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Research Training Group Practicing Place”: Research secured for the future!
The graduate school “Practicing Place” at the KU Ingolstadt receives DFG funding until 2030. Interdisciplinary research on space and place.
Research Training Group Practicing Place”: Research secured for the future!
On June 16, 2025, the “Practicing Place” graduate school received a significant extension of its funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). This support will be granted until March 31, 2030 and ensures that the college can continue to implement research projects worth approximately 3.8 million euros. It is one of a total of ten graduate colleges funded in Germany and is the first of its kind at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU). reports the KU.
Funding the college was a crucial step on the KU’s path to DFG membership. Focused on exploring the topics of space and place, the college examines the effects of globalization, migration, ecological crises and social polarization. The aim is to view places as dynamic systems that are created and perceived through specific practices.
Interdisciplinarity as key
The research requires interdisciplinary approaches, as topics of place creation and localization have so far been predominantly investigated within individual disciplines. Therefore, disciplines such as literary and cultural studies, sociology, philosophy, geography, art history, history, archeology and theology are involved in the projects. In the upcoming second cohort, which begins in April 2024, ten DFG-funded doctoral positions will be available.
The college includes a postdoctoral researcher, seven university professors and a dozen associated scientists. The extension of the DFG funding enables the integration of a third cohort with an additional ten places, in which doctoral candidates from various countries such as Great Britain, Guatemala, India, Italy, Colombia and Russia will be represented explains the DFG.
Research priorities and final conferences
In the second round of funding, the focus is on analyzing places as possible centers of conflict. The research also includes the role of non-human actors and artistic practices in the design of places. In order to discuss these points in more depth, the conference entitled “Contesting Place – Practices of (Un)Doing” will take place at the KU from June 25th to 27th.
It should also be noted that the DFG supports a total of 214 graduate colleges, including 29 international graduate colleges. On the same day, June 16, 2025, the decision was made to establish 18 new graduate colleges in Bonn, which will be funded with a total volume of around 130 million euros from spring 2026 points out idw-online.