Research Projects

The faculty advisory board of the Center of Excellence "Enlightenment – Religion – Knowledge" represents ten project fields with their own research. Projects from broader academic disciplines and fields of study are affiliated with the Center of Excellence as associated projects. Research projects of the fellows in the Graduate College further complement the research of the network. Their research is summarized under the section on the Graduate College Programme.

Project Fields

• Esotericism

  Prof. Dr. Monika Neugebauer-Wölk (History)

  Prof. em. Dr. Manfred Beetz (German Studies),
  Prof. Dr. Michael Bergunder (Theology),
  Prof. Dr. Werner Nell (Comparative Literature),
  Prof. Dr. Jürgen Stolzenberg (Philosophy)

• Pietism

  Prof. Dr. Udo Sträter (Theology)

  Prof. Dr. Josef N. Neumann (History of Medicine),
  Prof. em. Dr. Wolfgang Ruf (Music),
  Prof. em. Dr. Arno Sames (Church History),
  PD Dr. Christian Soboth (German Studies),
  PD Dr. Ulrike Gleixner (History),
  Prof. Dr. Pia Schmid (Education),
  Prof. Dr. Hermann Goltz †,
  Prof. Dr. Swetlana Mengel (Slavonic Studies),
  Dr. Thomas Müller-Bahlke (Director of the Francke Foundations)

• On the Development of Hermeneutics in the Enlightenment

  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Barth (Theology)

  Prof. Dr. Claus-Dieter Osthövener (Theology)

• Prestige, Criticism, Education: Conduct Norms for Handling Knowledge in European Comparison

  Prof. Dr. Heinz Thoma (Romance Languages and Literature)

  Prof. Dr. Daniel Fulda (German Studies),
  Prof. Dr. Sabine Volk-Birke (English Studies)

• Enlightened Knowledge

  Prof. Dr. Reinhold Viehoff (Media und Communication Studies)

  Prof. Dr. Gerd Antos (Applied German Linguistics)

• Cultural Patterns of the Enlightenment

  Prof. Dr. Daniel Fulda (German Studies)

  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Barth (Theology),
  Prof. Harald Bluhm (Political science),
  Prof. Dr. Dr. Ralf Koerrenz (Education, Jena),
  Prof. Dr. Stefan Matuschek (German Studies, Jena),
  Prof. Dr. Dorothee Röseberg (Romance cultural studies),
  Prof. Dr. Heinz Thoma (Romance Languages and Literature)

• History as a Form of Knowledge

  Prof. Dr. Daniel Fulda (German Studies)

• History of Communication and Sociability in the Enlightenment

  Prof. Dr. Monika Neugebauer-Wölk (History)

• Philosophy of Religion and Theology in the Enlightenment

  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Barth (Systematic Theology)

Associated and Cooperating Projects

• 'Spurenlese'. Traces and Effects of the Reformation
  (external link in German)
• Prof. Dr. Ralph Ludwig (Romance Languages and Literature):
  The French Enlightenment in the Caribbean: Cultural Encounters of Ratio and Mythos at the Crossroads of Europe and America
• Prof. Dr. Dorothee Röseberg (Romance Cultural Studies), Prof. Dr. Angela Richter (Slavonic Studies):
  Typological Investigations based on the Example of France and Yugoslavia in the XX Century
• Newspapers in Saxony-Anhalt

Graduate College –
Projects of the Fellows of the Center of Excellence

Group 1

• "Wonne der Wehmut" and "joy of grief".
  The Desirable Sweetness of Grief in English and German Literature in the 18th Century
  (Katja Battenfeld)
• The Enlightened Patient –
  Structures and Problems of Health Communication from Book and Print Culture in the 18th Century to Digital Communication in the Internet
  (Cornelia Bogen)
• Hermeticism and Enlightenment
  On the Reception and Reinterpretation of Hermetic Figures of Thought between Pietism and Enlightenment in the Works of Johann Conrad Dippel (1673-1734)
  (Kristine Hannak)
• Schelling's 'Naturphilosophie' and Theosophy
  (Jürgen Kaufmann)
• The engraved argument.
  Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki's 'Natürliche und affectirte Handlungen des Lebens' as instruction in leading a happy life
  (Martin Kirves)
• The Reception of the Cambridge Platonists
  in the 18th Century
  (Insa Kringler)
• Prophets, Patrons, Preachers:
  Pietist Women at the Dawn of the Enlightenment
  (Lucinda Martin)
• Philosophy and Religion in Samuel Richardson's Novel 'Sir Charles Grandison':
  Theory and Practice of Ideal Conduct
  (Melinda Palmer Kolb)
• Hermeneutics of the Bible –
  Moses Mendelssohn and Protestant Enlightenment
  (Björn Pecina)
• The languages of matter.
  The transformation problem and its representations in the works of Diderot. Echoes in Hegel and Roland Barthes
  (Kristin Reichel)
• Sleep.
  On the history of passive time in literature, philosophy and the conduct of life in the enlightenment
  (Ingo Uhlig)
• Aesthetics of Invisibility.
  Romantic imagination and the ambivalence of the visual
  (Dirk Uhlmann)
• German Pietism and Eastern European Jewish Hasidism: A Comparative Study of Piety Movements in the Age of the Enlightenment
  (Patrick Wulfleff)
• Libertas philosophandi.
  Freedom of thought. Theory and practice in the German Enlightenment
  (Kay Zenker)

Group 2

• Narrated Gender and Narrative Gendering in the German Novel (1680-1730)
  (Katja Barthel)
• Natur – Geist – Subjekt. Der 'Sprung' in der Philosophie zwischen 1670 und 1850
  (Sandy Bernert)
• Religiously Conspicuous Artisans in Early Modern Times
  (Daniel Eißner)
• Representations of Animals in the 18th Century: Concepts of Knowledge in Religious and Scientific Illustrations and in Painting.
  (Silke Förschler)
• Kant on the Priority, Principle and Limits of the 'right a priori' (Jens Gillessen)
• "Dedicated to the friends of truth". Essayism as a Method of Thinking from the Early Enlightenment to German Idealism
  (Nina Hahne)
• The Professors of the University of Halle from 1691 to 1806 in Sociohistorical Perspective
  (Julia Hasselberg)
• Pietism and cantata
  (Julian Heigel)
• The Opportunist. Genealogy of a Social Figure
  (Jonas Helbig)
• Vision and Recognition. Non-fictional Literature on Natural History and the Natural Sciences as a Form of Knowledge Acquisition for Young Readers in the 18th and 21st Centuries
  (Wiebke Helm)
• Social and Cultural History of Jewish Converts between 1640 and 1792
  (Anke Költsch)
• Anna Magdalena von Wurm's Correspondence with August Hermann Francke (1692-94)  – Women Practicing Piety (17th/18th C.)
  (Katja Lißmann)
• Rationality and Irrationality in the Construction of Religion
  (Georg Neugebauer)
• On the Meaning of the Concept of Anonymity in the Public Media Discourse since the Enlightenment. Phenomenology – Structure – Function
  (Sabine Pabst)
• Patterns of Interpretation and Cultural Utopias in the German and Italian Enlightenment. Friedrich Schiller and Vittorio Alfieri: A Comparison
  (Paolo Panizzo)
• Religion and Enlightenment – Protestant Mission in India and the Transformation of Reason
  (Thomas Ruhland)
• "His Telemach is in all other respects simply not the same!" The Reception of a French Mirror for Princes in the German-Speaking Area
  (Christoph Schmitt-Maaß)
• The Character-Sketch in Early Eighteenth-Century England: Influences, Forms, and Functions
  (Theresa Schön)
• Der Einfluss des Pietismus auf die Ethik Immanuel Kants
  (Anna Szyrwinska)
• Natur, Macht und Geschichte: thematische Verschiebung und skripturale Umcodierung im Werk des Marquis de Sade (Michèle Vallenthini)