INSTITUTES FOR PIONEERING RESEARCH IN THE HUMANTIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
The challenges of our time require innovative solutions and spaces that foster open intellectual inquiry. The Käte Hamburger Centres are cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary institutes for advanced study devoted to furthering precisely these aims. As sites of intellectual dialogue and pioneering research on focused themes, they make a crucial contribution toward addressing urgent social challenges.
Since being first established in 2007 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Käte Hamburger Centres have become globally recognised research leaders in the humanities and social sciences. Initially launched as part of an initiative to provide internationally leading scholars with the freedom to work without teaching or administrative responsibilities, they now operate as transdisciplinary research institutions. The programme, designated in 2017 as a component of the German federal government’s excellence strategy, allows scholars from across the globe to explore their own questions on the centre’s overarching themes through fellowships focused solely on research.
To date, sixteen centres have been launched over two funding phases. The initial phase concentrated on core topics in the humanities, while the current phase, initiated in 2019, prioritizes transdisciplinary research. Since then, collaboration and networking across various academic fields and social contexts have become integral to the centres’ framework. The Käte Hamburger Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) is the newest of six active centres with a transdisciplinary focus. Integrating both academic fellows and artists in residence into its programme, it fosters a distinctive synergy between academia and the arts.
Each Käte Hamburger Centre focuses on specific areas of research, blending international and comparative approaches. This broad thematic scope not only drives research excellence but also bolsters the global standing of the humanities in Germany. Building global networks between research institutions, the centres play a crucial role in fostering international knowledge production and in pioneering innovative approaches that move beyond disciplinary boundaries.
In addition to CURE, five other Käte Hamburger Centres are currently active, each recognised for its transdisciplinary orientation:
KÄTE HAMBURGER KOLLEG
INHERIT.HERITAGE IN TRANSFORMATION
Located at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, this centre develops novel, cross-disciplinary strategies for addressing transformations in (cultural) heritage. It explores how cultural and natural heritage is reassessed and reshaped in the context of global change. Core topics include debates on identity and difference, issues of belonging and ownership, and the interconnections between past, present, and future.
DIREKTORATE
Prof. Dr. Eva Ehninger
Prof. Dr. Sharon Macdonald
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
KÄTE HAMBURGER CENTER
LEGAL UNITY AND PLURALISM (EViR)
Located at the Universität Münster, the KHK EViR studies legal diversity from a historical perspective as a transtemporal and transregional structural characteristic of law. With a focus on the dynamic tension between legal unity and pluralism from antiquity to the present, its work represents the first attempt to systematically investigate legal diversity in its entire historical depth and across disciplinary boundaries.
DIREKTORATE
Prof. Dr. Peter Oestmann
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ludwig
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
KÄTE HAMBURGER KOLLEG
GLOBAL DIS:CONNECT (gd:c)
Hosted at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the centre studies current and historical processes of globalisation. Under the guiding rubric of global dis:connect, its research explores the dynamic, co-constitutive relationship of global integration, absent connections and disintegration. The aim is to develop a new understanding of globalisation that considers the often contradictory processes by which global interconnections take shape.
DIREKTORATE
Prof. Dr. Roland Wenzlhuemer
Prof. Dr. Christopher Balme
Prof. Dr. Burcu Dogramaci
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
KÄTE HAMBURGER KOLLEG
CULTURES OF RESEARCH (c:o/re)
The KHK c:o/re is dedicated to the manifold research cultures of the sciences – their commonalities, differences, and transformations. The question at the heart of its interdisciplinary perspective is how the study of complex systems and societal challenges, such as climate change, are changing practices in science. One central theme is the increasing epistemic and participatory complexity of research in these fields.
DIREKTORATE
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger
Prof. Dr. Stefan Böschen
Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
KÄTE HAMBURGER KOLLEG
FOR APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC STUDIES (CAPAS)
The Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) at the Universität Heidelberg is dedicated to the analysis of radical changes and breakdowns in society and the environment. It investigates apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic scenarios from a transdisciplinary approach, combining methods from the humanities and from the social and natural sciences that aim to understand social and ecological catastrophes and crises.
DIREKTORATE
Prof. Dr. Robert Folger
Prof. Dr. Thomas Meier
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
