Individual research projects

Federal Ministry of the Interior - Avatare

Forschung

Projekte

Healthy Laughter? A History of Gelotology

Dr. Tizian Zumthurm (1.8.-30.11.2022)
Research project
(in preparation)

Laughter is the best medicine, so it goes. The science behind the saying, however, is not clear at all. Research on laughter – gelotology – has been faced with various difficulties. The project aims to investigate how a scientifically disputed finding has become popular. It does so with a cultural/media studies lens and a history of science lens. In its first part, the project looks at instances where laughing was used in therapy since the early 1970s, for example hospital clowns or humor seminars.

The Media Politics of the Federal Ministry of the Interior after National Socialism

Completed associated PhD project

The objective of this survey was to probe the conflicts, scandals and tensions within the Culture Department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and to arrange them in both the space of interaction of governmental action and the biographical ‘fourfold horizon of expectations’ of the actors, as well as in the traditional models of freedom of speech and the press.

Doppelgänger, Stellvertreter, Avatare: (Posthuman) Bodies in Digital Performances

 Jens Kraushaar

PhD project

The project asks about the substitute function in the various types of avatars that appear as posthuman bodies. The avatar types are examined in three areas (museum as a place of remembrance, art in contemporary contexts, social and societal lifeworld).

COVID-19 memories

Dr. Tizian Zumthurm (1.8.-30.11.2022)
Research project
A platform to collect COVID19 related photos, videos, stories and interviews from/with ordinary people living or working in Luxembourg

The COVID-19 pandemic is an event whose historic dimension is immediately obvious. Comparisons with the Spanish flu at the end of the First World War and the (uniquely Western) assessment that it is the greatest crisis since the Second World War are on everyone’s lips. Luxembourg’s state of emergency has led to unprecedented restrictions in our private and professional lives.

Individual research projects

Federal Ministry of the Interior - Avatare

Forschung

Projekte

Healthy Laughter? A History of Gelotology

Dr. Tizian Zumthurm (1.8.-30.11.2022)
Research project
(in preparation)

Laughter is the best medicine, so it goes. The science behind the saying, however, is not clear at all. Research on laughter – gelotology – has been faced with various difficulties. The project aims to investigate how a scientifically disputed finding has become popular. It does so with a cultural/media studies lens and a history of science lens. In its first part, the project looks at instances where laughing was used in therapy since the early 1970s, for example hospital clowns or humor seminars.

The Media Politics of the Federal Ministry of the Interior after National Socialism

Completed associated PhD project

The objective of this survey was to probe the conflicts, scandals and tensions within the Culture Department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and to arrange them in both the space of interaction of governmental action and the biographical ‘fourfold horizon of expectations’ of the actors, as well as in the traditional models of freedom of speech and the press.

Doppelgänger, Stellvertreter, Avatare: (Posthuman) Bodies in Digital Performances

 Jens Kraushaar

PhD project

The project asks about the substitute function in the various types of avatars that appear as posthuman bodies. The avatar types are examined in three areas (museum as a place of remembrance, art in contemporary contexts, social and societal lifeworld).

COVID-19 memories

Dr. Tizian Zumthurm (1.8.-30.11.2022)
Research project
A platform to collect COVID19 related photos, videos, stories and interviews from/with ordinary people living or working in Luxembourg

The COVID-19 pandemic is an event whose historic dimension is immediately obvious. Comparisons with the Spanish flu at the end of the First World War and the (uniquely Western) assessment that it is the greatest crisis since the Second World War are on everyone’s lips. Luxembourg’s state of emergency has led to unprecedented restrictions in our private and professional lives.