Project acronym 9 SALT
Project Reassessing Ninth Century Philosophy. A Synchronic Approach to the Logical Traditions
Researcher (PI) Christophe Florian Erismann
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike.
Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
Summary
This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike.
Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
Max ERC Funding
1 998 566 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym AGNES
Project ACTIVE AGEING – RESILIENCE AND EXTERNAL SUPPORT AS MODIFIERS OF THE DISABLEMENT OUTCOME
Researcher (PI) Taina Tuulikki RANTANEN
Host Institution (HI) JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary The goals are 1. To develop a scale assessing the diversity of active ageing with four dimensions that are ability (what people can do), activity (what people do do), ambition (what are the valued activities that people want to do), and autonomy (how satisfied people are with the opportunity to do valued activities); 2. To examine health and physical and psychological functioning as the determinants and social and build environment, resilience and personal skills as modifiers of active ageing; 3. To develop a multicomponent sustainable intervention aiming to promote active ageing (methods: counselling, information technology, help from volunteers); 4. To test the feasibility and effectiveness on the intervention; and 5. To study cohort effects on the phenotypes on the pathway to active ageing.
“If You Can Measure It, You Can Change It.” Active ageing assessment needs conceptual progress, which I propose to do. A quantifiable scale will be developed that captures the diversity of active ageing stemming from the WHO definition of active ageing as the process of optimizing opportunities for health and participation in the society for all people in line with their needs, goals and capacities as they age. I will collect cross-sectional data (N=1000, ages 75, 80 and 85 years) and model the pathway to active ageing with state-of-the art statistical methods. By doing this I will create novel knowledge on preconditions for active ageing. The collected cohort data will be compared to a pre-existing cohort data that was collected 25 years ago to obtain knowledge about changes over time in functioning of older people. A randomized controlled trial (N=200) will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the envisioned intervention promoting active ageing through participation. The project will regenerate ageing research by launching a novel scale, by training young scientists, by creating new concepts and theory development and by producing evidence for active ageing promotion
Summary
The goals are 1. To develop a scale assessing the diversity of active ageing with four dimensions that are ability (what people can do), activity (what people do do), ambition (what are the valued activities that people want to do), and autonomy (how satisfied people are with the opportunity to do valued activities); 2. To examine health and physical and psychological functioning as the determinants and social and build environment, resilience and personal skills as modifiers of active ageing; 3. To develop a multicomponent sustainable intervention aiming to promote active ageing (methods: counselling, information technology, help from volunteers); 4. To test the feasibility and effectiveness on the intervention; and 5. To study cohort effects on the phenotypes on the pathway to active ageing.
“If You Can Measure It, You Can Change It.” Active ageing assessment needs conceptual progress, which I propose to do. A quantifiable scale will be developed that captures the diversity of active ageing stemming from the WHO definition of active ageing as the process of optimizing opportunities for health and participation in the society for all people in line with their needs, goals and capacities as they age. I will collect cross-sectional data (N=1000, ages 75, 80 and 85 years) and model the pathway to active ageing with state-of-the art statistical methods. By doing this I will create novel knowledge on preconditions for active ageing. The collected cohort data will be compared to a pre-existing cohort data that was collected 25 years ago to obtain knowledge about changes over time in functioning of older people. A randomized controlled trial (N=200) will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the envisioned intervention promoting active ageing through participation. The project will regenerate ageing research by launching a novel scale, by training young scientists, by creating new concepts and theory development and by producing evidence for active ageing promotion
Max ERC Funding
2 044 364 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym AlgoFinance
Project Algorithmic Finance: Inquiring into the Reshaping of Financial Markets
Researcher (PI) Christian BORCH
Host Institution (HI) COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Present-day financial markets are turning algorithmic, as market orders are increasingly being executed by fully automated computer algorithms, without any direct human intervention. Although algorithmic finance seems to fundamentally reshape the central dynamics in financial markets, and even though it prompts core sociological questions, it has not yet received any systematic attention. In a pioneering contribution to economic sociology and social studies of finance, ALGOFINANCE aims to understand how and with what consequences the turn to algorithms is changing financial markets. The overall concept and central contributions of ALGOFINANCE are the following: (1) on an intra-firm level, the project examines how the shift to algorithmic finance reshapes the ways in which trading firms operate, and does so by systematically and empirically investigating the reconfiguration of organizational structures and employee subjectivity; (2) on an inter-algorithmic level, it offers a ground-breaking methodology (agent-based modelling informed by qualitative data) to grasp how trading algorithms interact with one another in a fully digital space; and (3) on the level of market sociality, it proposes a novel theorization of how intra-firm and inter-algorithmic dynamics can be conceived of as introducing a particular form of sociality that is characteristic to algorithmic finance: a form of sociality-as-association heuristically analyzed as imitation. None of these three levels have received systematic attention in the state-of-the-art literature. Addressing them will significantly advance the understanding of present-day algorithmic finance in economic sociology. By contributing novel empirical, methodological, and theoretical understandings of the functioning and consequences of algorithms, ALGOFINANCE will pave the way for other research into digital sociology and the broader algorithmization of society.
Summary
Present-day financial markets are turning algorithmic, as market orders are increasingly being executed by fully automated computer algorithms, without any direct human intervention. Although algorithmic finance seems to fundamentally reshape the central dynamics in financial markets, and even though it prompts core sociological questions, it has not yet received any systematic attention. In a pioneering contribution to economic sociology and social studies of finance, ALGOFINANCE aims to understand how and with what consequences the turn to algorithms is changing financial markets. The overall concept and central contributions of ALGOFINANCE are the following: (1) on an intra-firm level, the project examines how the shift to algorithmic finance reshapes the ways in which trading firms operate, and does so by systematically and empirically investigating the reconfiguration of organizational structures and employee subjectivity; (2) on an inter-algorithmic level, it offers a ground-breaking methodology (agent-based modelling informed by qualitative data) to grasp how trading algorithms interact with one another in a fully digital space; and (3) on the level of market sociality, it proposes a novel theorization of how intra-firm and inter-algorithmic dynamics can be conceived of as introducing a particular form of sociality that is characteristic to algorithmic finance: a form of sociality-as-association heuristically analyzed as imitation. None of these three levels have received systematic attention in the state-of-the-art literature. Addressing them will significantly advance the understanding of present-day algorithmic finance in economic sociology. By contributing novel empirical, methodological, and theoretical understandings of the functioning and consequences of algorithms, ALGOFINANCE will pave the way for other research into digital sociology and the broader algorithmization of society.
Max ERC Funding
1 590 036 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym AMBH
Project Ancient Music Beyond Hellenisation
Researcher (PI) Stefan HAGEL
Host Institution (HI) OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory.
The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula.
On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
Summary
From medieval times, Arabic as well as European music was analysed in terms that were inherited from Classical Antiquity and had thus developed in a very different music culture. In spite of recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the latter, whose technicalities we access not only through texts and iconography, but also through instrument finds and surviving notated melodies, its relation to music traditions known from later periods and different places is almost uncharted territory.
The present project explores relations between Hellenic/Hellenistic music as pervaded the theatres and concert halls throughout and beyond the Roman empire, Near Eastern traditions – from the diatonic system emerging from cuneiform sources to the flourishing musical world of the caliphates – and, as far as possible, African musical life south of Egypt as well – a region that maintained close ties both with the Hellenised culture of its northern neighbours and with the Arabian Peninsula.
On the one hand, this demands collaboration between Classical Philology and Arabic Studies, extending methods recently developed within music archaeological research related to the Classical Mediterranean. Arabic writings need to be examined in close reading, using recent insights into the interplay between ancient music theory and practice, in order to segregate the influence of Greek thinking from ideas and facts that must relate to contemporaneous ‘Arabic’ music-making. In this way we hope better to define the relation of this tradition to the ‘Classical world’, potentially breaking free of Orientalising bias informing modern views. On the other hand, the study and reconstruction, virtual and material, of wind instruments of Hellenistic pedigree but found outside the confinements of the Hellenistic ‘heartlands’ may provide evidence of ‘foreign’ tonality employed in those regions – specifically the royal city of Meroë in modern Sudan and the Oxus Temple in modern Tajikistan.
Max ERC Funding
775 959 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym ATOMICAR
Project ATOMic Insight Cavity Array Reactor
Researcher (PI) Peter Christian Kjærgaard VESBORG
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The goal of ATOMICAR is to achieve the ultimate sensitivity limit in heterogeneous catalysis:
Quantitative measurement of chemical turnover on a single catalytic nanoparticle.
Most heterogeneous catalysis occurs on metal nanoparticle in the size range of 3 nm - 10 nm. Model studies have established that there is often a strong coupling between nanoparticle size & shape - and catalytic activity. The strong structure-activity coupling renders it probable that “super-active” nanoparticles exist. However, since there is no way to measure catalytic activity of less than ca 1 million nanoparticles at a time, any super-activity will always be hidden by “ensemble smearing” since one million nanoparticles of exactly identical size and shape cannot be made. The state-of-the-art in catalysis benchmarking is microfabricated flow reactors with mass-spectrometric detection, but the sensitivity of this approach cannot be incrementally improved by six orders of magnitude. This calls for a new measurement paradigm where the activity of a single nanoparticle can be benchmarked – the ultimate limit for catalytic measurement.
A tiny batch reactor is the solution, but there are three key problems: How to seal it; how to track catalytic turnover inside it; and how to see the nanoparticle inside it? Graphene solves all three problems: A microfabricated cavity with a thin SixNy bottom window, a single catalytic nanoparticle inside, and a graphene seal forms a gas tight batch reactor since graphene has zero gas permeability. Catalysis is then tracked as an internal pressure change via the stress & deflection of the graphene seal. Crucially, the electron-transparency of graphene and SixNy enables subsequent transmission electron microscope access with atomic resolution so that active nanoparticles can be studied in full detail.
ATOMICAR will re-define the experimental limits of catalyst benchmarking and lift the field of basic catalysis research into the single-nanoparticle age.
Summary
The goal of ATOMICAR is to achieve the ultimate sensitivity limit in heterogeneous catalysis:
Quantitative measurement of chemical turnover on a single catalytic nanoparticle.
Most heterogeneous catalysis occurs on metal nanoparticle in the size range of 3 nm - 10 nm. Model studies have established that there is often a strong coupling between nanoparticle size & shape - and catalytic activity. The strong structure-activity coupling renders it probable that “super-active” nanoparticles exist. However, since there is no way to measure catalytic activity of less than ca 1 million nanoparticles at a time, any super-activity will always be hidden by “ensemble smearing” since one million nanoparticles of exactly identical size and shape cannot be made. The state-of-the-art in catalysis benchmarking is microfabricated flow reactors with mass-spectrometric detection, but the sensitivity of this approach cannot be incrementally improved by six orders of magnitude. This calls for a new measurement paradigm where the activity of a single nanoparticle can be benchmarked – the ultimate limit for catalytic measurement.
A tiny batch reactor is the solution, but there are three key problems: How to seal it; how to track catalytic turnover inside it; and how to see the nanoparticle inside it? Graphene solves all three problems: A microfabricated cavity with a thin SixNy bottom window, a single catalytic nanoparticle inside, and a graphene seal forms a gas tight batch reactor since graphene has zero gas permeability. Catalysis is then tracked as an internal pressure change via the stress & deflection of the graphene seal. Crucially, the electron-transparency of graphene and SixNy enables subsequent transmission electron microscope access with atomic resolution so that active nanoparticles can be studied in full detail.
ATOMICAR will re-define the experimental limits of catalyst benchmarking and lift the field of basic catalysis research into the single-nanoparticle age.
Max ERC Funding
1 496 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym AYURYOG
Project Medicine, Immortality, Moksha: Entangled Histories of Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy in South Asia
Researcher (PI) Dagmar Wujastyk
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2014-STG
Summary The project will examine the histories of yoga, ayurveda and rasashastra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focussing on the disciplines' health, rejuvenation and longevity practices. The goals of the project are to reveal the entanglements of these historical traditions, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries.
Our hypothesis is that practices aimed at achieving health, rejuvenation and longevity constitute a key area of exchange between the three disciplines, preparing the grounds for a series of important pharmaceutical and technological innovations and also profoundly influencing the discourses of today's medicalized forms of globalized yoga as well as of contemporary institutionalized forms of ayurveda and rasashastra.
Drawing upon the primary historical sources of each respective tradition as well as on fieldwork data, the research team will explore the shared terminology, praxis and theory of these three disciplines. We will examine why, when and how health, rejuvenation and longevity practices were employed; how each discipline’s discourse and practical applications relates to those of the others; and how past encounters and cross-fertilizations impact on contemporary health-related practices in yogic, ayurvedic and alchemists’ milieus.
The five-year project will be based at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University and carried out by an international team of 3 post-doctoral researchers. The research will be grounded in the fields of South Asian studies and social history. An international workshop and an international conference will be organized to present and discuss the research results, which will also be published in peer-reviewed journals, an edited volume, and in individual monographs. A project website will provide open access to all research results.
Summary
The project will examine the histories of yoga, ayurveda and rasashastra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focussing on the disciplines' health, rejuvenation and longevity practices. The goals of the project are to reveal the entanglements of these historical traditions, and to trace the trajectories of their evolution as components of today's global healthcare and personal development industries.
Our hypothesis is that practices aimed at achieving health, rejuvenation and longevity constitute a key area of exchange between the three disciplines, preparing the grounds for a series of important pharmaceutical and technological innovations and also profoundly influencing the discourses of today's medicalized forms of globalized yoga as well as of contemporary institutionalized forms of ayurveda and rasashastra.
Drawing upon the primary historical sources of each respective tradition as well as on fieldwork data, the research team will explore the shared terminology, praxis and theory of these three disciplines. We will examine why, when and how health, rejuvenation and longevity practices were employed; how each discipline’s discourse and practical applications relates to those of the others; and how past encounters and cross-fertilizations impact on contemporary health-related practices in yogic, ayurvedic and alchemists’ milieus.
The five-year project will be based at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at Vienna University and carried out by an international team of 3 post-doctoral researchers. The research will be grounded in the fields of South Asian studies and social history. An international workshop and an international conference will be organized to present and discuss the research results, which will also be published in peer-reviewed journals, an edited volume, and in individual monographs. A project website will provide open access to all research results.
Max ERC Funding
1 416 146 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-06-01, End date: 2020-05-31
Project acronym B2C
Project Beasts to Craft: BioCodicology as a new approach to the study of parchment manuscripts
Researcher (PI) Matthew COLLINS
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary The intention of Beasts to Craft (B2C) is to document the biological and craft records in parchment in order to reveal the entangled histories of animal improvement and parchment production in Europe from 500-1900 AD.
B2C will lay the foundations for a new approach to the the study of parchment manuscripts —biocodicology— which draws evidence from the overlooked first stages in production, the raising of livestock and the preparation of the skins.
1. Parchment is an extraordinary but overlooked high resolution zooarchaeological record and a molecular archive. Livestock genetics is revealing breed diversity and markers of character traits such as fleece quality. B2C will exploit this new-found knowledge, using progressively older dated archival (sheep) parchments to study the history of improvement 1300 - 1900. Visual examination of the skins will search for direct evidence of disease and fleece quality.
2. Craft skills can be read from parchment and, when combined with chemical data and comparison with modern analogues, will produce the first European wide record of the craft from 500-1900. The size and scope of this the parchment archive means it is one of the largest and most highly resolved records of a specialist medieval craft. We will explore how these skills develop and when and where regional patterns appear and decline.
These two remarkable records requires a large interdisciplinary team. However biocodicology draws from and informs upon a wide and diverse spectrum of existing scholarship in conservation, the arts and sciences. A third strand of the project will (i) furnish manuscript scholars with some of the information available to the scribe at time of production (ii) inform and shape attitudes to parchment conservation (iii) provide high resolution biological data on animal management, movement and health and (iv) explore methods to link datasets and promote data reuse.
Summary
The intention of Beasts to Craft (B2C) is to document the biological and craft records in parchment in order to reveal the entangled histories of animal improvement and parchment production in Europe from 500-1900 AD.
B2C will lay the foundations for a new approach to the the study of parchment manuscripts —biocodicology— which draws evidence from the overlooked first stages in production, the raising of livestock and the preparation of the skins.
1. Parchment is an extraordinary but overlooked high resolution zooarchaeological record and a molecular archive. Livestock genetics is revealing breed diversity and markers of character traits such as fleece quality. B2C will exploit this new-found knowledge, using progressively older dated archival (sheep) parchments to study the history of improvement 1300 - 1900. Visual examination of the skins will search for direct evidence of disease and fleece quality.
2. Craft skills can be read from parchment and, when combined with chemical data and comparison with modern analogues, will produce the first European wide record of the craft from 500-1900. The size and scope of this the parchment archive means it is one of the largest and most highly resolved records of a specialist medieval craft. We will explore how these skills develop and when and where regional patterns appear and decline.
These two remarkable records requires a large interdisciplinary team. However biocodicology draws from and informs upon a wide and diverse spectrum of existing scholarship in conservation, the arts and sciences. A third strand of the project will (i) furnish manuscript scholars with some of the information available to the scribe at time of production (ii) inform and shape attitudes to parchment conservation (iii) provide high resolution biological data on animal management, movement and health and (iv) explore methods to link datasets and promote data reuse.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 462 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2023-11-30
Project acronym CALLIOPE
Project voCAL articuLations Of Parliamentary Identity and Empire
Researcher (PI) Josephine HOEGAERTS
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary What did politicians sound like before they were on the radio and television? The fascination with politicians’ vocal characteristics and quirks is often connected to the rise of audio-visual media. But in the age of the printed press, political representatives also had to ‘speak well’ – without recourse to amplification.
Historians and linguists have provided sophisticated understandings of the discursive and aesthetic aspects of politicians’ language, but have largely ignored the importance of the acoustic character of their speech. CALLIOPE studies how vocal performances in parliament have influenced the course of political careers and political decision making in the 19th century. It shows how politicians’ voices helped to define the diverse identities they articulated. In viewing parliament through the lens of audibility, the project offers a new perspective on political representation by reframing how authority was embodied (through performances that were heard, rather than seen). It does so for the Second Chamber in Britain and France, and in dialogue with ‘colonial’ modes of speech in Kolkata and Algiers, which, we argue, exerted considerable influence on European vocal culture.
The project devises an innovative methodological approach to include the sound of the human voice in studies of the past that precede acoustic recording. Adapting methods developed in sound studies and combining them with the tools of political history, the project proposes a new way to analyse parliamentary reporting, while also drawing on a variety of sources that are rarely connected to the history of politics.
The main source material for the study comprise transcripts of parliamentary speech (official reports and renditions by journalists). However, the project also mobilizes educational, satirical and fictional sources to elucidate the convoluted processes that led to the cultivation, exertion, reception and evaluation of a voice ‘fit’ for nineteenth-century politics.
Summary
What did politicians sound like before they were on the radio and television? The fascination with politicians’ vocal characteristics and quirks is often connected to the rise of audio-visual media. But in the age of the printed press, political representatives also had to ‘speak well’ – without recourse to amplification.
Historians and linguists have provided sophisticated understandings of the discursive and aesthetic aspects of politicians’ language, but have largely ignored the importance of the acoustic character of their speech. CALLIOPE studies how vocal performances in parliament have influenced the course of political careers and political decision making in the 19th century. It shows how politicians’ voices helped to define the diverse identities they articulated. In viewing parliament through the lens of audibility, the project offers a new perspective on political representation by reframing how authority was embodied (through performances that were heard, rather than seen). It does so for the Second Chamber in Britain and France, and in dialogue with ‘colonial’ modes of speech in Kolkata and Algiers, which, we argue, exerted considerable influence on European vocal culture.
The project devises an innovative methodological approach to include the sound of the human voice in studies of the past that precede acoustic recording. Adapting methods developed in sound studies and combining them with the tools of political history, the project proposes a new way to analyse parliamentary reporting, while also drawing on a variety of sources that are rarely connected to the history of politics.
The main source material for the study comprise transcripts of parliamentary speech (official reports and renditions by journalists). However, the project also mobilizes educational, satirical and fictional sources to elucidate the convoluted processes that led to the cultivation, exertion, reception and evaluation of a voice ‘fit’ for nineteenth-century politics.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 905 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28
Project acronym CanCoop
Project Understanding the Proximate Mechanisms of
Canine Cooperation
Researcher (PI) Friederike Range
Host Institution (HI) VETERINAERMEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments.
I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour.
CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Summary
Although it is clear that human collaborative skills are exceptional, elucidating similarities and differences of proximate processes underlying cooperative interactions between non-primate and primate taxa may have important implications for our understanding of cooperation in humans and non human-animals via a profound knowledge of 1) socio-cognitive skills as adaptations to specific environments and/or 2) the evolutionary background and origin of our own skills. The closely related wolves and dogs constitute the ideal non-primate model to implement this approach, since cooperation is at the core of their social organization and they are adapted to very different environments.
I propose a series of experiments with wolves (N = 20) and identically raised and kept dogs (N= 20) that will focus on cognitive processes closely linked to the emotional system such as empathy, inequity aversion and delayed gratification that are thought to be involved in triggering and maintaining primate cooperation. In Part 1 of the project, we will investigate whether and to what extent these processes are present in canines, while in Part 2 we will elucidate how they influence partner choice in cooperative interactions. Using social network theory, we will integrate knowledge about animals’ emotional tendencies and cognitive abilities to model canine cooperation. This is an important step towards unifying theoretical and empirical approaches in animal behaviour.
CanCoop incorporates innovative methods and a novel approach that has the potential to elucidate the interactions between proximate and ultimate processes in regard to cooperation. The nature of CanCoop guarantees public and media attention needed for proper societal dissemination of the results, which will be relevant for animal behaviour, social sciences, wildlife and zoo management.
Max ERC Funding
1 295 716 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym CHEMHEAT
Project Chemical Control of Heating and Cooling in Molecular Junctions: Optimizing Function and Stability
Researcher (PI) Gemma Solomon
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary Nanoscale systems binding single molecules, or small numbers of molecules, in conducting junctions show considerable promise for a range of technological applications, from photovoltaics to rectifiers to sensors. These environments differ significantly from the traditional domain of chemical studies involving molecules in solution and the gas phase, necessitating renewed efforts to understand the physical properties of these systems. The objective of this proposal concerns one particular class of physical processes: understanding and controlling local heating in molecular junctions in terms of excitation, dissipation and transfer.
Local heating and dissipation in molecular junctions has long been a concern due to the possibly detrimental impact on device stability and function. More recently there has been increased interest, as these processes underlie both spectroscopic techniques and potential technological applications. Together these issues make an investigation of ways to chemically control local heating in molecular junctions timely and important.
The proposal objective will be addressed through the investigation of three challenges:
- Developing chemical control of local heating in molecular junctions.
- Developing chemical control of heat dissipation in molecular junctions.
- Design of optimal thermoelectric materials.
These three challenges constitute distinct, yet complementary, avenues for investigation with progress in each area supporting the other two. All three challenges build on existing theoretical methods, with the important shift of focus to methods to achieve chemical control. The combination of state-of-the-art computational methods with careful chemical studies promises significant new developments for the area.
Summary
Nanoscale systems binding single molecules, or small numbers of molecules, in conducting junctions show considerable promise for a range of technological applications, from photovoltaics to rectifiers to sensors. These environments differ significantly from the traditional domain of chemical studies involving molecules in solution and the gas phase, necessitating renewed efforts to understand the physical properties of these systems. The objective of this proposal concerns one particular class of physical processes: understanding and controlling local heating in molecular junctions in terms of excitation, dissipation and transfer.
Local heating and dissipation in molecular junctions has long been a concern due to the possibly detrimental impact on device stability and function. More recently there has been increased interest, as these processes underlie both spectroscopic techniques and potential technological applications. Together these issues make an investigation of ways to chemically control local heating in molecular junctions timely and important.
The proposal objective will be addressed through the investigation of three challenges:
- Developing chemical control of local heating in molecular junctions.
- Developing chemical control of heat dissipation in molecular junctions.
- Design of optimal thermoelectric materials.
These three challenges constitute distinct, yet complementary, avenues for investigation with progress in each area supporting the other two. All three challenges build on existing theoretical methods, with the important shift of focus to methods to achieve chemical control. The combination of state-of-the-art computational methods with careful chemical studies promises significant new developments for the area.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 999 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30
