DFG Priority Program "Jewish Cultural Heritage"

Category: Research grant / fellowship / scholarship

The priority program conducts interdisciplinary and multi-perspective research into the developments of both the social and cultural-political significance and the handling of Jewish cultural heritage in Europe and its global connections. The overarching goal of the program is the (re-)discursification of the cultural heritage of Jews with reference to Critical Heritage Studies. The latter show how the cultural heritage of the past is activated in the present and how it is socially constructed and linked to a range of social, economic, cultural and political processes. In the first phase of the program, desiderata in the scientific research, cultural-political representation and social use of Jewish heritage were identified and translated into questions on the basis of interdisciplinary research. The second phase focuses on empirically based and contemporary basic research, which shows potential for practical implementation through the development of concrete models and concepts for the vitality and sustainability of Jewish heritage. If, for example, Jewish cultural heritage, in its material and immaterial form, is integrated into the contemporary lifeworlds of Jews and non-Jews, the question arises as to whether and to what extent empirical research into those lifeworlds provides important insights into the contemporary, often transformed forms, echoes, provides meanings and contexts of Jewish heritage. How does knowledge of the social embedding of Jewish cultural heritage require concrete measures to preserve and pass on it? To what extent can empirically collected data on society's handling of Jewish heritage cause a reorientation of the discourse on cultural sustainability and ultimately lead to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals being reconsidered? Target group and methodological framework The priority program is aimed at scientists from all disciplines who deal with objects and concepts of contemporary Jewish cultural heritage in an interdisciplinary manner, with critical consideration of questions of cultural sustainability. The prerequisites for participation in the priority program are, in addition to the content orientation in the sense of the above-mentioned scientific objective - formally, the interdisciplinary structure of the individual projects as a tandem (involvement of at least two disciplines); - methodologically, the integration of social constructivist perspectives in the sense of critical heritage studies, which clearly go beyond purely affirmative and documentary approaches to Jewish cultural heritage; - and an empirical approach as a basis for developing transfer concepts between science and society. Participatory or dialogic integration is also desirable - Jewish actors and institutions in the sphere of influence of local and/or global cultural heritage policy; - citizen science approaches, for example at the interface between academic and practice-oriented areas of cultural heritage; or - Actors of cultural work at the levels of education, cultural mediation, cultural/minority policy, community work, museum practice, remembrance policy or civil protection. Against this background, the following can and should be critically questioned and reflected: - the multidimensional relationships between Jewish cultural heritage and society; - the heterogeneous publics of Jewish heritage, taking into account the current status of Jewish cultural heritage in contemporary Jewish living environments, which are largely determined by current social developments in the world; - Transformations of Jewish heritage in the present, or in a (well-founded) historical perspective. The project applications should therefore provide information about the project's internal understanding of transfer-oriented research and its theoretical premises, as well as the intended form of the application potential developed from the projects.

Initiator(s):
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Deadline: 14.08.2024

https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2024/ifw-24-26

Post created by: Lymor Wolf Goldstein