Research areas
Research in the Cluster is divided into five areas. Each area explores different philological practices, concepts, and questions from a cross-cultural perspective, and work together where interconnections arise.
The five research areas of the Cluster:
Text carriers from different cultural and linguistic areas
Researchers at the Cluster of Excellence are interested in all these different text carriers, fonts, and collection contexts. | © Stefan Pörtner
Research Area A: Writing Systems
How are writing systems related to the development and transmission of knowledge, to political and socio-cultural factors, to trade networks and administrative practices? And how do they influence the formation of communal identities, and the rise and fall of empires? These are the questions asked by researchers in the "Writing Systems" area of the Cluster.
Research Area B: Practices in the Layout, Preservation, and Archiving of texts
The materiality and mediality of texts are important factors in philological work. Texts exist in a wide range of formats, from cuneiform tablets and Egyptian papyri, to inscriptions on stone, handwritten codices, and printed books. Members of the research area "Practices in the Layout, Preservation, and Archiving of Texts" will examine the significance of these different layouts, and explore the interaction between text and paratext, and text and illustration.
Research Area C: Practices of Editing
Members of the research area “Practices of Editing” will investigate the history of editorial practices from a cross-cultural perspective and aim to develop new methodological approaches to this subject, using of the latest developments in digital humanities to do so.
Research Area D: Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship
The research area "Texts and Commentaries, Canon Formation, and Censorship" explores the processes of canon formation and their interconnection with the selection, correction, translation, dissemination, and censorship of texts. In addition, researchers in this area will compare how different cultures have understood the relationship between texts and commentaries.
Research Area E: Migration and Translation of Texts
Researchers in the area "Migration and Translation of Texts" retrace how texts have moved between different places, periods, and media. In doing so, they examine practices of textual adaptation, translation, retextualization, summary, and abridgement, and analyse the changes that these practices can effect.