Gotha Research Campus kicks off the summer semester

In its lecture programme, the Gotha Research Centre welcomes Professor Iris Därmann (Humboldt University Berlin), who will focus on Phillis Wheatley, the first female poet of the Black Atlantic, on 12 June; Professor Ulrich Groetsch (University of North Alabama), who will reflect on the crowing cock in the Gospel of Luke and its reception in various religious communities on 5 June; and Dr Franziska Schedewie (University of Heidelberg), who on 15 May will focus on the connections between Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach and the Russian tsarist family during the security crisis of 1825. The Gotha Research Centre can be experienced from a completely different angle at this year's Thuringia Day: With the historic “Landschaftshaus”, it now uses one of the oldest parliament buildings in Germany and is therefore taking part in the "Politics Mile", which is organised in May for Thuringia Day near the Friedenstein. Dr Markus Meumann will be offering guided tours of the house on 2 May at 4 pm and 3 May at 11 am. On the other hand, a exhibition on the history of parliamentary democracy will be on display in the courtyard of the research centre from 23 April to 22 May, for which didactic material for school groups is also available. The exhibition can be viewed on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 12 noon (closed on 1 May) or on request.

The Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection is continuing its programme in the summer semester with the "Tuesday Talks" and "Mappings" series. The "Tuesday Talks" will discuss different perspectives on "de-collecting" and cooperate with the lecture series of the same name at the University of Erfurt. Dr Takele Merid Afessa (Addis Ababa University) will speak about the questions and challenges of the "Ethnological Collection of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa)" and this year's Herzog Ernst and Hiob Ludolf Fellows Dr Enali De Biaggi (Université Lyon III), Charlotte Prauß M.A. (University of Giessen) and Dr Teferi Mekonnen Bekele (Addis Ababa University) will also provide insights into their ongoing projects. Both lecture series are organised in cooperation with the Erfurt Professorship for the History of Science, the Göttingen Professorship for Modern History and the project "Cultural Techniques of Collecting".

New dates are also planned for the Gotha Research Library's online lecture series "Gotha Manuscript Talks" in spring. There will also be new events in the "Perthes in dialogue" series . And the Gotha Library Talks will also be continued in the summer semester. On 23 April, they will be held under the title "Screen Culture? New research approaches to the typology and reception of digital exhibition experiences" on 23 April, offering insights into a collaborative project between the research library and Chemnitz University of Technology on the reception of digital exhibitions. Speakers are Dr Martin Siefkes, Julia Pfeiffer M.A. (both Chemnitz) and Dr Hendrikje Carius (Gotha). On 21 May, Dr Erik Liebscher (Leipzig University) and Dr Petra Weigel (Gotha Research Library) will hold a discussion on "Everyday life of the nobility in Gotha around 1800 – The diaries of Christian Georg von Helmolt and Count Karl Heinrich Julius von Salisch". Dr Feras Krimsti and Dr Hendrikje Carius (Gotha) will be in conversation with Dr Asaph Ben-Tov (Hamburg) on 25 June to mark the launch of the digital exhibition "The Orient in Gotha".

All dates for the summer semester can be found in our calendar of events.