Freiburg Research Training Group "Empires: Dynamic Change, Temporality and Post-imperial Orders" with participation of the ABI

In the Humanities Research Training Group ‘Imperien: Dynamischer Wandel, Temporalität und nachimperiale Ordnungen’ fourteen junior researchers will investigate the transformation of empires from antiquity to the present. The principal investigator is Prof. Dr. Peter Eich from the Department of Ancient History. The Research Training Group is funded by the German Research Association. The ABI is also involved: Andreas Mehler is one of the applicants and possible supervisor. The interdisciplinary group involves History, English and French literary studies, Sociology, Political Science and — through the Eucor collaboration — Islamic Studies. From November 2020 the first six PhD students will set out finding answers to the largely unchartered question of the temporal regimes of empires

How do empires change over time? How does their collapse affect the politics, economies and societies of the states and regions emerging out of them? How do media like films, novels or journals respond to the dissolution of empires? How do they shape post-imperial traditions? Imperial pasts strongly affect contemporary politics and public discourse, as the conflicts in post-colonial Africa show. Eleven professors whose research has revolved around these questions over many years will supervise several innovative research projects of the junior researchers.