Symbols that bind and break communities: Saints’ cults as stimuli and expressions of local, regional, national and universalist identities (CULTICSYMBOLS)
Funded by: ETF, FIST, FWF, RCN
Communities are brought together by narratives, rituals, symbols and other cultural expressions which bind their members. The Collaborative Research Project (CRP) “CULTICSYMBOLS” studies how rituals and symbols provide social cohesion asserting that a key to understanding the development of regional identities lies in the tension between formulated regional traditions and trans-regional impulses influenced by authoritative concerns of different levels.
This CRP focuses on a range of different European regions using the cults of medieval saints and their modern appropriations as a vehicle for studying changing cultural and social values. The CRP consists of five self-contained, interrelated subprojects (4 Individual Projects and 1 Associated Project) each investigating specific materials pertaining to various media and discourses, and each with its own individual methodological framework. Interactions between centre and periphery, between the medieval Latin culture and regional interests, political and cultural agendas and their reflections in different media (images, music, literature) are of primary interest to the project.
The combination of synchronic and diachronic aspects as well as an intrinsically interdisciplinary approach explicitly addressing socio-political functions of the arts make the project unique and emphasise its actuality as well as its historical foundation. Among topics to be examined across the CRP are: representations of gender; the power of symbols and rituals in creating communities; emotional engagement in social life; the influence of role models; royal and dynastic sainthood; warrior saints (and crusading); urban rituals; diversity amid the universality of the Latin liturgy.
Whereas the project adopts traditional skills in archival research, it is also based on expertise in reception theory, hermeneutics and socio-cultural construction, performativity theory, the history of daily life, mnemonics, mentalities and cultural memory. The sources studied cross a wide variety of visual, written and musical resources.
Further information: CULTICSYMBOLS website
Project Leader: Dr. Nils Holger Petersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Principal Investigators:
- Dr Roman Hankeln, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- Prof. Gerhard Jaritz, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
- Dr Anu Mänd, Tallinn University, Estonia
Associated Partner:
Prof. Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University (CEU), Hungary
Cuius Regio. An analysis of the cohesive and disruptive forces destining the attachment of groups of persons to and the cohesion within regions as a historical phenomenon. (CURE)
Funded by: ETF, FIST, FCT, GAČR, NURCR, NWO
This project aims at a synthesizing analysis of a group of regions, representing a morphological, typological and historical variety of territorial entities, which will allow a comparison of the cohesive and disruptive dynamics of regions over a period of about 7 centuries.
The approach of the research is historical while the methodologies and topics are derived from - and touch upon - different disciplines. By questioning the regions with the same set of ‘key-elements’ and by concentrating the comparison through a combination of ‘benchmark-moments’ and ‘formative periods’, understanding will be gained of the relative importance of the factors involved in regional cohesion and identification processes.
The project develops a new standard for regional historical research, and increases the relevance of the outcome of this research to other scholars and fields of interest. The ambition is to combine thorough historical research with theoretical insights about regional formation processes. The selected regions are spread over Europe and differ in size, social and ethnic composition, geographical position and geophysical disposition. The project follows the development of the regions from the 12th century when regional clustering becomes apparent, through its maturing and its interaction with the (mainly) supra regional state, until the end of the Ancien Régime. On top of this, it evaluates the ways in which over the last two centuries – roughly since the Congress of Vienna (1815) - these regions acquired new meaning. It will build upon existing regional studies, apply a common methodological framework, and add fundamental analysis of (unedited) primary sources to lead to a better understanding of regional cohesion and dynamics. Deliverables will concern both scholarly publications and dissemination among non-scholars.
Further information: Cuius Regio website.
Project Leader: Prof. Dick de Boer, University of Groningen, Netherlands
Principal Investigators:
Prof. Luís Adão da Fonseca, Universidade Lusiada do Porto, Portugal
Prof. Lenka Bobkova, Universitas Carolina / Charles University, Czech Republic
Dr Anu Mänd, Tallinn University, Estonia
Dr Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu, “1st December 1918” University Alba Iulia, Romania
Prof. Kurt Villads Jensen, University of Southern Denmark
Prof. Roscislaw Zerelik, University of Wroclaw, Poland
Associated Partners:
Prof. Flocel Sabate I Curull, University of Lleida, Spain
Unfamiliarity as signs of European times: scrutinising historical representations of otherness and contemporary daily practices in border regions (Unfamiliarity)
Funded by: AKA, FIST, FWO, NWO
The main objective of this Collaborative Research Project is to unravel how mental barriers for mobility are constructed and deconstructed in the minds of EU inhabitants, how historical commonalities and fractures have an impact on their representations of borders and ‘otherness’ and what influence political plan and media campaigns may have to change representations and create cohesive cross-border regions. It aims to find out what cross-border unfamiliarity means, how its experience changed during the course of time, how this experience still influences contemporary cross-border behavior and why – uncovering historical explanations – experiences have changed and behavior is influenced.
To achieve the objective, the focus will be on an analysis of daily life practices of inhabitants in different ‘old’ and ‘new’ inner, as well as ‘new’ outer, cross-border regions across the EU. Their daily life is seen as expressing representations of cross-border unfamiliarity and (re)producing mental borders – generating either international mobility or immobility. Such a focus will also open insights to promote more international interaction and regional cohesion.
Further information: Unfamiliarity website
Project Leaders:
Dr Martin van der Velde, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
Dr Bas Spierings, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Principal Investigators:
Dr Martin Klatt, University of Southern Denmark
Prof. Peter Scholliers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Prof. James Scott, University of Joensuu, Finland
Associated Partners:
Prof. Alberto Gasparini, University of Trieste, Italy
Dr Szymon Marcinczak, University of Lodz, Poland
