Young Academy

In our working group, we explore the significance of the ‘boundary’ across the various arts. The first area we are focusing on is, not least, a response to our current pandemic experience: what boundaries are being established and overcome for literature, music, the visual arts, etc., for artists and audiences alike, as a result of advances in media technology? This involves both fundamental questions and the sharing of experiences. The aim is to describe the interplay between contemporary art and the contemporary world in an interdisciplinary manner – or, to put it another way: to measure, map and evaluate it. In short: what can digitalisation achieve?

Contact Persons: Sarah Hegenbart, Markus Kersten, Marlene Meuer

Members: Paul-Henri Campbell, Nicola Leonard Hein, Paul Hübner, Stefan Pohlit, Tamara Štajner

The working group is dedicated to a critical discussion of the changing conditions, formats and objectives of university teaching in the digital age. A key focus is on involving and giving a voice to the various university stakeholders and their perspectives, which inform the process of shaping and negotiating university teaching under the changed technical, social and economic conditions of the 21st century. The search for answers to the question of what characterises good teaching in the digital age and what framework conditions need to be created for this at the various levels of the university (and beyond) is at the heart of the work of this working group, which is strongly oriented towards the humanities and social sciences.

Contact Person: Benjamin Loy

Members: Jonas Hock, Andrea Hofmann, Kristina Köhler, Christine Lang, Benjamin Loy, Miriam Salzmann, Lena Wetenkamp

The interdisciplinary working group ‘Relative Truths’ examines, from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, the processes of construction that determine the concepts and understandings of ‘truth’. On the one hand, this involves the processes of negotiation surrounding definitions of truth within individual disciplines, which raises questions concerning the philosophy of science. On the other hand, it explores various methods and procedures that evoke forms of knowledge acquisition or, conversely, its prevention. Furthermore, these processes of negotiation and legitimisation also become constitutive at a substantive level. Thus, the question is not only how processes of truth-finding are reflected upon (and criticised) in the arts, but also how social phenomena of the so-called post-factual present—such as the dissemination and transmission of fake news and conspiracy theories—become the subject of the working group’s investigation from the perspective of the participating disciplines. Key questions include: What is truth? How does truth depend on the respective context? Who can determine what truth is? The working group approaches these questions through various formats (theoretical reading, science communication, lectures, etc.).

Contact Persons: Niels Penke und Veronika Unger

Members: Paul Breiding, Lisa Cordes, Julia Eisentraut, Chiara Ferella, Felix Günther, Sophie Lohmann, Marlene Meuer, Niels Penke, Lydia Repke, Sören Stumpf, Veronika Unger, Tobias Weißmann, Stephanie Willeke

Vision – as a complex interplay between visual stimuli and the activation of mental images – is a phenomenon that, by its very nature, demands an interdisciplinary approach and is also closely linked to cultural issues. How are ‘seeing’ and ‘visibility’ modelled at different points in time and from different disciplines? To what extent do different disciplinary approaches condition, complement or contradict one another in this regard? Which concepts of seeing and visual perception develop successively and in parallel? Can historical turning points be identified in which conceptions of seeing undergo fundamental change? Which concepts of seeing, alongside the major well-known theories, have so far been suppressed, overlooked or simply not passed down in the history of knowledge and the humanities? Through these questions, the working group approaches the history and stories of seeing in an interdisciplinary dialogue.

Contact Persons: Kristina Köhler, Lena Wetenkamp

Members: Sarah Burnautzki, Lisa Cordes, Jonas Hock, Benjamin Loy, Sebastian Meixner, Marlene Meuer, Christian Rößner, Sebastian Spitra, Marco Tamborini, Stephanie Willeke

A common hypothesis in literary studies suggests that lists are perceived in a fundamentally different way because, unlike narrative passages, they do not tell a story but simply enumerate items. In this working group, we are exploring whether this ‘different’ perception of lists can be empirically demonstrated. Can we test this hypothesis by examining reading behaviour or the associated physiological correlates? For example, are lists merely skimmed, read superficially, or even skipped altogether? At what point does a textual structure become so loose – list-like – that it elicits such effects? We also explore the possibilities and limitations of empirical literary studies and discuss the various manifestations and functions of enumerative forms.

Contact Persons: Eva von Contzen, Eugen Wassiliwizky

Our research group focuses on the study and representation of (human) life in extreme environments and the impact of this research on definitions of what it means to be human. We approach this investigation from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, taking into account different levels of disciplinary abstraction, and drawing on a broad spectrum of research subjects. What the individual research projects within the framework of the project have in common is that they examine how the conceptualisation of human life in relation to extreme environments (outer space, the deep sea, geological time) challenges traditional conceptions of humanity. The common point of reference for all projects is thus the currently much-discussed replacement of an anthropocentric worldview with an image of humanity as a posthumanist subject in transformative interaction with technology, ecosystems, cultural contexts, temporalities and global dynamics.

One of the aims of our joint work is to contribute to breaking new ground in interdisciplinary communication and to identify new transdisciplinary approaches necessary for critically engaging with the Anthropocene epoch, characterised by multifactorial, complex and global crises.

Contact Persons: Torben Riehl, Marco Tamborini, Jens Temmen, Patrick Bettinger

• Empathy and Aesthetics
  WORKSHOP 2017
• Lost in Translation?
  WORKSHOP 2018
• Justice, Power, Politics
  SYMPOSIUM 2018
• Terra Incognita
• Scale Invariance in Various Disciplines
• Language – Power – Magic
  WORKSHOP 2019
• (Mal)adaptive Search Strategies
• Promises of Autonomy
  SYMPOSIUM 2019
• Failure in the Sciences
  SYMPOSIUM 2020

• Kristina Köhler/Benjamin Loy/Marlene Meuer/Christian Rößner/Lena Wetenkamp (Hrsg.): Langsames Sehen. Wahrnehmungsdispositive der Entschleunigung in den Künsten der Moderne. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 9. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, 2025. ISBN 978-3-515-14064-5
   

• Meuer, Marlene (Hrsg.): Grenzen der Künste im digitalen Zeitalter. Künstlerinnen und Künstler über ihre Werke. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 8. Stuttgart: Steiner 2024. ISBN 978-3-515-13701-0  Download als E-Book 

• Bianchi, Aglaia (Hrsg.): Beiträge der Jungen Akademie | Mainz 2021. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 7. Stuttgart: Steiner 2021. ISBN 978-3-515-13239-8  Download als E-Book
• Bianchi, Aglaia (Hrsg.): Plenarvorträge der Jungen Akademie | Mainz 2018–2020. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 6. Stuttgart: Steiner 2021. ISBN 978-3-515-12994-7  Download als E-Book
• Globke, Christina /Monot, Pierre-Héli (Hrsg.): Verheißungen der Autonomie. Beiträge des Symposiums vom 28./29. Oktober 2019 in der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 5. Stuttgart: Steiner 2021. ISBN 978-3-515-12930-5 Download als E-Book
• Nagel, Svenja/Schirner, Rebekka (Hrsg.): Sprache | Macht | Magie. Beiträge des Workshops vom 20./21. Februar 2019 in der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz. Unter Mitarbeit von Yuki Asano, Christina Globke, Dominik M. Müller und Anno Schreier. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 4. Stuttgart: Steiner 2021. ISBN 978-3-515-12929-9  Download als E-Book

2019

• Globke, Christina; Haupt, Andreas; Potthast, Daniel: Plenarvorträge der „Jungen Akademie | Mainz“ im Jahr 2017. Vorgetragen am 22. April 2017 in der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 1. Stuttgart: Steiner 2019. ISBN 978-3-515-12282-5 Download als E-Book
• Wübbeler, Markus / Lippmann, Kristina / Wünsch, Désirée / Docter, Dominic (Hrsg.): Lost in Translation? Translationsforschung in den Lebenswissenschaften. Beiträge des Symposiums vom 1. Februar 2018 in der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 3. Stuttgart: Steiner 2019. ISBN 978-3-515-12284-9 Download als E-Book
   

2018

• Imagebroschüre der Jungen Akademie (2018)
• Schmetkamp, Susanne; Zorn, Magdalena (Hrsg.): Variationen des Mitfühlens. Empathie in Musik, Literatur, Film und Sprache. Schriftenreihe der Jungen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz, Band 2. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2018. ISBN: 978-3-515-12283-2 Download als E-Book