Project acronym ABACUS
Project Advancing Behavioral and Cognitive Understanding of Speech
Researcher (PI) Bart De Boer
Host Institution (HI) VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary I intend to investigate what cognitive mechanisms give us combinatorial speech. Combinatorial speech is the ability to make new words using pre-existing speech sounds. Humans are the only apes that can do this, yet we do not know how our brains do it, nor how exactly we differ from other apes. Using new experimental techniques to study human behavior and new computational techniques to model human cognition, I will find out how we deal with combinatorial speech.
The experimental part will study individual and cultural learning. Experimental cultural learning is a new technique that simulates cultural evolution in the laboratory. Two types of cultural learning will be used: iterated learning, which simulates language transfer across generations, and social coordination, which simulates emergence of norms in a language community. Using the two types of cultural learning together with individual learning experiments will help to zero in, from three angles, on how humans deal with combinatorial speech. In addition it will make a methodological contribution by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the three methods.
The computer modeling part will formalize hypotheses about how our brains deal with combinatorial speech. Two models will be built: a high-level model that will establish the basic algorithms with which combinatorial speech is learned and reproduced, and a neural model that will establish in more detail how the algorithms are implemented in the brain. In addition, the models, through increasing understanding of how humans deal with speech, will help bridge the performance gap between human and computer speech recognition.
The project will advance science in four ways: it will provide insight into how our unique ability for using combinatorial speech works, it will tell us how this is implemented in the brain, it will extend the novel methodology of experimental cultural learning and it will create new computer models for dealing with human speech.
Summary
I intend to investigate what cognitive mechanisms give us combinatorial speech. Combinatorial speech is the ability to make new words using pre-existing speech sounds. Humans are the only apes that can do this, yet we do not know how our brains do it, nor how exactly we differ from other apes. Using new experimental techniques to study human behavior and new computational techniques to model human cognition, I will find out how we deal with combinatorial speech.
The experimental part will study individual and cultural learning. Experimental cultural learning is a new technique that simulates cultural evolution in the laboratory. Two types of cultural learning will be used: iterated learning, which simulates language transfer across generations, and social coordination, which simulates emergence of norms in a language community. Using the two types of cultural learning together with individual learning experiments will help to zero in, from three angles, on how humans deal with combinatorial speech. In addition it will make a methodological contribution by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the three methods.
The computer modeling part will formalize hypotheses about how our brains deal with combinatorial speech. Two models will be built: a high-level model that will establish the basic algorithms with which combinatorial speech is learned and reproduced, and a neural model that will establish in more detail how the algorithms are implemented in the brain. In addition, the models, through increasing understanding of how humans deal with speech, will help bridge the performance gap between human and computer speech recognition.
The project will advance science in four ways: it will provide insight into how our unique ability for using combinatorial speech works, it will tell us how this is implemented in the brain, it will extend the novel methodology of experimental cultural learning and it will create new computer models for dealing with human speech.
Max ERC Funding
1 276 620 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
Project acronym AfricanWomen
Project Women in Africa
Researcher (PI) catherine GUIRKINGER
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DE NAMUR ASBL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH1, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Rates of domestic violence and the relative risk of premature death for women are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region. Yet we know remarkably little about the economic forces, incentives and constraints that drive discrimination against women in this region, making it hard to identify policy levers to address the problem. This project will help fill this gap.
I will investigate gender discrimination from two complementary perspectives. First, through the lens of economic history, I will investigate the forces driving trends in women’s relative well-being since slavery. To quantify the evolution of well-being of sub-Saharan women relative to men, I will use three types of historical data: anthropometric indicators (relative height), vital statistics (to compute numbers of missing women), and outcomes of formal and informal family law disputes. I will then investigate how major economic developments and changes in family laws differentially affected women’s welfare across ethnic groups with different norms on women’s roles and rights.
Second, using intra-household economic models, I will provide new insights into domestic violence and gender bias in access to crucial resources in present-day Africa. I will develop a new household model that incorporates gender identity and endogenous outside options to explore the relationship between women’s empowerment and the use of violence. Using the notion of strategic delegation, I will propose a new rationale for the separation of budgets often observed in African households and generate predictions of how improvements in women’s outside options affect welfare. Finally, with first hand data, I will investigate intra-household differences in nutrition and work effort in times of food shortage from the points of view of efficiency and equity. I will use activity trackers as an innovative means of collecting high quality data on work effort and thus overcome data limitations restricting the existing literature
Summary
Rates of domestic violence and the relative risk of premature death for women are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region. Yet we know remarkably little about the economic forces, incentives and constraints that drive discrimination against women in this region, making it hard to identify policy levers to address the problem. This project will help fill this gap.
I will investigate gender discrimination from two complementary perspectives. First, through the lens of economic history, I will investigate the forces driving trends in women’s relative well-being since slavery. To quantify the evolution of well-being of sub-Saharan women relative to men, I will use three types of historical data: anthropometric indicators (relative height), vital statistics (to compute numbers of missing women), and outcomes of formal and informal family law disputes. I will then investigate how major economic developments and changes in family laws differentially affected women’s welfare across ethnic groups with different norms on women’s roles and rights.
Second, using intra-household economic models, I will provide new insights into domestic violence and gender bias in access to crucial resources in present-day Africa. I will develop a new household model that incorporates gender identity and endogenous outside options to explore the relationship between women’s empowerment and the use of violence. Using the notion of strategic delegation, I will propose a new rationale for the separation of budgets often observed in African households and generate predictions of how improvements in women’s outside options affect welfare. Finally, with first hand data, I will investigate intra-household differences in nutrition and work effort in times of food shortage from the points of view of efficiency and equity. I will use activity trackers as an innovative means of collecting high quality data on work effort and thus overcome data limitations restricting the existing literature
Max ERC Funding
1 499 313 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2023-07-31
Project acronym AFRIVAL
Project African river basins: catchment-scale carbon fluxes and transformations
Researcher (PI) Steven Bouillon
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2009-StG
Summary This proposal wishes to fundamentally improve our understanding of the role of tropical freshwater ecosystems in carbon (C) cycling on the catchment scale. It uses an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art proxies such as stable isotope, 14C and biomarker signatures to characterize organic matter, radiogenic isotope signatures to determine particle residence times, as well as field measurements of relevant biogeochemical processes. We focus on tropical systems since there is a striking lack of data on such systems, even though riverine C transport is thought to be disproportionately high in tropical areas. Furthermore, the presence of landscape-scale contrasts in vegetation (in particular, C3 vs. C4 plants) are an important asset in the use of stable isotopes as natural tracers of C cycling processes on this scale. Freshwater ecosystems are an important component in the global C cycle, and the primary link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Recent estimates indicate that ~2 Pg C y-1 (Pg=Petagram) enter freshwater systems, i.e., about twice the estimated global terrestrial C sink. More than half of this is thought to be remineralized before it reaches the coastal zone, and for the Amazon basin this has even been suggested to be ~90% of the lateral C inputs. The question how general these patterns are is a matter of debate, and assessing the mechanisms determining the degree of processing versus transport of organic carbon in lakes and river systems is critical to further constrain their role in the global C cycle. This proposal provides an interdisciplinary approach to describe and quantify catchment-scale C transport and cycling in tropical river basins. Besides conceptual and methodological advances, and a significant expansion of our dataset on C processes in such systems, new data gathered in this project are likely to provide exciting and novel hypotheses on the functioning of freshwater systems and their linkage to the terrestrial C budget.
Summary
This proposal wishes to fundamentally improve our understanding of the role of tropical freshwater ecosystems in carbon (C) cycling on the catchment scale. It uses an unprecedented combination of state-of-the-art proxies such as stable isotope, 14C and biomarker signatures to characterize organic matter, radiogenic isotope signatures to determine particle residence times, as well as field measurements of relevant biogeochemical processes. We focus on tropical systems since there is a striking lack of data on such systems, even though riverine C transport is thought to be disproportionately high in tropical areas. Furthermore, the presence of landscape-scale contrasts in vegetation (in particular, C3 vs. C4 plants) are an important asset in the use of stable isotopes as natural tracers of C cycling processes on this scale. Freshwater ecosystems are an important component in the global C cycle, and the primary link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Recent estimates indicate that ~2 Pg C y-1 (Pg=Petagram) enter freshwater systems, i.e., about twice the estimated global terrestrial C sink. More than half of this is thought to be remineralized before it reaches the coastal zone, and for the Amazon basin this has even been suggested to be ~90% of the lateral C inputs. The question how general these patterns are is a matter of debate, and assessing the mechanisms determining the degree of processing versus transport of organic carbon in lakes and river systems is critical to further constrain their role in the global C cycle. This proposal provides an interdisciplinary approach to describe and quantify catchment-scale C transport and cycling in tropical river basins. Besides conceptual and methodological advances, and a significant expansion of our dataset on C processes in such systems, new data gathered in this project are likely to provide exciting and novel hypotheses on the functioning of freshwater systems and their linkage to the terrestrial C budget.
Max ERC Funding
1 745 262 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2014-09-30
Project acronym AIDA
Project Architectural design In Dialogue with dis-Ability Theoretical and methodological exploration of a multi-sensorial design approach in architecture
Researcher (PI) Ann Heylighen
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2007-StG
Summary This research project is based on the notion that, because of their specific interaction with space, people with particular dis-abilities are able to appreciate spatial qualities or detect misfits in the environment that most architects—or other designers—are not even aware of. This notion holds for sensory dis-abilities such as blindness or visual impairment, but also for mental dis-abilities like autism or Alzheimer’s dementia. The experiences and subsequent insights of these dis-abled people, so it is argued, represent a considerable knowledge resource that would complement and enrich the professional expertise of architects and designers in general. This argument forms the basis for a methodological and theoretical exploration of a multi-sensorial design approach in architecture. On the one hand, a series of retrospective case studies will be conducted to identify and describe the motives and elements that trigger or stimulate architects’ attention for the multi-sensorial spatial experiences of people with dis-abilities when designing spaces. On the other hand, the research project will investigate experimentally in real time to what extent design processes and products in architecture can be enriched by establishing a dialogue between the multi-sensorial ‘knowing-in-action’ of people with dis-abilities and the expertise of professional architects/designers. In this way, the research project aims to develop a more profound understanding of how the concept of Design for All can be realised in architectural practice. At least as important, however, is its contribution to innovation in architecture tout court. The research results are expected to give a powerful impulse to quality improvement of the built environment by stimulating and supporting the development of innovative design concepts.
Summary
This research project is based on the notion that, because of their specific interaction with space, people with particular dis-abilities are able to appreciate spatial qualities or detect misfits in the environment that most architects—or other designers—are not even aware of. This notion holds for sensory dis-abilities such as blindness or visual impairment, but also for mental dis-abilities like autism or Alzheimer’s dementia. The experiences and subsequent insights of these dis-abled people, so it is argued, represent a considerable knowledge resource that would complement and enrich the professional expertise of architects and designers in general. This argument forms the basis for a methodological and theoretical exploration of a multi-sensorial design approach in architecture. On the one hand, a series of retrospective case studies will be conducted to identify and describe the motives and elements that trigger or stimulate architects’ attention for the multi-sensorial spatial experiences of people with dis-abilities when designing spaces. On the other hand, the research project will investigate experimentally in real time to what extent design processes and products in architecture can be enriched by establishing a dialogue between the multi-sensorial ‘knowing-in-action’ of people with dis-abilities and the expertise of professional architects/designers. In this way, the research project aims to develop a more profound understanding of how the concept of Design for All can be realised in architectural practice. At least as important, however, is its contribution to innovation in architecture tout court. The research results are expected to give a powerful impulse to quality improvement of the built environment by stimulating and supporting the development of innovative design concepts.
Max ERC Funding
1 195 385 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-05-01, End date: 2013-10-31
Project acronym ALICE
Project Strange Mirrors, Unsuspected Lessons: Leading Europe to a new way of sharing the world experiences
Researcher (PI) Boaventura De Sousa Santos
Host Institution (HI) CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary Europe sits uncomfortably on the idea that there are no political and cultural alternatives credible enough to respond to the current uneasiness or malaise caused by both a world that is more and more non-European and a Europe that increasingly questions what is European about itself. This project will develop a new grounded theoretical paradigm for contemporary Europe based on two key ideas: the understanding of the world by far exceeds the European understanding of the world; social, political and institutional transformation in Europe may benefit from innovations taking place in regions and countries with which Europe is increasingly interdependent. I will pursue this objective focusing on four main interconnected topics: democratizing democracy, intercultural constitutionalism, the other economy, human rights (right to health in particular).
In a sense that the European challenges are unique but, in one way or another, are being experienced in different corners of the world. The novelty resides in bringing new ideas and experiences into the European conversation, show their relevance to our current uncertainties and aspirations and thereby contribute to face them with new intellectual and political resources. The usefulness and relevance of non-European conceptions and experiences un-thinking the conventional knowledge through two epistemological devices I have developed: the ecology of knowledges and intercultural translation. By resorting to them I will show that there are alternatives but they cannot be made credible and powerful if we go on relying on the modes of theoretical and political thinking that have dominated so far. In other words, the claim put forward by and worked through this project is that in Europe we don’t need alternatives but rather an alternative thinking of alternatives.
Summary
Europe sits uncomfortably on the idea that there are no political and cultural alternatives credible enough to respond to the current uneasiness or malaise caused by both a world that is more and more non-European and a Europe that increasingly questions what is European about itself. This project will develop a new grounded theoretical paradigm for contemporary Europe based on two key ideas: the understanding of the world by far exceeds the European understanding of the world; social, political and institutional transformation in Europe may benefit from innovations taking place in regions and countries with which Europe is increasingly interdependent. I will pursue this objective focusing on four main interconnected topics: democratizing democracy, intercultural constitutionalism, the other economy, human rights (right to health in particular).
In a sense that the European challenges are unique but, in one way or another, are being experienced in different corners of the world. The novelty resides in bringing new ideas and experiences into the European conversation, show their relevance to our current uncertainties and aspirations and thereby contribute to face them with new intellectual and political resources. The usefulness and relevance of non-European conceptions and experiences un-thinking the conventional knowledge through two epistemological devices I have developed: the ecology of knowledges and intercultural translation. By resorting to them I will show that there are alternatives but they cannot be made credible and powerful if we go on relying on the modes of theoretical and political thinking that have dominated so far. In other words, the claim put forward by and worked through this project is that in Europe we don’t need alternatives but rather an alternative thinking of alternatives.
Max ERC Funding
2 423 140 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-07-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym ANXIETY & COGNITION
Project How anxiety transforms human cognition: an Affective Neuroscience perspective
Researcher (PI) Gilles Roger Charles Pourtois
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2007-StG
Summary Anxiety, a state of apprehension or fear, may provoke cognitive or behavioural disorders and eventually lead to serious medical illnesses. The high prevalence of anxiety disorders in our society sharply contrasts with the lack of clear factual knowledge about the corresponding brain mechanisms at the origin of this profound change in the appraisal of the environment. Little is known about how the psychopathological state of anxiety ultimately turns to a medical condition. The core of this proposal is to gain insight in the neural underpinnings of anxiety and disorders related to anxiety using modern human brain-imaging such as scalp EEG and fMRI. I propose to enlighten how anxiety transforms and shapes human cognition and what the neural correlates and time-course of this modulatory effect are. The primary innovation of this project is the systematic use scalp EEG and fMRI in human participants to better understand the neural mechanisms by which anxiety profoundly influences specific cognitive functions, in particular selective attention and decision-making. The goal of this proposal is to precisely determine the exact timing (using scalp EEG), location, size and extent (using fMRI) of anxiety-related modulations on selective attention and decision-making in the human brain. Here I propose to focus on these two specific processes, because they are likely to reveal selective effects of anxiety on human cognition and can thus serve as powerful models to better figure out how anxiety operates in the human brain. Another important aspect of this project is the fact I envision to help bridge the gap in Health Psychology between fundamental research and clinical practice by proposing alternative revalidation strategies for human adult subjects affected by anxiety-related disorders, which could directly exploit the neuro-scientific discoveries generated in this scientific project.
Summary
Anxiety, a state of apprehension or fear, may provoke cognitive or behavioural disorders and eventually lead to serious medical illnesses. The high prevalence of anxiety disorders in our society sharply contrasts with the lack of clear factual knowledge about the corresponding brain mechanisms at the origin of this profound change in the appraisal of the environment. Little is known about how the psychopathological state of anxiety ultimately turns to a medical condition. The core of this proposal is to gain insight in the neural underpinnings of anxiety and disorders related to anxiety using modern human brain-imaging such as scalp EEG and fMRI. I propose to enlighten how anxiety transforms and shapes human cognition and what the neural correlates and time-course of this modulatory effect are. The primary innovation of this project is the systematic use scalp EEG and fMRI in human participants to better understand the neural mechanisms by which anxiety profoundly influences specific cognitive functions, in particular selective attention and decision-making. The goal of this proposal is to precisely determine the exact timing (using scalp EEG), location, size and extent (using fMRI) of anxiety-related modulations on selective attention and decision-making in the human brain. Here I propose to focus on these two specific processes, because they are likely to reveal selective effects of anxiety on human cognition and can thus serve as powerful models to better figure out how anxiety operates in the human brain. Another important aspect of this project is the fact I envision to help bridge the gap in Health Psychology between fundamental research and clinical practice by proposing alternative revalidation strategies for human adult subjects affected by anxiety-related disorders, which could directly exploit the neuro-scientific discoveries generated in this scientific project.
Max ERC Funding
812 986 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-11-01, End date: 2013-10-31
Project acronym ARCHGLASS
Project Archaeometry and Archaeology of Ancient Glass Production as a Source for Ancient Technology and Trade of Raw Materials
Researcher (PI) Patrick Degryse
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2009-StG
Summary In this project, innovative techniques to reconstruct ancient economies are developed and new insights in the trade and processing of mineral raw materials are gained based on interdisciplinary archaeological and archaeometrical research. An innovative methodology for and a practical provenance database of the primary origin of natron glass from the Hellenistic-Roman world will be established. The project investigates both production and consumer sites of glass raw materials using both typo-chronological and archaeometrical (isotope geochemical) study of finished glass artefacts at consumer sites as well as mineralogical and chemical characterisation of raw glass and mineral resources at primary production sites. Suitable sand resources in the locations described by ancient authors will be identified through geological prospecting on the basis of literature review and field work. Sand and flux (natron) deposits will be mineralogically and geochemically characterised and compared to the results of the archaeological and geochemical investigations of the glass. Through integrated typo-chronological and archaeometrical analysis, the possible occurrence of primary production centres of raw glass outside the known locations in Syro-Palestine and Egypt, particularly in North-Africa, Italy, Spain and Gaul will be critically studied. In this way, historical, archaeological and archaeometrical data are combined, developing new interdisciplinary techniques for innovative archaeological interpretation of glass trade in the Hellenistic-Roman world.
Summary
In this project, innovative techniques to reconstruct ancient economies are developed and new insights in the trade and processing of mineral raw materials are gained based on interdisciplinary archaeological and archaeometrical research. An innovative methodology for and a practical provenance database of the primary origin of natron glass from the Hellenistic-Roman world will be established. The project investigates both production and consumer sites of glass raw materials using both typo-chronological and archaeometrical (isotope geochemical) study of finished glass artefacts at consumer sites as well as mineralogical and chemical characterisation of raw glass and mineral resources at primary production sites. Suitable sand resources in the locations described by ancient authors will be identified through geological prospecting on the basis of literature review and field work. Sand and flux (natron) deposits will be mineralogically and geochemically characterised and compared to the results of the archaeological and geochemical investigations of the glass. Through integrated typo-chronological and archaeometrical analysis, the possible occurrence of primary production centres of raw glass outside the known locations in Syro-Palestine and Egypt, particularly in North-Africa, Italy, Spain and Gaul will be critically studied. In this way, historical, archaeological and archaeometrical data are combined, developing new interdisciplinary techniques for innovative archaeological interpretation of glass trade in the Hellenistic-Roman world.
Max ERC Funding
954 960 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31
Project acronym BantuFirst
Project The First Bantu Speakers South of the Rainforest: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Human Migration, Language Spread, Climate Change and Early Farming in Late Holocene Central Africa
Researcher (PI) Koen André G. BOSTOEN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The Bantu Expansion is not only the main linguistic, cultural and demographic process in Late Holocene Africa. It is also one of the most controversial issues in African History that still has political repercussions today. It has sparked debate across the disciplines and far beyond Africanist circles in an attempt to understand how the young Bantu language family (ca. 5000 years) could spread over large parts of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. This massive dispersal is commonly seen as the result of a single migratory macro-event driven by agriculture, but many questions about the movement and subsistence of ancestral Bantu speakers are still open. They can only be answered through real interdisciplinary collaboration. This project will unite researchers with outstanding expertise in African archaeology, archaeobotany and historical linguistics to form a unique cross-disciplinary team that will shed new light on the first Bantu-speaking village communities south of the rainforest. Fieldwork is planned in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Angola that are terra incognita for archaeologists to determine the timing, location and archaeological signature of the earliest villagers and to establish how they interacted with autochthonous hunter-gatherers. Special attention will be paid to archaeobotanical and palaeoenvironmental data to get an idea of their subsistence, diet and habitat. Historical linguistics will be pushed beyond the boundaries of vocabulary-based phylogenetics and open new pathways in lexical reconstruction, especially regarding subsistence and land use of early Bantu speakers. Through interuniversity collaboration archaeozoological, palaeoenvironmental and genetic data and phylogenetic modelling will be brought into the cross-disciplinary approach to acquire a new holistic view on the interconnections between human migration, language spread, climate change and early farming in Late Holocene Central Africa.
Summary
The Bantu Expansion is not only the main linguistic, cultural and demographic process in Late Holocene Africa. It is also one of the most controversial issues in African History that still has political repercussions today. It has sparked debate across the disciplines and far beyond Africanist circles in an attempt to understand how the young Bantu language family (ca. 5000 years) could spread over large parts of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. This massive dispersal is commonly seen as the result of a single migratory macro-event driven by agriculture, but many questions about the movement and subsistence of ancestral Bantu speakers are still open. They can only be answered through real interdisciplinary collaboration. This project will unite researchers with outstanding expertise in African archaeology, archaeobotany and historical linguistics to form a unique cross-disciplinary team that will shed new light on the first Bantu-speaking village communities south of the rainforest. Fieldwork is planned in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Angola that are terra incognita for archaeologists to determine the timing, location and archaeological signature of the earliest villagers and to establish how they interacted with autochthonous hunter-gatherers. Special attention will be paid to archaeobotanical and palaeoenvironmental data to get an idea of their subsistence, diet and habitat. Historical linguistics will be pushed beyond the boundaries of vocabulary-based phylogenetics and open new pathways in lexical reconstruction, especially regarding subsistence and land use of early Bantu speakers. Through interuniversity collaboration archaeozoological, palaeoenvironmental and genetic data and phylogenetic modelling will be brought into the cross-disciplinary approach to acquire a new holistic view on the interconnections between human migration, language spread, climate change and early farming in Late Holocene Central Africa.
Max ERC Funding
1 997 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
Project acronym BANTURIVERS
Project At a Crossroads of Bantu Expansions: Present and Past Riverside Communities in the Congo Basin, from an Integrated Linguistic, Anthropological and Archaeological Perspective
Researcher (PI) Birgit RICQUIER
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The “Bantu Expansion”, a research theme within the precolonial history of Central Africa, unites scholars of different disciplines. Much research is focused on the initial expansions of Bantu subgroups, which are explained as farmers ever looking for new lands and therefore avoiding the rainforest, also in the recent research on the “Savannah Corridor”. We want to study a crossroads of different Bantu expansions in the very heart of the Central-African rainforest, namely the eastern part of the Congo Basin (the Congo River and its tributaries up- and downstream of Kisangani until Bumba and Kindu). The region hosts multiple language groups from Bantu and other origin, complex ethnic identities and people practicing complementary subsistence strategies. Considering that farming is complicated in a rainforest environment, we will investigate the role of rivers in the settlement of these speech communities into the area, both as ways into the forest and as abundant source of animal protein (fish).
The project is multidisciplinary and will apply an integrated linguistic, anthropological and archaeological approach to study both present and past riverside communities in the Congo Basin. Historical comparative linguistics will offer insights into the historical relations between speech communities through language classification and the study of language contact, and will study specialized vocabulary to trace the history of river-related techniques, tools and knowledge. Anthropological research involves extensive fieldwork concerning ethnoecology, trade and/or exchange networks, sociocultural aspects of life at the riverside, and ethnohistory. Archaeologists will conduct surveys in the region of focus to provide a chrono-cultural framework.
Summary
The “Bantu Expansion”, a research theme within the precolonial history of Central Africa, unites scholars of different disciplines. Much research is focused on the initial expansions of Bantu subgroups, which are explained as farmers ever looking for new lands and therefore avoiding the rainforest, also in the recent research on the “Savannah Corridor”. We want to study a crossroads of different Bantu expansions in the very heart of the Central-African rainforest, namely the eastern part of the Congo Basin (the Congo River and its tributaries up- and downstream of Kisangani until Bumba and Kindu). The region hosts multiple language groups from Bantu and other origin, complex ethnic identities and people practicing complementary subsistence strategies. Considering that farming is complicated in a rainforest environment, we will investigate the role of rivers in the settlement of these speech communities into the area, both as ways into the forest and as abundant source of animal protein (fish).
The project is multidisciplinary and will apply an integrated linguistic, anthropological and archaeological approach to study both present and past riverside communities in the Congo Basin. Historical comparative linguistics will offer insights into the historical relations between speech communities through language classification and the study of language contact, and will study specialized vocabulary to trace the history of river-related techniques, tools and knowledge. Anthropological research involves extensive fieldwork concerning ethnoecology, trade and/or exchange networks, sociocultural aspects of life at the riverside, and ethnohistory. Archaeologists will conduct surveys in the region of focus to provide a chrono-cultural framework.
Max ERC Funding
1 427 821 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym BlackBox
Project A collaborative platform to document performance composition: from conceptual structures in the backstage to customizable visualizations in the front-end
Researcher (PI) Carla Maria De Jesus Fernandes
Host Institution (HI) FACULDADE DE CIENCIAS SOCIAIS E HUMANAS DA UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2013-StG
Summary The global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.
Summary
The global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.
Max ERC Funding
1 378 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30
