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

  • Welcome to the second cohort!

    We warmly welcome the second cohort of DFG-funded and associated doctoral fellows to the Research Training Group 2686: “Contradiction Studies” at the University of Bremen! We’re excited to embark on this three-year journey together, exploring and advancing the concepts and methods of Contradiction Studies. Here’s to inspiring collaborations and fresh perspectives!

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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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Publications

Events

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.

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limits

“Resistance is a democratic right, sometimes a duty. With literature we can find models for this right and think about its limits.”

Gisela Febel
coherence in thought

“The imperative of non-contradiction generally produces a coherence in thought that is often at odds with social complexities.”

Yan Suarsana
earthing

“Geography as a discipline stands for a certain worlding, if not earthing, of contradiction, in both theoretical and pracitcal respect.”

Julia Lossau
prison of difference

“‘Contradiction is the prison of difference‘ writes the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Worlds of Contradiction asks: how can we explain and describe the world without making it more coherent and systematic than it is?”

Michi Knecht
driver

“Contradictions are an important driver of scientific practice and knowledge.”

Norman Sieroka