciplinary dialogue on how to approach and theorize such a term. Based on the premise that concepts travel through times, contexts and discursive settings, a conceptual approach to passages provides the authors of this volume with the analytical tools to (re-)focus their research questions and create a meaningful exchange across disciplinary, national and linguistic boundaries.
Contributions from senior scholars and early-career researchers whose work focuses on areas such as cultural memory, performativity, space, media, (cultural) translation, ecocriticism, gender and race utilize specific understandings of passages and liminality, reflecting on their value and limits for their research.” (from the publisher)

Find more information here: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/series-comparative-literature-and-culture/products/194238

Out now: Andrea Züger: “Erzählen(d) über den Tod hinaus: Eine ethnographische Studie über das Transformieren von generativen Erzählungen in der Würdezentrierten Therapie.“ Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2022.

We congratulate GCSC alumna Andrea Züger on the successful publication of her dissertation dealing with the generative narrative as a multidimensional structure in Dignity Therapy. Zügers work was awarded the Dissertation Prize of the Justus Liebig University Giessen and the Stolzenberg Prize for excellent dissertations.

“In der Würdezentrierten Therapie erzählen Menschen und andere hören zu. Ein Gerät zeichnet auf und jemand tippt. Mündliches wird zu Schriftlichem und Flüchtiges zu Konserviertem. Es wird berührt – nicht nur die Seele, sondern auch Papier – Menschen lesen leise und lesen vor, jemand geht und etwas bleibt. Ein Dokument, eine Hinterlassenschaft, Erinnerungen. Durch die achtsame Beschreibung dieser psychologischen Intervention für schwerkranke Menschen, das Verständnis der generativen Erzählung als multidimensionales Gefüge – aus Sprache, Körper-Leib, Materialität und Medialität – und durch die Analyse von Deutung und Bedeutungszuschreibung der involvierten Akteur_innen bietet Andrea Züger mit ihrer kulturwissenschaftlichen Analyse nicht nur Impulse für professionelles therapeutisches Handeln und ethische Fragen, sondern gibt auch Hinweise auf potentielle Wirkmechanismen.“ (from the publisher)

Find more information here: https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/detail/index/sArticle/57836

Out now: Stepanie Gripentrog-Schedel, Jens Kugele & Enno Edzard Popkes: “Grenzarbeiten auf der Nulllinie: Nahtoderfahrungen in interdisziplinärer Perspektive.“ Kiel: Universitätsverlag Kiel, 2022.

We congratulate Stepanie Gripentrog-Schedel, Jens Kugele and Enno Edzard Popkes on the successful publication of their interdisciplinary edited volume dealing with near-death experiences from a scientific perspective. The book has been published in Open Access.
“Nachdem Nahtoderfahrungen (NTE) im Diskurs westlicher Gesellschaften inzwischen kein Nischenthema mehr sind, sondern bereits vielfach medial rezipiert und verbreitet wurden und werden, sind die Potentiale der wissenschaftlichen Erforschung des Themas noch bei Weitem nicht ausgeschöpft. Dies mag nicht zuletzt etwas damit zu tun haben, dass die Auseinandersetzung mit NTE vielleicht mehr als andere Themen etablierte Wissenschaftsverständnisse herausfordert. Der vorliegende Band macht daher drei Vorschläge zur Neuperspektivierung des Themas und zur Fortsetzung der begonnenen Diskussion: Gefragt werden soll nach der Aushandlung von Grenzen, nach ›Nahtoderfahrungen‹ als einem wissenschaftlichen Konzept und nach den Potentialen interdisziplinärer Arbeit. Hierzu werden Beiträge aus unterschiedlichen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen wie etwa der Religionswissenschaft, der Theologie, der Soziologie und der Medizin versammelt, die sich aus ihrer je fachspezifischen Sicht mit dem Thema auseinandersetzen.“ (from the publisher)

Find more information here: https://www.universitaetsverlag.uni-kiel.de/de/programm/einzelschriften/Grenzarbeiten%20auf%20der%20Nulllinie

Call for Abstracts (Issue 15: Autumn 2023) – On_Culture Download as PDF Deadline: 15 October, 2022 Present Futures The present is great with the future. —Gottfried Leibniz, 1703 In times when the present seems to be facing an imminent – and immanent – crisis, we want to take a step forward and investigate how various concepts and imaginaries of the...

>> REMINDER: Apply now!

Interested in pursuing a PhD in the Study of Culture? If you are currently studying a Master of Arts or teacher training and are interested in pursuing a scientific path, we warmly invite you to apply for our “Predoctoral Programme for the Study of Culture”.
Coordinated by the GCSC and the faculties 03, 04 and 05 at Justus Liebig University Giessen, the programme aims to prepare interested students for a Phd with regards to content and organization. The Programme can be completed parallel to ongoing studies, since it aims to support applicants in the phase of transition from their final degrees to doctoral studies.
It offers a series of interesting workshops from October 2022 until February 2023 and open exchange with other applicants as well as doctoral candidates, allowing insights in the GCSC’s research-oriented doctoral programme.
To apply, please send a covering letter, a CV, a project sketch, as well as a transcript of Records to [email protected] until July 31st, 2022.
We are looking forward to your application for our 7th round of the Predoc Programme!
For more information please visit our website:

https://www.uni-giessen.de/fbz/ggkgcsc/graduiertenprogramme/gcsc/predoc/index_html

Wir suchen eine studentische Hilfskraft zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt!

Bewerben Sie sich jetzt:

Out now: Doris Bachmann-Medick, Jens Kugele and Katharina Stornig (eds.): “Sacred Spaces: Cultural Dynamics, Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” SAECULUM 71, no. 2 (2021).

We would like to congratulate Doris Bachmann-Medick, Jens Kugele and Katharina Stornig on the successful publication of their special issue of SAECULUM, which explores cultural dynamics and interdisciplinary perspectives of sacred spaces. The special issue goes back to the symposium “Conceptualizing Sacred Space/s: Perspectives from the Study of Culture” organized by the GCSC Emerging Topic Research Group “Religion in the Study of Culture” that took place in May 2018.

Find more information here:
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/71.+jahrgang+%282021%29%2c+2.+halbband/659884.html

71. Jahrgang (2021), 2. Halbband - Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Webseiten der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Interested in pursuing a PhD in the Study of Culture? If you are currently studying a Master of Arts or teacher training and are interested in pursuing a scientific path, we warmly invite you to apply for our “Predoctoral Programme for the Study of Culture”.
Coordinated by the GCSC and the faculties 03, 04 and 05 at Justus Liebig University Giessen, the programme aims to prepare interested students for a Phd with regards to content and organization. The Programme can be completed parallel to ongoing studies, since it aims to support applicants in the phase of transition from their final degrees to doctoral studies.
It offers a series of interesting workshops from October 2022 until February 2023 and open exchange with other applicants as well as doctoral candidates, allowing insights in the GCSC’s research-oriented doctoral programme.
To apply, please send a covering letter, a CV, a project sketch, as well as a transcript of Records to [email protected] until July 31st, 2022.
We are looking forward to your application for our 7th round of the Predoc Programme!
For more information please visit our website:

Predoc-Programm Das GCSC unterstützt gemeinsam mit den Fachbereichen 03, 04 und 05 Studierende, die kurz vor dem Abschluss ihres Master- bzw. Lehramtsstudiums stehen, bei der Vorbereitung ihrer Promotion. Ausgewählte Angebote des GCSC-Kernprogramms sowie speziell auf diese Phase zugeschnittene Veranstaltungen hel...