History of Communication and Sociability in the Enlightenment

Prof. Dr. Monika Neugebauer-Wölk (History)

The scope of this project field provides room for a wide range of potential topics which, however, should be guided by the historical sciences in their material reference and line of questioning. The spectrum of possible research topics range from network studies to social forms of the Enlightenment, from a gender-historical perspective on informal forms of sociability in the eighteenth century to the classic research topic of societies. Religious questions and their corresponding enlightenment tendencies were the topic of conversations in salons; religious reforms and alternatives meet in freemason lodges or secret societies. The constitution and proliferation of knowledge characterizes scholarly societies up through the reading societies of the late Enlightenment.