Project acronym 1st-principles-discs
Project A First Principles Approach to Accretion Discs
Researcher (PI) Martin Elias Pessah
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary Most celestial bodies, from planets, to stars, to black holes; gain mass during their lives by means of an accretion disc. Understanding the physical processes that determine the rate at which matter accretes and energy is radiated in these discs is vital for unraveling the formation, evolution, and fate of almost every type of object in the Universe. Despite the fact that magnetic fields have been known to be crucial in accretion discs since the early 90’s, the majority of astrophysical questions that depend on the details of how disc accretion proceeds are still being addressed using the “standard” accretion disc model (developed in the early 70’s), where magnetic fields do not play an explicit role. This has prevented us from fully exploring the astrophysical consequences and observational signatures of realistic accretion disc models, leading to a profound disconnect between observations (usually interpreted with the standard paradigm) and modern accretion disc theory and numerical simulations (where magnetic turbulence is crucial). The goal of this proposal is to use several complementary approaches in order to finally move beyond the standard paradigm. This program has two main objectives: 1) Develop the theoretical framework to incorporate magnetic fields, and the ensuing turbulence, into self-consistent accretion disc models, and investigate their observational implications. 2) Investigate transport and radiative processes in collision-less disc regions, where non-thermal radiation originates, by employing a kinetic particle description of the plasma. In order to achieve these goals, we will use, and build upon, state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamic and particle-in-cell codes in conjunction with theoretical modeling. This framework will make it possible to address fundamental questions on stellar and planet formation, binary systems with a compact object, and supermassive black hole feedback in a way that has no counterpart within the standard paradigm.
Summary
Most celestial bodies, from planets, to stars, to black holes; gain mass during their lives by means of an accretion disc. Understanding the physical processes that determine the rate at which matter accretes and energy is radiated in these discs is vital for unraveling the formation, evolution, and fate of almost every type of object in the Universe. Despite the fact that magnetic fields have been known to be crucial in accretion discs since the early 90’s, the majority of astrophysical questions that depend on the details of how disc accretion proceeds are still being addressed using the “standard” accretion disc model (developed in the early 70’s), where magnetic fields do not play an explicit role. This has prevented us from fully exploring the astrophysical consequences and observational signatures of realistic accretion disc models, leading to a profound disconnect between observations (usually interpreted with the standard paradigm) and modern accretion disc theory and numerical simulations (where magnetic turbulence is crucial). The goal of this proposal is to use several complementary approaches in order to finally move beyond the standard paradigm. This program has two main objectives: 1) Develop the theoretical framework to incorporate magnetic fields, and the ensuing turbulence, into self-consistent accretion disc models, and investigate their observational implications. 2) Investigate transport and radiative processes in collision-less disc regions, where non-thermal radiation originates, by employing a kinetic particle description of the plasma. In order to achieve these goals, we will use, and build upon, state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamic and particle-in-cell codes in conjunction with theoretical modeling. This framework will make it possible to address fundamental questions on stellar and planet formation, binary systems with a compact object, and supermassive black hole feedback in a way that has no counterpart within the standard paradigm.
Max ERC Funding
1 793 697 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym 2-3-AUT
Project Surfaces, 3-manifolds and automorphism groups
Researcher (PI) Nathalie Wahl
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2009-StG
Summary The scientific goal of the proposal is to answer central questions related to diffeomorphism groups of manifolds of dimension 2 and 3, and to their deformation invariant analogs, the mapping class groups. While the classification of surfaces has been known for more than a century, their automorphism groups have yet to be fully understood. Even less is known about diffeomorphisms of 3-manifolds despite much interest, and the objects here have only been classified recently, by the breakthrough work of Perelman on the Poincar\'e and geometrization conjectures. In dimension 2, I will focus on the relationship between mapping class groups and topological conformal field theories, with applications to Hochschild homology. In dimension 3, I propose to compute the stable homology of classifying spaces of diffeomorphism groups and mapping class groups, as well as study the homotopy type of the space of diffeomorphisms. I propose moreover to establish homological stability theorems in the wider context of automorphism groups and more general families of groups. The project combines breakthrough methods from homotopy theory with methods from differential and geometric topology. The research team will consist of 3 PhD students, and 4 postdocs, which I will lead.
Summary
The scientific goal of the proposal is to answer central questions related to diffeomorphism groups of manifolds of dimension 2 and 3, and to their deformation invariant analogs, the mapping class groups. While the classification of surfaces has been known for more than a century, their automorphism groups have yet to be fully understood. Even less is known about diffeomorphisms of 3-manifolds despite much interest, and the objects here have only been classified recently, by the breakthrough work of Perelman on the Poincar\'e and geometrization conjectures. In dimension 2, I will focus on the relationship between mapping class groups and topological conformal field theories, with applications to Hochschild homology. In dimension 3, I propose to compute the stable homology of classifying spaces of diffeomorphism groups and mapping class groups, as well as study the homotopy type of the space of diffeomorphisms. I propose moreover to establish homological stability theorems in the wider context of automorphism groups and more general families of groups. The project combines breakthrough methods from homotopy theory with methods from differential and geometric topology. The research team will consist of 3 PhD students, and 4 postdocs, which I will lead.
Max ERC Funding
724 992 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31
Project acronym 3D-PXM
Project 3D Piezoresponse X-ray Microscopy
Researcher (PI) Hugh SIMONS
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Polar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk.
This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage.
For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.
Summary
Polar materials, such as piezoelectrics and ferroelectrics are essential to our modern life, yet they are mostly developed by trial-and-error. Their properties overwhelmingly depend on the defects within them, the majority of which are hidden in the bulk. The road to better materials is via mapping these defects, but our best tool for it – piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) – is limited to surfaces. 3D-PXM aims to revolutionize our understanding by measuring the local structure-property correlations around individual defects buried deep in the bulk.
This is a completely new kind of microscopy enabling 3D maps of local strain and polarization (i.e. piezoresponse) with 10 nm resolution in mm-sized samples. It is novel, multi-scale and fast enough to capture defect dynamics in real time. Uniquely, it is a full-field method that uses a synthetic-aperture approach to improve both resolution and recover the image phase. This phase is then quantitatively correlated to local polarization and strain via a forward model. 3D-PXM combines advances in X-Ray optics, phase recovery and data analysis to create something transformative. In principle, it can achieve spatial resolution comparable to the best coherent X-Ray microscopy methods while being faster, used on larger samples, and without risk of radiation damage.
For the first time, this opens the door to solving how defects influence bulk properties under real-life conditions. 3D-PXM focuses on three types of defects prevalent in polar materials: grain boundaries, dislocations and polar nanoregions. Individually they address major gaps in the state-of-the-art, while together making great strides towards fully understanding defects. This understanding is expected to inform a new generation of multi-scale models that can account for a material’s full heterogeneity. These models are the first step towards abandoning our tradition of trial-and-error, and with this comes the potential for a new era of polar materials.
Max ERC Funding
1 496 941 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym 3S-BTMUC
Project Soft, Slimy, Sliding Interfaces: Biotribological Properties of Mucins and Mucus gels
Researcher (PI) Seunghwan Lee
Host Institution (HI) DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS9, ERC-2010-StG_20091118
Summary Mucins are a family of high-molecular-weight glycoproteins and a major macromolecular constituent in slimy mucus gels that are covering the surface of internal biological tissues. A primary role of mucus gels in biological systems is known to be the protection and lubrication of underlying epithelial cell surfaces. This is intuitively well appreciated by both science community and the public, and yet detailed lubrication properties of mucins and mucus gels have remained largely unexplored to date. Detailed and systematic understanding of the lubrication mechanism of mucus gels is significant from many angles; firstly, lubricity of mucus gels is closely related with fundamental functions of various human organs, such as eye blinking, mastication in oral cavity, swallowing through esophagus, digestion in stomach, breathing through air way and respiratory organs, and thus often indicates the health state of those organs. Furthermore, for the application of various tissue-contacting devices or personal care products, e.g. catheters, endoscopes, and contact lenses, mucus gel layer is the first counter surface that comes into the mechanical and tribological contacts with them. Finally, remarkable lubricating performance by mucins and mucus gels in biological systems may provide many useful and possibly innovative hints in utilizing water as base lubricant for man-made engineering systems. This project thus proposes to carry out a 5 year research program focusing on exploring the lubricity of mucins and mucus gels by combining a broad range of experimental approaches in biology and tribology.
Summary
Mucins are a family of high-molecular-weight glycoproteins and a major macromolecular constituent in slimy mucus gels that are covering the surface of internal biological tissues. A primary role of mucus gels in biological systems is known to be the protection and lubrication of underlying epithelial cell surfaces. This is intuitively well appreciated by both science community and the public, and yet detailed lubrication properties of mucins and mucus gels have remained largely unexplored to date. Detailed and systematic understanding of the lubrication mechanism of mucus gels is significant from many angles; firstly, lubricity of mucus gels is closely related with fundamental functions of various human organs, such as eye blinking, mastication in oral cavity, swallowing through esophagus, digestion in stomach, breathing through air way and respiratory organs, and thus often indicates the health state of those organs. Furthermore, for the application of various tissue-contacting devices or personal care products, e.g. catheters, endoscopes, and contact lenses, mucus gel layer is the first counter surface that comes into the mechanical and tribological contacts with them. Finally, remarkable lubricating performance by mucins and mucus gels in biological systems may provide many useful and possibly innovative hints in utilizing water as base lubricant for man-made engineering systems. This project thus proposes to carry out a 5 year research program focusing on exploring the lubricity of mucins and mucus gels by combining a broad range of experimental approaches in biology and tribology.
Max ERC Funding
1 432 920 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym aCROBAT
Project Circadian Regulation Of Brown Adipose Thermogenesis
Researcher (PI) Zachary Philip Gerhart-Hines
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS4, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Obesity and diabetes have reached pandemic proportions and new therapeutic strategies are critically needed. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), a major source of heat production, possesses significant energy-dissipating capacity and therefore represents a promising target to use in combating these diseases. Recently, I discovered a novel link between circadian rhythm and thermogenic stress in the control of the conserved, calorie-burning functions of BAT. Circadian and thermogenic signaling to BAT incorporates blood-borne hormonal and nutrient cues with direct neuronal input. Yet how these responses coordinately shape BAT energy-expending potential through the regulation of cell surface receptors, metabolic enzymes, and transcriptional effectors is still not understood. My primary goal is to investigate this previously unappreciated network of crosstalk that allows mammals to effectively orchestrate daily rhythms in BAT metabolism, while maintaining their ability to adapt to abrupt changes in energy demand. My group will address this question using gain and loss-of-function in vitro and in vivo studies, newly-generated mouse models, customized physiological phenotyping, and cutting-edge advances in next generation RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. Preliminary, small-scale validations of our methodologies have already yielded a number of novel candidates that may drive key facets of BAT metabolism. Additionally, we will extend our circadian and thermogenic studies into humans to evaluate the translational potential. Our results will advance the fundamental understanding of how daily oscillations in bioenergetic networks establish a framework for the anticipation of and adaptation to environmental challenges. Importantly, we expect that these mechanistic insights will reveal pharmacological targets through which we can unlock evolutionary constraints and harness the energy-expending potential of BAT for the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Summary
Obesity and diabetes have reached pandemic proportions and new therapeutic strategies are critically needed. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), a major source of heat production, possesses significant energy-dissipating capacity and therefore represents a promising target to use in combating these diseases. Recently, I discovered a novel link between circadian rhythm and thermogenic stress in the control of the conserved, calorie-burning functions of BAT. Circadian and thermogenic signaling to BAT incorporates blood-borne hormonal and nutrient cues with direct neuronal input. Yet how these responses coordinately shape BAT energy-expending potential through the regulation of cell surface receptors, metabolic enzymes, and transcriptional effectors is still not understood. My primary goal is to investigate this previously unappreciated network of crosstalk that allows mammals to effectively orchestrate daily rhythms in BAT metabolism, while maintaining their ability to adapt to abrupt changes in energy demand. My group will address this question using gain and loss-of-function in vitro and in vivo studies, newly-generated mouse models, customized physiological phenotyping, and cutting-edge advances in next generation RNA sequencing and mass spectrometry. Preliminary, small-scale validations of our methodologies have already yielded a number of novel candidates that may drive key facets of BAT metabolism. Additionally, we will extend our circadian and thermogenic studies into humans to evaluate the translational potential. Our results will advance the fundamental understanding of how daily oscillations in bioenergetic networks establish a framework for the anticipation of and adaptation to environmental challenges. Importantly, we expect that these mechanistic insights will reveal pharmacological targets through which we can unlock evolutionary constraints and harness the energy-expending potential of BAT for the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 008 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-10-31
Project acronym ADAPT
Project Origins and factors governing adaptation: Insights from experimental evolution and population genomic data
Researcher (PI) Thomas, Martin Jean Bataillon
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2012-StG_20111109
Summary "I propose a systematic study of the type of genetic variation enabling adaptation and factors that limit rates of adaptation in natural populations. New methods will be developed for analysing data from experimental evolution and population genomics. The methods will be applied to state of the art data from both fields. Adaptation is generated by natural selection sieving through heritable variation. Examples of adaptation are available from the fossil record and from extant populations. Genomic studies have supplied many instances of genomic regions exhibiting footprint of natural selection favouring new variants. Despite ample proof that adaptation happens, we know little about beneficial mutations– the raw stuff enabling adaptation. Is adaptation mediated by genetic variation pre-existing in the population, or by variation supplied de novo through mutations? We know even less about what factors limit rates of adaptation. Answers to these questions are crucial for Evolutionary Biology, but also for believable quantifications of the evolutionary potential of populations. Population genetic theory makes predictions and allows inference from the patterns of polymorphism within species and divergence between species. Yet models specifying the fitness effects of mutations are often missing. Fitness landscape models will be mobilized to fill this gap and develop methods for inferring the distribution of fitness effects and factors governing rates of adaptation. Insights into the processes underlying adaptation will thus be gained from experimental evolution and population genomics data. The applicability of insights gained from experimental evolution to comprehend adaptation in nature will be scrutinized. We will unite two very different approaches for studying adaptation. The project will boost our understanding of how selection shapes genomes and open the way for further quantitative tests of theories of adaptation."
Summary
"I propose a systematic study of the type of genetic variation enabling adaptation and factors that limit rates of adaptation in natural populations. New methods will be developed for analysing data from experimental evolution and population genomics. The methods will be applied to state of the art data from both fields. Adaptation is generated by natural selection sieving through heritable variation. Examples of adaptation are available from the fossil record and from extant populations. Genomic studies have supplied many instances of genomic regions exhibiting footprint of natural selection favouring new variants. Despite ample proof that adaptation happens, we know little about beneficial mutations– the raw stuff enabling adaptation. Is adaptation mediated by genetic variation pre-existing in the population, or by variation supplied de novo through mutations? We know even less about what factors limit rates of adaptation. Answers to these questions are crucial for Evolutionary Biology, but also for believable quantifications of the evolutionary potential of populations. Population genetic theory makes predictions and allows inference from the patterns of polymorphism within species and divergence between species. Yet models specifying the fitness effects of mutations are often missing. Fitness landscape models will be mobilized to fill this gap and develop methods for inferring the distribution of fitness effects and factors governing rates of adaptation. Insights into the processes underlying adaptation will thus be gained from experimental evolution and population genomics data. The applicability of insights gained from experimental evolution to comprehend adaptation in nature will be scrutinized. We will unite two very different approaches for studying adaptation. The project will boost our understanding of how selection shapes genomes and open the way for further quantitative tests of theories of adaptation."
Max ERC Funding
1 159 857 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31
Project acronym ALLQUANTUM
Project All-solid-state quantum electrodynamics in photonic crystals
Researcher (PI) Peter Lodahl
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary In quantum electrodynamics a range of fundamental processes are driven by omnipresent vacuum fluctuations. Photonic crystals can control vacuum fluctuations and thereby the fundamental interaction between light and matter. We will conduct experiments on quantum dots in photonic crystals and observe novel quantum electrodynamics effects including fractional decay and the modified Lamb shift. Furthermore, photonic crystals will be explored for shielding sensitive quantum-superposition states against decoherence.
Defects in photonic crystals allow novel functionalities enabling nanocavities and waveguides. We will use the tight confinement of light in a nanocavity to entangle a quantum dot and a photon, and explore the scalability. Controlled ways of generating scalable and robust quantum entanglement is the essential missing link limiting quantum communication and quantum computing. A single quantum dot coupled to a slowly propagating mode in a photonic crystal waveguide will be used to induce large nonlinearities at the few-photon level.
Finally we will explore a novel route to enhanced light-matter interaction employing controlled disorder in photonic crystals. In disordered media multiple scattering of light takes place and can lead to the formation of Anderson-localized modes. We will explore cavity quantum electrodynamics in Anderson-localized random cavities considering disorder a resource and not a nuisance, which is the traditional view.
The main focus of the project will be on optical experiments, but fabrication of photonic crystals and detailed theory will be carried out as well. Several of the proposed experiments will constitute milestones in quantum optics and may pave the way for all-solid-state quantum communication with quantum dots in photonic crystals.
Summary
In quantum electrodynamics a range of fundamental processes are driven by omnipresent vacuum fluctuations. Photonic crystals can control vacuum fluctuations and thereby the fundamental interaction between light and matter. We will conduct experiments on quantum dots in photonic crystals and observe novel quantum electrodynamics effects including fractional decay and the modified Lamb shift. Furthermore, photonic crystals will be explored for shielding sensitive quantum-superposition states against decoherence.
Defects in photonic crystals allow novel functionalities enabling nanocavities and waveguides. We will use the tight confinement of light in a nanocavity to entangle a quantum dot and a photon, and explore the scalability. Controlled ways of generating scalable and robust quantum entanglement is the essential missing link limiting quantum communication and quantum computing. A single quantum dot coupled to a slowly propagating mode in a photonic crystal waveguide will be used to induce large nonlinearities at the few-photon level.
Finally we will explore a novel route to enhanced light-matter interaction employing controlled disorder in photonic crystals. In disordered media multiple scattering of light takes place and can lead to the formation of Anderson-localized modes. We will explore cavity quantum electrodynamics in Anderson-localized random cavities considering disorder a resource and not a nuisance, which is the traditional view.
The main focus of the project will be on optical experiments, but fabrication of photonic crystals and detailed theory will be carried out as well. Several of the proposed experiments will constitute milestones in quantum optics and may pave the way for all-solid-state quantum communication with quantum dots in photonic crystals.
Max ERC Funding
1 199 648 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30
Project acronym AMPLITUDES
Project Manifesting the Simplicity of Scattering Amplitudes
Researcher (PI) Jacob BOURJAILY
Host Institution (HI) KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2017-STG
Summary I propose a program of research that may forever change the way that we understand and use quantum field theory to make predictions for experiment. This will be achieved through the advancement of new, constructive frameworks to determine and represent scattering amplitudes in perturbation theory in terms that depend only on observable quantities, make manifest (all) the symmetries of the theory, and which can be efficiently evaluated while minimally spoiling the underlying simplicity of predictions. My research has already led to the discovery and development of several approaches of this kind.
This proposal describes the specific steps required to extend these ideas to more general theories and to higher orders of perturbation theory. Specifically, the plan of research I propose consists of three concrete goals: to fully characterize the discontinuities of loop amplitudes (`on-shell functions') for a broad class of theories; to develop powerful new representations of loop amplitude {\it integrands}, making manifest as much simplicity as possible; and to develop new techniques for loop amplitude {integration} that are compatible with and preserve the symmetries of observable quantities.
Progress toward any one of these objectives would have important theoretical implications and valuable practical applications. In combination, this proposal has the potential to significantly advance the state of the art for both our theoretical understanding and our computational reach for making predictions for experiment.
To achieve these goals, I will pursue a data-driven, `phenomenological' approach—involving the construction of new computational tools, developed in pursuit of concrete computational targets. For this work, my suitability and expertise is amply demonstrated by my research. I have not only played a key role in many of the most important theoretical developments in the past decade, but I have personally built the most powerful computational tools for their
Summary
I propose a program of research that may forever change the way that we understand and use quantum field theory to make predictions for experiment. This will be achieved through the advancement of new, constructive frameworks to determine and represent scattering amplitudes in perturbation theory in terms that depend only on observable quantities, make manifest (all) the symmetries of the theory, and which can be efficiently evaluated while minimally spoiling the underlying simplicity of predictions. My research has already led to the discovery and development of several approaches of this kind.
This proposal describes the specific steps required to extend these ideas to more general theories and to higher orders of perturbation theory. Specifically, the plan of research I propose consists of three concrete goals: to fully characterize the discontinuities of loop amplitudes (`on-shell functions') for a broad class of theories; to develop powerful new representations of loop amplitude {\it integrands}, making manifest as much simplicity as possible; and to develop new techniques for loop amplitude {integration} that are compatible with and preserve the symmetries of observable quantities.
Progress toward any one of these objectives would have important theoretical implications and valuable practical applications. In combination, this proposal has the potential to significantly advance the state of the art for both our theoretical understanding and our computational reach for making predictions for experiment.
To achieve these goals, I will pursue a data-driven, `phenomenological' approach—involving the construction of new computational tools, developed in pursuit of concrete computational targets. For this work, my suitability and expertise is amply demonstrated by my research. I have not only played a key role in many of the most important theoretical developments in the past decade, but I have personally built the most powerful computational tools for their
Max ERC Funding
1 499 695 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym ANINAN
Project An Intersectional Analysis of Ancient Jewish Travel Narratives
Researcher (PI) Elisa Katariina UUSIMaeKI
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2020-STG
Summary ANINAN investigates literary and cultural representations of travel and mobility – the often temporary move of a person from her or his home to another location – in ancient Israelite/Jewish narratives, including selected texts of the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish writings from the Hellenistic and early Roman eras (ca. 300 BCE – 100 CE). The sources, which originate from different parts of the Mediterranean region, are written or preserved in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Ge’ez.
The aim is to understand how human mobility was perceived and/or imagined in Jewish antiquity, including its agents, motives, and outcomes. The main objectives are: (1) to produce a series of case-studies that illustrate the portrayal of human mobility and its social confines in Israelite/Jewish literature; and (2) to compare and theorize the cultural representations of travel in an intersectional frame and, as a result, to provide a ground-breaking interpretative framework for the study of mobility in texts from the human past. The selected intersectional approach is novel and specifically unearths questions of power and social stratification that evidently pertain to (in)voluntary forms of mobility, including the individual profile of the traveller and the social realities that prompted, enabled, or compelled her or his travel in the first place.
The challenge is that we know nothing about the power dynamics of ancient Israelite/Jewish travel accounts. They are expected to reveal striking intersectional concerns, highlighting the complexity of human phenomena such as mobility. While multiple ‘categories of difference’ characterize the travelling agents, mobility also affects and shapes these categories, e.g., by leading the agent to negotiate, refine, or recreate aspects of her or his identity. The narratives also illustrate encounters between the Israelites/Jews and ‘others’, which results in a new understanding of cultural interaction in the ancient eastern Mediterranean.
Summary
ANINAN investigates literary and cultural representations of travel and mobility – the often temporary move of a person from her or his home to another location – in ancient Israelite/Jewish narratives, including selected texts of the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish writings from the Hellenistic and early Roman eras (ca. 300 BCE – 100 CE). The sources, which originate from different parts of the Mediterranean region, are written or preserved in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Ge’ez.
The aim is to understand how human mobility was perceived and/or imagined in Jewish antiquity, including its agents, motives, and outcomes. The main objectives are: (1) to produce a series of case-studies that illustrate the portrayal of human mobility and its social confines in Israelite/Jewish literature; and (2) to compare and theorize the cultural representations of travel in an intersectional frame and, as a result, to provide a ground-breaking interpretative framework for the study of mobility in texts from the human past. The selected intersectional approach is novel and specifically unearths questions of power and social stratification that evidently pertain to (in)voluntary forms of mobility, including the individual profile of the traveller and the social realities that prompted, enabled, or compelled her or his travel in the first place.
The challenge is that we know nothing about the power dynamics of ancient Israelite/Jewish travel accounts. They are expected to reveal striking intersectional concerns, highlighting the complexity of human phenomena such as mobility. While multiple ‘categories of difference’ characterize the travelling agents, mobility also affects and shapes these categories, e.g., by leading the agent to negotiate, refine, or recreate aspects of her or his identity. The narratives also illustrate encounters between the Israelites/Jews and ‘others’, which results in a new understanding of cultural interaction in the ancient eastern Mediterranean.
Max ERC Funding
1 368 977 €
Duration
Start date: 2021-02-01, End date: 2026-01-31
Project acronym ANTHEA
Project Anthropogenic Heathlands: The Social Organization of Past Grazing Landscapes
Researcher (PI) Mette Loevschal
Host Institution (HI) AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Country Denmark
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2019-STG
Summary "In a time of accelerating human-caused ecological catastrophe, questions of organizational resilience have become extremely timely. In bringing the archaeological perspective of a 4200-year timespan, ANTHEA seeks to to radically alter our knowledge of resilient forms of self-organisation in past land-use regimes and human-nature entanglements. Based on seven case study areas, ANTHEA will show how collaborative institutions of common land use were organized in the North European heathland regimes (3200 BC-AD 1000), with a particular emphasis on their earliest emergence, their adaption to internal and external factors as well as their ecological, temporal, spatial, and social fabric. More than 4,000 years ago, farming communities across northern Europe began the first fire-based expansion of naturally occurring heather. Pollen evidence suggests that some of these grazing areas, spanning thousands of hectares, existed until the 18th-19th century. Without frequent intervention and management, anthropogenic heathland will turn into forest. So the survival of these areas suggests the existence of highly specialised forms of social organization with the unique capacity to persist. Still, we know little about the actual stability of these heathlands or what caused their unprecedented resilience. By shifting attention away from seeing institutional robustness as equilibrium, stability and continuity and placing the questions of instability, uncertainty, and areal flexibility at the centre, ANTHEA envisages a new cultural history of heathlands that breaks with rooted ideas of these areas being marginal and underdeveloped. ANTHEA is truly multidisciplinary and links landscape and settlement archaeology with paleoenvironmental modelling, social anthropology and philosophy. Moreover, the project introduces a pioneering theoretical and methodological advancement in the temporality of resilience, to be made usable in contemporary land-use policies. The long-term perspective will allow detailed historical trajectories to be established of how common land-use institutions emerged and reorganized according to changing circumstances, challenging the ""tragedy of the commons"" narrative."
Summary
"In a time of accelerating human-caused ecological catastrophe, questions of organizational resilience have become extremely timely. In bringing the archaeological perspective of a 4200-year timespan, ANTHEA seeks to to radically alter our knowledge of resilient forms of self-organisation in past land-use regimes and human-nature entanglements. Based on seven case study areas, ANTHEA will show how collaborative institutions of common land use were organized in the North European heathland regimes (3200 BC-AD 1000), with a particular emphasis on their earliest emergence, their adaption to internal and external factors as well as their ecological, temporal, spatial, and social fabric. More than 4,000 years ago, farming communities across northern Europe began the first fire-based expansion of naturally occurring heather. Pollen evidence suggests that some of these grazing areas, spanning thousands of hectares, existed until the 18th-19th century. Without frequent intervention and management, anthropogenic heathland will turn into forest. So the survival of these areas suggests the existence of highly specialised forms of social organization with the unique capacity to persist. Still, we know little about the actual stability of these heathlands or what caused their unprecedented resilience. By shifting attention away from seeing institutional robustness as equilibrium, stability and continuity and placing the questions of instability, uncertainty, and areal flexibility at the centre, ANTHEA envisages a new cultural history of heathlands that breaks with rooted ideas of these areas being marginal and underdeveloped. ANTHEA is truly multidisciplinary and links landscape and settlement archaeology with paleoenvironmental modelling, social anthropology and philosophy. Moreover, the project introduces a pioneering theoretical and methodological advancement in the temporality of resilience, to be made usable in contemporary land-use policies. The long-term perspective will allow detailed historical trajectories to be established of how common land-use institutions emerged and reorganized according to changing circumstances, challenging the ""tragedy of the commons"" narrative."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 457 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-08-01, End date: 2025-07-31
