GRK 2840:  Ambivalent Enmity: Dynamics of Antagonism in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East

• Subject Area: History
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468993597

In many parts of the world, antisemitism, antigypsyism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism and other forms of hostility are on the rise. The latest example might be the Russian invasion of Ukraine, historically considered as a “brother nation”. The Research Training Group (RTG) “Ambivalent Enmity” responds to this challenge. It aims to train early career researchers qualified to broaden the emerging field of enmity studies by combining approaches from the social sciences with diverse branches of the humanities. The group breaks new ground by highlighting the ambivalent nature of enmity as a contradictory pattern of emotions, values, and cultural habits that is closely connected to processes of identity formation. The empirically grounded case studies it envisions will be located in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East—three regions that have produced particularly rich and relevant archives—and cover a wide time-span ranging from the medieval period to the present. The scholarly output of the RTG will shift the focus from dissecting the hostile behavior of self-contained actors to analyzing enmity as an essentially relational phenomenon that is shaped in and by transcultural encounters and entanglements. Early career researchers mentored in the RTG will learn to theorize the ambivalent nature of antagonistic relationships in three Research Fields dedicated to the themes of (A) “Knowing the Enemy,” (B) “Staging Enmity,” and (C) “Enemy Contact.” The Research Fields encourage PhD students to explore the topic of enmity from a variety of disciplinary angles by focusing on modes of learning from or about supposed adversaries (A), strategies of representing and remembering enmity (B), and forms of interacting with alleged enemies (C). Supervised by a group of scholars whose range of expertise includes political science, clinical psychology, history, linguistics, literary criticism, art history, philosophy, and area studies, graduates will acquire unique competences that will prepare them for future careers within and beyond academia. Our goal in extending the range of disciplines tackling the global problem of enmity is to train researchers who will be able to contribute to an historically and regionally saturated, empirically informed, and methodologically versatile understanding of one of the most prevalent and intense human relationships past and present. An RTG is the most fitting format for this endeavor because it facilitates intensive communication across disciplinary boundaries within a focused research environment guided by structured training strategies. Building on an excellent track record of internationally visible interdisciplinary graduate training in the humanities and social sciences, the two applying institutions—Heidelberg University and the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg—offer an ideal environment to achieve these goals.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Co-Applicant Institution: Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Tanja Penter
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Johannes Becke; Professorin Dr. Sybille Große; Professorin Dr. Stefanie Gänger; Professor Dr. Hans Harder; Professor Dr. Sebastian Harnisch; Professor Dr. Nikolas Jaspert; Professorin Dr. Monica Juneja; Professor Dr. Joachim Kurtz; Professor Dr. Frederek Musall; Professorin Dr. Ludmilla Novikova, since 2/2024; Professor Dr. Henning Sievert; Professorin Dr. Svenja Taubner