Applied Humanities: Genealogy & Politics
Inaugural Conference of the Center for Advanced Studies “Applied Humanities”
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Lichthof, Unter den Linden 6),
May 15–17, 2025
The inaugural conference of the Center for Advanced Studies “Applied Humanities” will offer insights into the center’s research agenda for the coming four years. The program sets out to challenge the view of applied research that has prevailed in Western modernity: as knowledge that is rule-governed, universal, easily utilizable, and derived above all from the natural and life sciences. It confronts that vision with the potential of applied humanities to build and shape society. We regard the applied humanities as a historical configuration of canonical and methodological knowledge, practices, knowledge techniques, and reflexive capacity that takes shape within, between, and beyond the boundaries of humanities disciplines and impacts upon society and politics both indirectly and directly.
The conference will explore these points in six sections: (1) “Applied Humanities,” on the idea of applicability within the humanities; (2) “What Was Theory?,” on the history of theory and criticism within global and colonial frameworks; (3) “Skills in the Humanities,” on the specific proficiencies and routines that define humanities disciplines; (4) “World Humanities,” on comparative approaches and the translatability or untranslatability of different intellectual traditions; (5) “Creating Collectives,” on humanities communication and publishing in the widest sense; and (6) “Activist Humanities,” on the political application of humanities work.
In these six thematic sections, we will experiment with different formats. Each section will begin with either a lecture plus response, a roundtable for detailed discussion, or several short talks, in each case leading into a conversation with the audience.
The objective of the conference—and of the center itself—is to develop a history of science and knowledge in the humanities that does not define itself either in contradistinction to or with reference to the natural sciences, but is investigated on the basis of practices and infrastructures specific to the humanities themselves. In this way, we seek to achieve a new attentiveness to the humanities’ historical, contemporary, and global significance.
Register by May 5:
Program
Thursday, May 15
4:00 PM Registration & Welcome Coffee
We welcome you to our inaugural conference with refreshments at the Lichthof Ost, which is located on the ground floor of the HU main building.
5:00 PM WELCOME
Viktoria Tkaczyk & Anke te Heesen
(Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Humanities, HU Berlin)
Opening Remarks
Niels Helle-Meyer (Vice President for Finance, Personnel and Technical Matters, HU Berlin)
Welcome Address
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Aleida Assmann
(University of Konstanz)
Doing Humanities Inside and Outside Academia
Chair: Anke te Heesen
7:00 PM RECEPTION
Friday, May 16
SESSION 1: APPLIED HUMANITIES
9:30–11:00 AM
Anke te Heesen & Viktoria Tkaczyk (HU Berlin)
What Do We Mean by Applied Humanities?
Chair: Martin Bauer (Soziopolis)
SESSION 2: WHAT WAS THEORY?
11:30–1:00 PM
Onur Erdur (University of Flensburg)
Learning from the South: The Colonial Condition and the Making of French Theory
Roundtable Discussion
Onur Erdur (University of Flensburg)
Anna Kvíčalová (Center for Theoretical Study, Prague)
Florian Meinel (University of Göttingen)
Henning Schmidgen (Bauhaus University, Weimar)
Chair: Niki Rhyner (HU Berlin)
SESSION 3: SKILLS IN THE HUMANITIES
2:00–3:30 PM
Short Presentations
Christine von Oertzen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)
Scholars to the Cradle! Narrating Babies’ Biographies in 19th-Century America
Julia Kursell (University of Amsterdam)
Carl Stumpf, Applied Knowledge, and the Problem of Researching Auditory Cognition
Anna Echterhölter (University of Vienna)
Describe or Defend: Two German Networks on Indigenous Law (1900–1930)
Karsten Lichau (HU Berlin)
Tuning in to the World: Theology’s Applicability in Radio Sermons
Chair: Alrun Schmidtke (HU Berlin)
SESSION 4: WORLD HUMANITIES?
4:00–5:30 PM
Projit B. Mukharji (Ashoka University)
De-disciplining: Humanities at the Indian Institutes of Technology, 1950–1961
Roundtable Discussion
Projit B. Mukharji (Ashoka University)
Emmanuel Ngue Um (University of Yaoundé 1)
Glenn Penny (University of California, Los Angeles)
Dagmar Schäfer (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)
Chair: Alejandra Osorio (HU Berlin)
Saturday, May 17
SESSION 5: CREATING COLLECTIVES
10:00–11:30 AM
Short Presentations
Ina Heumann (Museum of Natural History, Berlin)
On Resistance: The Politics of Provenance and Institutional Responsibility
Matthias Warstat (FU Berlin)
Collective Subjectivity in Artistic Interventions
Daniel Rosenberg (University of Oregon)
Tokenism: Words as Things
Koen Vermeir (University of Paris)
The Potential Impact of Applied Humanities on Science and Policy
Chair: Lisa Blum & Lindiwe Breuer (HU Berlin)
SESSION 6: ACTIVIST HUMANITIES
12:30–2:00 PM
Deborah Coen (Yale University)
A Science of Vulnerability? Climate Change and Global Feminism, 1979–2014
Response
Nils Güttler (University of Vienna) & Mara Mills (New York University)
Chair: Viktoria Tkaczyk (HU Berlin)
CONCLUDING REMARKS
2:00–2:30 PM
Laetitia Lenel (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Andreas Rötzer (Matthes & Seitz Publishing, Berlin)
Carlos Spoerhase (LMU Munich)
Michael Hagner (ETH Zurich)
Chair: Anke te Heesen (HU Berlin)