RUB Research School

Dynamiken des Deutens

Doctoral workshop as part of the international DFG conference

From 13-15 November 2024, the international DFG conference :Dynamiken des Deutens. Methoden und Techniken der Schriftauslegung im Spannungsfeld von Laien- und Expertenkultur8 was held under the direction of Prof Dr Rabea Kohnen (Vienna) and Prof Dr Florian Bock (Bochum). The subject was Bible poetry, which functions as a central connection point between religious and secular communication and at the same time reflects the many changes, conflicts, reforms and processes of differentiation in Europe from the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The focus was on four figures: Eve, Solomon, Mary and St Paul. A doctoral student workshop was linked to this conference as a satellite event. The workshop consisted of two parts: a first seminar session on 13 November 2024 and a poster presentation by the doctoral students to the participants of the international DFG conference on 14 November 2024.

The seminar session was scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., i.e. before the actual start of the conference (13.11.24, 2 p.m.), and aimed to allow the doctoral students to get to know each other and network. For this purpose, there was an introduction round in which the doctoral students briefly introduced themselves, their academic careers and their current research projects. This was followed by a discussion round, which represented the second objective of the workshop. Here, a secondary text in theology and German studies, which had been sent to the doctoral students in advance, were discussed. While the theological text defines what is meant by ‘religious knowledge’ and how it is passed on in and through societies,[1] the text from German studies focuses on European Bible poems, tracing their historical context of origin and exemplifying this genre using examples.[2]

In addition to the discussion of the research contributions, extracts from the participants' in-dividual research projects were discussed. For example, an extract from Könemann's von Jerxheim Sunte Marien Wortegarde, the poem that forms the basis of my dissertation, was discussed. The extract under discussion, in which, as in the rest of the poem, soterio-logical knowledge is linked with biblical interpretation, deals with the story of Nebuchadnezzar's dream from the book of Daniel. Contrary to common practice, in the Sunte Marien wortegarde the dream of the Babylonian ruler is not interpreted as referring to the Son of God Jesus, as is usually the case, but to his mother Mary. It was discussed what this interpretation says about the role of Mary and her position in the Christian world of faith. The discussion also referred to two other poems in which Nebuchadnezzar's dream is also given a Marian interpretation. The second part of the doctoral student workshop took place on Thursday, 14 November 2024: the poster presentation to conference participants. For this purpose, the posters of the workshop participants were displayed in the conference room on Thursday morning so that they were visible to the conference guests throughout the day. The actual presentations took place on Thursday evening before the conference dinner at Levarosa. The doctoral students stood in front of their respective posters, while the conference guests went from poster to poster. This gave each doctoral student the opportunity to present their own research project to the international and interdisciplinary conference participants, answer their questions and obtain feedback for their own research. In addition, the conference participants were given stickers for the poster presentation, which they were asked to affix to what they considered to be the three best posters. Finally, Sophie Roßberg, the poster that won the most prizes, received an award on Friday. The end of the conference on Friday 15 November 2024 also marked the end of the doctoral student workshop.


[1] Andreas Holzem: Die Wissensgesellscha5en der Vormoderne. Die Transfer- und Transformationsdynamik des ‘religiösen Wissens’. In: Klaus Ridder u. Steffen Patzold (Hg.): Die Aktualität der Vormoderne. Epochenentwürfe zwischen Alterität und Kontinuität. Berlin 2013, S. 233-265.

[2] Max Wehrli: Sacra Poesis: Bibelepik als europäische Tradition. In: Ders.: Formen mittelalterlichen Erzählens. Zürich 1969, S. 51-71

 

This workshop was oranized by Christof Kleinfelder. If you have any questions about the conference, he will be happy to hear from you via e-mail.