Research Training Groups

Research Training Groups (RTG) are sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to support junior researchers in topical research programs. The groups are funded for a maximum of nine years, and focus on the training of doctoral researchers who plan to set up their own independent research group.

(DFG, Research Training Groups)

RTG 3105

Figurations of the Precarious in the Global South

The Research Training Group examines precariousness as a central analytical category for diagnosing social and cultural dynamics in the Global South. The aim is to critically explore its significance for everyday realities, patterns of interpretation and the scope for action of social actors. The focus is on local and global interdependencies beyond postcolonial binaries. In an interdisciplinary, internationally networked research environment, the GRK analyses how Western modernisation processes interact with indigenous approaches. The Global South is thus understood as a place of resilience, resistance and knowledge production – despite profound power asymmetries and colonial influences.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Thies (Romance Studies)

Funding Period: Starting in spring of 2026

Completed Research Training Groups (of the last 5 years)

RTG 1808

Ambiguity - Production and Perception

The aim of the research training group is to show that cooperation between language-related subjects can yield new insights into the production and reception, triggering and resolution of ambiguity. This aim is pursued in the belief that ambiguity, as a cross-sectional phenomenon, represents a suitable paradigm for new forms of cooperation between different language-related disciplines. At the same time, this lays the foundation for a later expansion of the research question to non-linguistic sign systems (images, music, etc.).

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Matthias Bauer (English Department)

Funding Period: 01 October 2013 - 30 September 2022

RTG 1662

Religious Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe (800-1800)

The research training group has two objectives: it establishes the term “religious knowledge” as an interdisciplinary research concept; and, with the help of this concept, it describes in a new way how the so-called Western knowledge society in Europe was able to develop with its self-attributed tolerance, secularity, rationality and differentiation of science and education, law and politics, religion, art and literature.

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Volker Leppin – Faculty of Protestant Theology; and Prof. Dr. Annette Gerok-Reiter – German Department

Funding Period: 01 April 2011 - 31 March 2020