DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies Imaginaria of Force : University of Hamburg

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Photo: Luca Palozzi

6 October 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

New Fellow in the Winter Term: Luca Palozzi

We welcome our new fellow Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luca Palozzi at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force«. Luca Palozzi is Associate Professor in the History of Medieval Art at the Università di Pisa. He specializes in medieval Italian art, namely sculpture, with an emphasis on the relationship between art theory and practice; the dialectic...

Photo: Frank Fehrenbach

6 October 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Review: 02.10.2025 »The Forces of Art: Joint Art History Workshop Hamburg, Berlin, and Kyoto 2025«

The workshop with advanced students and doctoral candidates in art history at Kyoto University, co-led by Prof. Kayo Hirakawa and Prof. Jasmin Mersmann (FU Berlin), focused on aspects of power in art between the 9th century (Byzantine manuscripts on the iconoclastic controversy) and the 20th century (Bauhaus), with an...

Photo: QART/Imaginarien der Kraft

30 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Lecture Program in the Winter Term 2025/26

The program of our colloquium lectures in the winter term 2025/26 is online! Starting October 28, 2025, our current fellows will present their research projects. Interested listeners are cordially invited to participate.

Photo: Vera Thomann

17 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

New Fellow in the Winter Term: Vera Thomann

We welcome our new fellow Dr. Vera Thomann at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force«. Vera Thomann is postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for German Studies at the University of Vienna. Her research centers on German- and English-language literature since the nineteenth century, with additional interests in animal studies...

Photo: UHH / Saint Pere

16 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Review: Summer Term 2025

We bid farewell to our Fellows of the Summer Term 2025 and would like to express our appreciation for the stimulating contributions and discussions within our colloquia and lectures.

Photo: Carolin Slickers

15 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Research report: Carolin Slickers: Infinite Infrastructures: Oil's Spatial Relationships in 20th Century Literary Fiction

Carolin Slickers, M.A. was a fellow at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force« from October 2024 to March 2025. A short report on her research on the topic »Infinite Infrastructures: Oil's Spatial Relationships in 20th Century Literary Fiction« is now available online.

Johann Bernhard Basedow: Kupfersammlung zu J. B. Basedows Elementarwerke für die Jugend und ihre Freunde, Berlin und Dessau 1774, Seite 51, Tafel XXI.

Photo: Johann Bernhard Basedow: Kupfersammlung zu J. B. Basedows Elementarwerke für die Jugend und ihre Freunde, Berlin und Dessau 1774, Seite 51, Tafel XXI.

12 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Research report: Claudia Nitschke: Metabolic Dynamics and Private Property in the Long Eighteenth Century: Locke’s Idea of Transformative Forces and Their Reception in German Literature

Prof. Dr. Claudia Nitschke was a fellow at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force« from October 2024 to January 2025. A short report on her research on the topic »Metabolic Dynamics and Private Property in the Long Eighteenth Century: Locke’s Idea of Transformative Forces and Their Reception in German Literature« is now available...

Frans Masereel: Die Stadt (1925), Blätter 9, 32 und 59.

Photo: Frans Masereel Stiftung

1 September 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Research report: Annika Hildebrandt: Aesthetic Class Struggle. Force in Concepts of Workers‘ Poetry around 1900

Dr. Annika Hildebrandt was a fellow at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force« from October 2024 to March 2025. A short report on her research on the topic »Aesthetic Class Struggle. Force in Concepts of Workers‘ Poetry around 1900« is now available online.

Photo: Carolin Rocks

2 July 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Announcement: 15.07.2025 Colloquium with Carolin Rocks: Halt am Wort. Ilse Aichingers existentielle Prosa

Dr. Carolin Rocks will be speaking as part of our Tuesday Jour Fixes on the topic »Halt am Wort. Ilse Aichingers existentielle Prosa«.

Time: Tuesday, July 15, 2025, 4:15 p.m.
Venue: Gorch-Fock-Wall 3, 20354 Hamburg

Registration: caroline.herfert@uni-hamburg.de

Photo: QART/Imaginarien der Kraft

1 July 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Call: Conference 04.–06.06.2026 »Beyond Strength: Imaginaria of Weak Forces in Art, Literature, and Science«, Warburg-Haus, Hamburg

The CAS »Imaginarien der Kraft« (UHH) invites applications for the interdisciplinary Conference »Beyond Strength: Imaginaria of Weak Forces in Art, Literature, and Science«, which will take place from June 4 to 6, 2026 at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg.

Concepts of weakness today are often associated with a pathological or...

Photo: Niklaus Largier

1 July 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Announcement: 08.07.2025 Colloquium with Niklaus Largier: Symbolic Forms – Symbolic Riffs. The Energetic Charge of Symbols

Prof. Dr. Niklaus Largier, fellow at the CAS »Imaginaria of Force« in the summer term 2025, will present his current research project »Symbolic Forms – Symbolic Riffs. The Energetic Charge of Symbols«.

Time: Tuesday, July 8 2025, 4:15 p.m.
Venue: Gorch-Fock-Wall 3, 20354 Hamburg

Registration: caroline.herfert@uni-hamburg.de

Die Tugendkreuzigung, Kloster Wienhausen, ca. 1330

Photo: Corpus Vitrearum Freiburg, Rafael Toussaint

30 June 2025|Imaginarien der Kraft

Call: Workshop 11.12.2025/22.01.2026 »Righteous Violence? Moral Ambivalence in Early Modern Art«, Rom/Hamburg

When is violence morally justified and where does it cross the line into injustice? This pressing contemporary question will be explored through the lens of early modern art in a two-part workshop. The DFG CAS »Imaginaria of Force« at the University of Hamburg and the Bibliotheca Hertziana-Max Planck Institute in Rome are...

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