Welcome to the DFG Research Training Group Contradiction Studies
The international and interdisciplinary Research Training Group (RTG) “Contradiction Studies” at the University of Bremen, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has been exploring the formation, negotiation, and explanatory limitations of contradiction. We start from the assumption that the ordering figure of contradiction which includes the imperative of resolving contradiction often stands in a relationship of tension to experiences of the contradictory in everyday life. read more
News
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Cooperation with the University of the Western Cape on Decentering the Museum and Postcolonial Politics of Memory – Visit of three doctoral students to Bremen
Between the end of November 2023 and mid-January 2024, PhD students Brent Abrahams, Vuyisanani Am and Dean E. Stephanus from the Department of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town were guests in Bremen at the invitation of the DFG Research Training Group 2686: Contradiction Studies – Constellations, Heuristics and…
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It is a Question of Self-Defense: A Conversation to the Up-Coming Event “White But Not Quite”
On April 6, Ivan Kalmar will be a guest at the Theater Bremen with his book “White But Not Quite”. A conversation between Ivan Kalmar and RTG member Klaas Anders can be read on the Theater Bremen’s website (in German). You can find more about the event on the Contradiction Studies website.
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Interview with RTG Member Klaas Anders about the Festival “So macht man Frühling”
The first chairman of the Bremer Alliance for German-Czech Cooperation and RTG member Klaas Anders was interviewed by Radio Prague International about this year’s and ninth edition of the festival “So macht man Frühling”. The entire article with insights into the Czech-German community in Bremen can be read here (in German).
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Exploring Contradictions beyond Contradiction
Recap of the 1st International Conference on Contradiction Studies From February 11 to 14, 2025, the Research Training Group 2686—funded by the German Research Foundation—hosted the 1st International Conference on Contradiction Studies at the University of Bremen titled “Exploring Contradictions beyond Contradiction.” The conference featured a series of engaging keynote lectures, panels, and discussions, aimed…
Publications
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Not (yet) Banned, but Incompatible (Part II). On the Exclusion of AfD Members from a Trade Union
According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the AfD is now “definitely right-wing extremist”. It represents positions that fundamentally contradict fundamental trade union values. In this second part, I will show that the exclusion of AfD members from trade unions is also possible – contrary to what a recent decision…
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Not (yet) Banned, but Incompatible (Part I). On the Incompatibility of the AfD with Trade Unions
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) represents positions that contradict fundamental trade union values. Trade union representation of employees’ interests is not compatible with membership of the AfD. Trade unions can therefore declare the AfD to be an opposing organization by means of an incompatibility resolution and exclude members who are also members of the AfD…
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Disruptive und diskursive Ereignisse. Ein Vorschlag zur Ausdifferenzierung mit Beispielen aus dem feministischen Abtreibungsdiskurs Disruptive und diskursive Ereignisse
Against the backdrop of the notion of disruption, this article scrutinises cur-rent concepts of discursive events and places them in relation to one another. The disrup-tive events derived from this are understood as a subcategory of discursive event. Using the example of the feminist abortion discourse and by analysing practices of contradiction, it is determined…
Events
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Trans*, Gender, Bodies and Sexhormones in Material-Discursive Entanglements
The accessibility to health insurance-funded gender-affirming hormone therapy in Germany is of central importance to many trans* people for their health, safety, and life trajectories. However, the decision about whether they can take hormones through the regular care-system is not in their hands but rather depends on various actors and institutions in the medical, psychotherapeutic,…
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Antifeminismus im digitalen Raum. Der Einsatz von Invektiven und Widersprechen als Mittel der Delegitimierung feministischer Proteste
The lecture is part of the conference “Das geht zu weit!” organized by the research group Diskursmonitor. Linguistic-communicative strategies of legitimizing and delegitimizing protest in public, media and political discourses will be discussed.
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Toolbox #Onboarding
On June 5th, we welcome the second cohort of Doctoral Students to our internal Colloquium aka Toolbox in the Summer Term of 2025, introducing the concepts and methods of Contradiction Studies.
The members of the RTG
The Research Training Group is run by twelve faculty members of the University of Bremen and is a place of interdisciplinary exchange of empirical cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, German and interdisciplinary linguistics, literary studies (Romance literary and cultural studies, North American and postcolonial literary and cultural studies, Medieval and Early Modern German literary studies), law, human geography, political science, history of Eastern Europe, philosophy, and religious studies.
