The five research areas of the cluster are linked by three transversal perspectives. These transversal perspectives combine questions with theoretical and practical approaches as well as the historical background of the subject.
© Loren Stuckenbruck
The first cross-project connecting thread raises questions about the theoretical and methodological foundations of transcultural philology. The focus of these considerations is on the diversity of historical practices of reading, writing, translating, and commenting, as well as their institutional contexts. The aim is to develop a differentiated, pluralistic periodization that goes beyond Eurocentric models and opens up new perspectives on global knowledge configurations.
The second cross-cutting perspective is dedicated to the development and integration of digital methods in order to reconnect philology as a transcultural field of research. Key components include data management, methods of digitization and modeling of cultural artifacts, and AI-supported analyses of large text corpora. This opens up new possibilities for precisely capturing historical semantics, comparatively examining institutional contexts, and making philological practices globally accessible. At the same time, this perspective critically reflects on the tension between technological innovation and traditional working methods.
The third cross-disciplinary perspective aims to develop a novel, practice-oriented history of scholarship. Rather than focusing on the established institutions of modernity, it examines diverse philological practices and their cultural, religious, and political contexts. Particular attention is paid to questions of diversity, exclusion, and the visibility of previously marginalized actors such as scribes, commentators, and translators. The result is a "bottom-up" history of philology that opens up new interdisciplinary perspectives on the dynamics of knowledge and historical processes.