News

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, the interdisciplinary collaborative research platform Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) is organizing the WOC Contradictions Festival from November 10–14, 2025, in cooperation with the Bremen DFG Research Training Group 2686 Contradiction Studies, the Berlin DFG Research Training Group 2638 Normativity, Critique, Change, the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research (IfS), and the Bremen Senate Chancellery.

RTG member Klaas Anders can currently be heard in two podcasts:
In the podcast of the Institute of History at the University of Bremen, he talks about the migration experiences of signatories of Charter 77 and their new beginnings in Vienna.

He is also a guest on the Radio Prague International podcast, where he discusses the Czechoslovak exile in the Federal Republic of Germany, thereby providing insights into his doctoral project.

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!

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]