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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Dissertation published
We warmly congratulate Nelson Sindze Wembe, a Bridge-Postdoc at the RTG 2686, on the publication of his dissertation, titled Longing, Belonging and the Other: Black African Diasporic Literatures across French and Spanish Contexts, by transcript-Verlag.
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Dissertation published
We warmly congratulate Jan Bartsch, a former guest at the RTG 2686, on the publication of his dissertation, titled »Politische Ökologie der Aquaponik – Praktiken der Arbeit, Sorge und Macht in Stoffwechselprozessen des Anthropozäns«, with transcript-Verlag.
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Fellow Yash Gupta Awarded GAPS Graduate Award
We congratulate RTG 2686 Fellow Yash Gupta on receiving the Graduate Award of the Society for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS). The award will be presented in May 2026 as part of this year’s Annual Conference at Osnabrück University. He receives this award for his outstanding Master’s thesis titled “ऐसा कैसा प्यार? / Asexual Intimacies and…
Publications
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Longing and the concept of ›the Other‹: How Black African diasporic identities and belonging are shaped in transnational literary narratives.
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Die Lebensmittelproduktion treibt ökologische Krisen voran: Sie ist energieintensiv, schadstoffreich und eng mit gesellschaftlichen Konflikten verbunden. Technologien wie die Aquaponik versprechen Abhilfe durch geschlossene, nachhaltige Kreisläufe. Doch was, wenn diese Vorstellungen trügerisch sind? Jan Bartsch interpretiert Aquaponik als Stoffwechselapparatur, in der Pflanzen, Fische, Technik und menschliche Arbeit symbiotisch verflochten sind. Dabei nimmt er die Praktiken…
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In this paper, we analyze the term reconciliation as well as Versöhnung in political and religious communication. Against this background, we are interested in how far political as well as religious dimensions of the terms come together, which we describe as a process of conceptual blending. To illustrate our argument, we apply corpus analytic methods…
Events
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2:15–3:00 PM | Clara Müllenmeister — Wider die Norm. Zweifelsfälle referenzieller Geschlechtszuschreibung | Cases of Doubt in Referential Gender Assignment Discussant: Dr. Lesley-Ann Kern (Köln)
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Wer erzählt den Osten – und wessen Perspektiven prägen bis heute unser Bild von Ostdeutschland? Die Geschichte der deutschen Einheit wurde lange vor allem als Ost-West-Erzählung verhandelt. Andere Machtverhältnisse wie Rassismus, Antisemitismus oder Sexismus blieben dabei oft ausgeblendet. Die Erfahrungen von Menschen mit Migrationsgeschichte, Schwarzen Ostdeutschen, den Kindern ehemaliger Vertragsarbeiter*innen und anderen marginalisierten Gruppen fanden…
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Writing an academic thesis is a complex process that presents its own challenges. Dr. Birgit Schreiber, a social researcher, journalist, and coach from Bremen, together with journalist Uwe Buse, will teach how to reliably navigate this process in this two-day workshop, which provides guidance on effective self-coaching. The workshop is offered bilingually (English, German).
The members of the RTG
The Research Training Group is run by thirteen 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.
