Guests
Associate Scholars
Dr. Lotte Schüßler
Postdoctoral Researcher
lotte.schuessler@hu-berlin.de
I am a media and theatre scholar, currently conducting postdoctoral research in the DFG-funded project “Raw Materials of the Humanities” at the Department of Musicology and Media Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. I also co-direct the theatre historiography working group of the Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft e.V.
Paper: Questions of Material, Working Practices, and Formats of the Humanities
My project investigates what historically is the central working medium of the humanities: paper. The invention of groundwood paper, new practices to produce cellulose, and the steam engine and paper-making machine led to a veritable flood of paper in the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the humanities in Berlin, I show how these developments radically changed the work of humanities scholars. Long-term edition projects were launched based on the availability of huge amounts of paper; libraries and archives tested methods of conserving paper; different disciplines used the full diversity of paper types for knowledge transfer; and new paper-saving strategies made it possible for studies to continue during times of war and paper shortage.
Jonathan Haid
Doctoral Researcher
jhaid@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
I am a doctoral candidate, focusing on the intersection of media studies and the history of science. At Humboldt-Universität Berlin, I work in the DFG-funded research project “Raw Materials of the Humanities.” I am part of the International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and Its Resources: Historical Reciprocities” at the MPIWG Berlin.
Nitrocellulose: A Material and Media History of the Humanities
My project examines the material nitrocellulose in the history of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century humanities, with special attention to the relationship between media technologies and the raw materials of which they were made. The project asks about the structures of extraction, appropriation, transportation, and processing of the raw materials—cotton, saltpeter, camphor, and more—of nitrocellulose and related media. It focuses on media technologies enabled by nitrocellulose, such as the photographic collodion process or cinematography. What were the environmental, economic, and industrial contexts of the transformation of raw materials into knowledge media? And how did these complex networks impact upon the epistemes of the humanities?