FRANKFURT. “In the humanities, democracy research has led a rather marginal existence to date. We want to change that,” says Professor Johannes Völz, professor of American Studies at Goethe University and spokesperson of the new Research Training Group “Aesthetics of Democracy.” While the practices, rituals, and norms of lived democracy have been researched by the social sciences, its sensory dimension has not. Völz argues that knowledge of the aesthetic-emotional conditions of democratic coexistence is crucial, all the more so as democracies worldwide are increasingly coming under pressure. To him, democracy is centrally concerned with collective negotiations of how to live together. “Democracy is a life form. Its form consists of the negotiation of that very form,” the Research Training Group's proposal states. While the aesthetics of fascism have been thoroughly studied, research on the aesthetics of democracy is scarce, Völz points out.
The new Research Training Group sets out to change that by considering questions like: What – beyond institutions and processes – actually constitutes democracy? How does it manifest in sensory experiences? “As long as we lack knowledge of what exactly defines democratic coexistence, it will be difficult for us to defend democracy,” says Völz. The humanities perspective promises new and unusual insights. For instance, the group's members assume that democratic forms of communal life can also be found in cultural phenomena of authoritarian states – such as in China’s popular culture, where, in the early 2000s, state television casting shows were interpreted and celebrated as democratic practices.
International hub for research on aesthetic and cultural dimensions of democracy
The DFG has pledged nearly €6 million for the first five-year funding period, during which two cohorts of 12 doctoral researchers each will work on related topics. Inaddition to American Studies scholar Völz, who holds Goethe University’s professorship of American Studies with a focus on “Democracy and Aesthetics”, the Research Group’s spokesperson team also includes philosopher Sophie Loidolt from TU Darmstadt, as well as ten additional researchers from a broad range of humanities disciplines, including American Studies, Art History, Comparative Literature, Film and Media Studies, German Studies, Modern History, Philosophy, Scandinavian Studies, and Sinology. The Research Training Group evolved from the network “Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World” at Goethe University’s Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften – Institute for Advanced Studies, with which all participating scholars are affiliated. Eighteen international partner institutions across five continents will cooperate with the group, among them Cornell University (Itahca, NY, USA), École des hautes Ètudes en sciences sociales (Paris, France), and the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa). Moreover, by collaborating with local cultural and political institutions, the doctoral researchers will anchor their projects in civil society. The call for applications will begin in late summer of this year, with the program set to launch in April 2026.
Research Training Group on imaging in the life sciences extended
Goethe University’s interdisciplinary Research Training Group “Interfacing Image Analysis and Molecular Life Sciences” (iMOL) also received a positive DFG funding decision: established in 2020 to train young researchers at the interface of life sciences and computer science, the group will continue its research for another 4.5 years.
The Research Training Group – which also includes the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics – was set up against the backdrop of the rapid development of image processing and analysis methods, including neural networks, as well as the advancement of new microscopy techniques. Thanks to these developments, it is now possible to generate images with impressive information density and a continuously growing range of applications.
“Our Research Training Group focuses on the analysis of microscopy images. We use neural networks to extract and interpret information from highly complex biological datasets obtained through light and electron microscopy,” explains Professor Achilleas Frangakis, the Group's spokesperson and principal investigator of Goethe University Frankfurt's newly approved Cluster of Excellence SCALE. Computer scientists are rarely acquainted with life sciences, while biologists are often unfamiliar with the necessary data processing skills. The iMOL scientific program builds on the computer scientists’ talent and expertise to drive innovative technology development to address hypothesis-driven applications in the life sciences.
Three periodically interlinked research areas
The research program is divided into three key areas: the first focuses on the technological enhancement of microscopy, including the development of specialized neural networks to accelerate data acquisition and improve signal-to-noise ratios. The second area concentrates on applications in the life sciences – such as tissue samples – to generate high-quality image data. The third develops new algorithms for image processing and interpretation, unlocking access to previously inaccessible information.
The interdisciplinary approach is key to success: data analysis feeds back into microscope design and the generation of new hypotheses – creating a closed-loop system. “The life sciences provide the most complex and challenging data, and we are developing outstanding algorithms for their analysis and interpretation,” emphasizes Frangakis. The interdisciplinary skills acquired by the doctoral researchers are in high demand both in academia and in industry.