News

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 […]

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.

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).

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 […]

The Research Training Group Contradiction Studies proudly announces the awarding of this year’s DAAD prize to RTG member and doctoral fellow Jody Danard.
Danard receives the DAAD Prize for her outstanding academic achievements and her special social commitment, for which she was nominated by Prof. Dr. Karen Stuve.

On November 29th, an interview and podium training with Emily Laquer from the Aktivistinnen-Agentur took place on the premises of the RTG Contradiction Studies. During this training, the members of the RTG were able to learn how to communicate their scientific findings and research results to the press confidently and assuredly, be it on television, […]

On October 26, 2024, Jonas Trochemowitz presented the results of his dissertation at the Science Slam in the St. Petri Church in Lübeck. The competition offered scientists a stage to present research in an understandable and entertaining way. In addition to Trochemowitz, other participants from various scientific disciplines competed to inspire the audience with exciting […]

At the University of Bremen, the Research Training Group 2686 funded by the German Research Foundation is offering tobe filled as of June 1, 2025 for a fixed term of 3 years—subject to project or funding approval. The interdisciplinary research training group brings together empirical cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, interdisciplinary linguistics, literary studies […]

Between May and July 2024, Prof. Dr. Souleymane Bachir Diagne from Columbia University was a U Bremen WOC International Guest Professor at the Collaborative Research Platform Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) at the University of Bremen. During his stay, RTG Contradiction Studies Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr. Deborah Nyangulu sat down with Diagne in a video interview. Filmed at […]

Our postdoctoral researcher, Deborah Nyangulu, had a wide ranging interview with Senegalese philosopher, Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University and 2024 Worlds of Contradiction visiting professor). The interview ranged from discussing Professor Diagne’s work in philosophy, how to read Léopold Sedar Senghor, revisiting the category of the universal to the place of Africa and pan-africanism in a geopolitical context of a falling imperial order. You can listen to the podcast interview on Spotify, Audible, or Deezer

The panel discussion “Widersprechen gegen das Vergessen. Tschechoslowakische Zwangsarbeiter*innen in der Region Bremen”, that took place in April, with Dr. Šárka Jarská (historian, Živá paměť), Marieke Wist (journalist and historian) and Ksenja Holzmann (historian, Denkort Bunker Valentin), moderated by Klaas Anders (DFG Research Training Group 2686: Contradiction Studies / Bremer Bündnis für deutsch-tschechische Zusammenarbeit e.V.), can be listened to here.

Dr. Katrin Antweiler, ZF-funded researcher at the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research, the DFG Research Training Group 2686 – Contradiction Studies, and founding member of the WoC Lab Pluriversal Memories has been awarded a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Dr. Antweiler is hosted by Dr. Duane Jethro at the Department for African Studies at the University of Cape Town and her research focuses on the role of memory politics in German external cultural policy in South Africa.

The Research Training Group 2686 Contradiction Studies has published a working paper last year. It can be found here.

In a short presentation of 10 Minutes for a lay audience, Jonas Trochemowitz presented his research at the popular-scientific event Science Slam.

After many months of planning, the programme of the conference “Living Archives” Past and Present of Intersectional-Feminist Movements in Theory and Praxis is now available.

The special issue, The Old Drift: Disruption, guest edited by our fellow, Dr. Deborah Nyangulu, in Research in African Literatures is from this week available as open access. All articles in the Issue are free to read and you can access them here.

Contradictions are omnipresent and the identification of contradictions is usually accompanied by the imperative to resolve them. Contradictions can be ascribed to individual actions as well as to social formations. They extend to all areas of life: political orders, academic settings, religious practices and many more fields that are permeated by them. Without contradictions, there […]

In the DFG-funded Research Training Group 2686 “Contradiction Studies – Constellations, Heuristics and Concepts of the Contradictory”, the Faculty 09- Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen is seeking to fill the position of an Academic Coordinator (Salary group 13 TV-L with 100% of the weekly working time: 39.2 hours per week) for the duration of the externally funded project until 30/11/2026. Please finde more Information on the University Homepage.

Join the 21st Conference of the Emerging Scholars Forum of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries! The CfP for the conference on the topic „Territory, Tension, and Taboo: Canada in Crisis“ is now open.
Territory as a historical, legal, geographical, or cultural concept has become an essential interdisciplinary nexus within the field of Canadian Studies. Depending on the context, territory has been described as vast, empty, conquered, annexed, unexplored, constructed, claimed, or imagined, among many other adjectives. This conference aims to explore different aspects of territory through the prism of tension and taboo. This includes territorial tensions which have erupted into public conflicts that dominate(d) popular Canadian discourse (e.g. Oka Crisis, 2022 Freedom Convoy, etc.), or territorial confrontations treated as taboo, concealed, or otherwise obscured by Canada’s international reputation as a welcoming and multicultural nation (e.g. Chinese head tax, history of slavery in Canada, etc.). The conference will feature thematic panels for more advanced projects as well as an open forum for ongoing research projects. We therefore welcome emerging scholars at all levels to share their work on the multifaceted territorial crises occurring within and between many overlapping and contested territories that make up the place now known as Canada.
The conference will take place in person at the University of Bremen on October 10 and 11. Please submit your abstracts by April 30, 2024. More information here.

Dr. Deborah Nyangulu and Dr. Jana Weiss convened the ‚Black Atlantic Affordances. Contested Memory Cultures` conference at the University of Texas at Austin from Feb 23 – 25. The event featured a range of speakers who engaged with, among others, questions of Black freedom, memory cultures, , the Black radical tradition, African diaspora, and digital humanities. Prof. Dr. Ashley D. Farmer (UT Austin) and independent researcher, writer, and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola gave the keynote addresses. The conference also featured a roundtable on the topic of ‚Black Atlantic Affordance and Digital Humanities‘ with speakers Kelly Baker Josephs, Justin Dunnavant,  Amani Morrison, and moderated by Deborah Nyangulu.