Project acronym ACCOPT
Project ACelerated COnvex OPTimization
Researcher (PI) Yurii NESTEROV
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary The amazing rate of progress in the computer technologies and telecommunications presents many new challenges for Optimization Theory. New problems are usually very big in size, very special in structure and possibly have a distributed data support. This makes them unsolvable by the standard optimization methods. In these situations, old theoretical models, based on the hidden Black-Box information, cannot work. New theoretical and algorithmic solutions are urgently needed. In this project we will concentrate on development of fast optimization methods for problems of big and very big size. All the new methods will be endowed with provable efficiency guarantees for large classes of optimization problems, arising in practical applications. Our main tool is the acceleration technique developed for the standard Black-Box methods as applied to smooth convex functions. However, we will have to adapt it to deal with different situations.
The first line of development will be based on the smoothing technique as applied to a non-smooth functions. We propose to substantially extend this approach to generate approximate solutions in relative scale. The second line of research will be related to applying acceleration techniques to the second-order methods minimizing functions with sparse Hessians. Finally, we aim to develop fast gradient methods for huge-scale problems. The size of these problems is so big that even the usual vector operations are extremely expensive. Thus, we propose to develop new methods with sublinear iteration costs. In our approach, the main source for achieving improvements will be the proper use of problem structure.
Our overall aim is to be able to solve in a routine way many important problems, which currently look unsolvable. Moreover, the theoretical development of Convex Optimization will reach the state, when there is no gap between theory and practice: the theoretically most efficient methods will definitely outperform any homebred heuristics.
Summary
The amazing rate of progress in the computer technologies and telecommunications presents many new challenges for Optimization Theory. New problems are usually very big in size, very special in structure and possibly have a distributed data support. This makes them unsolvable by the standard optimization methods. In these situations, old theoretical models, based on the hidden Black-Box information, cannot work. New theoretical and algorithmic solutions are urgently needed. In this project we will concentrate on development of fast optimization methods for problems of big and very big size. All the new methods will be endowed with provable efficiency guarantees for large classes of optimization problems, arising in practical applications. Our main tool is the acceleration technique developed for the standard Black-Box methods as applied to smooth convex functions. However, we will have to adapt it to deal with different situations.
The first line of development will be based on the smoothing technique as applied to a non-smooth functions. We propose to substantially extend this approach to generate approximate solutions in relative scale. The second line of research will be related to applying acceleration techniques to the second-order methods minimizing functions with sparse Hessians. Finally, we aim to develop fast gradient methods for huge-scale problems. The size of these problems is so big that even the usual vector operations are extremely expensive. Thus, we propose to develop new methods with sublinear iteration costs. In our approach, the main source for achieving improvements will be the proper use of problem structure.
Our overall aim is to be able to solve in a routine way many important problems, which currently look unsolvable. Moreover, the theoretical development of Convex Optimization will reach the state, when there is no gap between theory and practice: the theoretically most efficient methods will definitely outperform any homebred heuristics.
Max ERC Funding
2 090 038 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym CAFYR
Project Constructing Age for Young Readers
Researcher (PI) Vanessa JOOSEN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Constructing Age for Young Readers (CAFYR)
CAFYR starts from the observations that Europe has recently witnessed a few pertinent crises in intergenerational tension, that age norms and ageism frequently go unchecked and that they are part of children’s socialization. It aims at developing pioneering research for understanding how age is constructed in cultural products. CAFYR focuses on fiction for young readers as a discourse that often naturalizes age norms as part of an engaging story and that is endorsed in educational contexts for contributing to children’s literacy, social and cultural development. The effect of three factors on the construction of age in children’s books is studied: the age of the author, the age of the intended reader, and the age of the real reader.
CAFYR aims to lay bare whether and how the age and aging process of children’s authors affect their construction of the life stages in their works. It will show how various crosswriters shape the stages in life differently for young and adult readers. It considers the age of young readers as varied in its own right, and investigates how age is constructed differently for children of different ages, from preschoolers to adolescents. Finally, it brings together readers of various stages in the life course in a reception study that will help understand how real readers construct age, during the reading process and in dialogue with each other. CAFYR also aims to break new theoretical and methodological ground. It offers an interdisciplinary approach that enriches children’s literature research with concepts and theories from age studies. It combines close reading strategies with distant reading and tools developed for digital text analysis. It provides a platform to people of different stages in life, contributing to their awareness about age, and facilitating and investigating dialogues about age, with the aim of ultimately fostering them more.
Summary
Constructing Age for Young Readers (CAFYR)
CAFYR starts from the observations that Europe has recently witnessed a few pertinent crises in intergenerational tension, that age norms and ageism frequently go unchecked and that they are part of children’s socialization. It aims at developing pioneering research for understanding how age is constructed in cultural products. CAFYR focuses on fiction for young readers as a discourse that often naturalizes age norms as part of an engaging story and that is endorsed in educational contexts for contributing to children’s literacy, social and cultural development. The effect of three factors on the construction of age in children’s books is studied: the age of the author, the age of the intended reader, and the age of the real reader.
CAFYR aims to lay bare whether and how the age and aging process of children’s authors affect their construction of the life stages in their works. It will show how various crosswriters shape the stages in life differently for young and adult readers. It considers the age of young readers as varied in its own right, and investigates how age is constructed differently for children of different ages, from preschoolers to adolescents. Finally, it brings together readers of various stages in the life course in a reception study that will help understand how real readers construct age, during the reading process and in dialogue with each other. CAFYR also aims to break new theoretical and methodological ground. It offers an interdisciplinary approach that enriches children’s literature research with concepts and theories from age studies. It combines close reading strategies with distant reading and tools developed for digital text analysis. It provides a platform to people of different stages in life, contributing to their awareness about age, and facilitating and investigating dialogues about age, with the aim of ultimately fostering them more.
Max ERC Funding
1 400 885 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym COMICS
Project Children in Comics: An Intercultural History from 1865 to Today
Researcher (PI) Maaheen AHMED
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Owing to their visual essence and status as a popular, modern medium, comics – newspaper strips, comics magazines and graphic novels – provide valuable insight into the transformation of collective consciousness. This project advances the hypothesis that children in comics are distinctive embodiments of the complex experience of modernity, channeling and tempering modern anxieties and incarnating the freedom denied to adults. In testing this hypothesis, the project constructs the first intercultural history of children in European comics, tracing the changing conceptualizations of child protagonists in popular comics for both children and adults from the mid-19th century to the present. In doing so, it takes key points in European history as well as the history of comics into account.
Assembling a team of six multilingual researchers, the project uses an interdisciplinary methodology combining comics studies and childhood studies while also incorporating specific insights from cultural studies (history of family life, history of public life, history of the body, affect theory and scholarship on the carnivalesque). This enables the project to analyze the transposition of modern anxieties, conceptualizations of childishness, child-adult power relations, notions of liberty, visualizations of the body, family life, school and public life as well as the presence of affects such as nostalgia and happiness in comics starring children.
The project thus opens up a new field of research lying at the intersection of comics studies and childhood studies and illustrates its potential. In studying popular but often overlooked comics, the project provides crucial historical and analytical material that will shape future comics criticism and the fields associated with childhood studies. Furthermore, the project’s outreach activities will increase collective knowledge about comic strips, which form an important, increasingly visible part of cultural heritage.
Summary
Owing to their visual essence and status as a popular, modern medium, comics – newspaper strips, comics magazines and graphic novels – provide valuable insight into the transformation of collective consciousness. This project advances the hypothesis that children in comics are distinctive embodiments of the complex experience of modernity, channeling and tempering modern anxieties and incarnating the freedom denied to adults. In testing this hypothesis, the project constructs the first intercultural history of children in European comics, tracing the changing conceptualizations of child protagonists in popular comics for both children and adults from the mid-19th century to the present. In doing so, it takes key points in European history as well as the history of comics into account.
Assembling a team of six multilingual researchers, the project uses an interdisciplinary methodology combining comics studies and childhood studies while also incorporating specific insights from cultural studies (history of family life, history of public life, history of the body, affect theory and scholarship on the carnivalesque). This enables the project to analyze the transposition of modern anxieties, conceptualizations of childishness, child-adult power relations, notions of liberty, visualizations of the body, family life, school and public life as well as the presence of affects such as nostalgia and happiness in comics starring children.
The project thus opens up a new field of research lying at the intersection of comics studies and childhood studies and illustrates its potential. In studying popular but often overlooked comics, the project provides crucial historical and analytical material that will shape future comics criticism and the fields associated with childhood studies. Furthermore, the project’s outreach activities will increase collective knowledge about comic strips, which form an important, increasingly visible part of cultural heritage.
Max ERC Funding
1 452 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
Project acronym COSMOS
Project Semiparametric Inference for Complex and Structural Models in Survival Analysis
Researcher (PI) Ingrid VAN KEILEGOM
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary In survival analysis investigators are interested in modeling and analysing the time until an event happens. It often happens that the available data are right censored, which means that only a lower bound of the time of interest is observed. This feature complicates substantially the statistical analysis of this kind of data. The aim of this project is to solve a number of open problems related to time-to-event data, that would represent a major step forward in the area of survival analysis.
The project has three objectives:
[1] Cure models take into account that a certain fraction of the subjects under study will never experience the event of interest. Because of the complex nature of these models, many problems are still open and rigorous theory is rather scarce in this area. Our goal is to fill this gap, which will be a challenging but important task.
[2] Copulas are nowadays widespread in many areas in statistics. However, they can contribute more substantially to resolving a number of the outstanding issues in survival analysis, such as in quantile regression and dependent censoring. Finding answers to these open questions, would open up new horizons for a wide variety of problems.
[3] We wish to develop new methods for doing correct inference in some of the common models in survival analysis in the presence of endogeneity or measurement errors. The present methodology has serious shortcomings, and we would like to propose, develop and validate new methods, that would be a major breakthrough if successful.
The above objectives will be achieved by using mostly semiparametric models. The development of mathematical properties under these models is often a challenging task, as complex tools from the theory on empirical processes and semiparametric efficiency are required. The project will therefore require an innovative combination of highly complex mathematical skills and cutting edge results from modern theory for semiparametric models.
Summary
In survival analysis investigators are interested in modeling and analysing the time until an event happens. It often happens that the available data are right censored, which means that only a lower bound of the time of interest is observed. This feature complicates substantially the statistical analysis of this kind of data. The aim of this project is to solve a number of open problems related to time-to-event data, that would represent a major step forward in the area of survival analysis.
The project has three objectives:
[1] Cure models take into account that a certain fraction of the subjects under study will never experience the event of interest. Because of the complex nature of these models, many problems are still open and rigorous theory is rather scarce in this area. Our goal is to fill this gap, which will be a challenging but important task.
[2] Copulas are nowadays widespread in many areas in statistics. However, they can contribute more substantially to resolving a number of the outstanding issues in survival analysis, such as in quantile regression and dependent censoring. Finding answers to these open questions, would open up new horizons for a wide variety of problems.
[3] We wish to develop new methods for doing correct inference in some of the common models in survival analysis in the presence of endogeneity or measurement errors. The present methodology has serious shortcomings, and we would like to propose, develop and validate new methods, that would be a major breakthrough if successful.
The above objectives will be achieved by using mostly semiparametric models. The development of mathematical properties under these models is often a challenging task, as complex tools from the theory on empirical processes and semiparametric efficiency are required. The project will therefore require an innovative combination of highly complex mathematical skills and cutting edge results from modern theory for semiparametric models.
Max ERC Funding
2 318 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym CRAMIS
Project Critical phenomena in random matrix theory and integrable systems
Researcher (PI) Tom Claeys
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary The main goal of the project is to create a research group on critical phenomena in random matrix theory and integrable systems at the Université Catholique de Louvain, where the PI was recently appointed.
Random matrix ensembles, integrable partial differential equations and Toeplitz determinants will be the main research topics in the project. Those three models show intimate connections and they all share certain properties that are, to a large extent, universal. In the recent past it has been showed that Painlevé equations play an important and universal role in the description of critical behaviour in each of these areas. In random matrix theory, they describe the local correlations between eigenvalues in appropriate double scaling limits; for integrable partial differential equations such as the Korteweg-de Vries equation and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, they arise near points of gradient catastrophe in the small dispersion limit; for Toeplitz determinants they describe phase transitions for underlying models in statistical physics.
The aim of the project is to study new types of critical behaviour and to obtain a better understanding of the remarkable similarities between random matrices on one hand and integrable partial differential equations on the other hand. The focus will be on asymptotic questions, and one of the tools we plan to use is the Deift/Zhou steepest descent method to obtain asymptotics for Riemann-Hilbert problems. Although many of the problems in this project have their origin or motivation in mathematical physics, the proposed techniques are mostly based on complex and classical analysis.
Summary
The main goal of the project is to create a research group on critical phenomena in random matrix theory and integrable systems at the Université Catholique de Louvain, where the PI was recently appointed.
Random matrix ensembles, integrable partial differential equations and Toeplitz determinants will be the main research topics in the project. Those three models show intimate connections and they all share certain properties that are, to a large extent, universal. In the recent past it has been showed that Painlevé equations play an important and universal role in the description of critical behaviour in each of these areas. In random matrix theory, they describe the local correlations between eigenvalues in appropriate double scaling limits; for integrable partial differential equations such as the Korteweg-de Vries equation and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, they arise near points of gradient catastrophe in the small dispersion limit; for Toeplitz determinants they describe phase transitions for underlying models in statistical physics.
The aim of the project is to study new types of critical behaviour and to obtain a better understanding of the remarkable similarities between random matrices on one hand and integrable partial differential equations on the other hand. The focus will be on asymptotic questions, and one of the tools we plan to use is the Deift/Zhou steepest descent method to obtain asymptotics for Riemann-Hilbert problems. Although many of the problems in this project have their origin or motivation in mathematical physics, the proposed techniques are mostly based on complex and classical analysis.
Max ERC Funding
1 130 400 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-08-01, End date: 2017-07-31
Project acronym CUTS
Project Creative Undoing and Textual Scholarship:
A Rapprochement between Genetic Criticism and Scholarly Editing
Researcher (PI) Dirk Van Hulle
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary "In the past few decades, the disciplines of textual scholarship and genetic criticism have insisted on their respective differences. Nonetheless, a rapprochement would be mutually beneficial. The proposed research endeavours to innovate scholarly editing with the combined forces of these two disciplines. Since genetic criticism has objected to the subservient role of manuscript research in textual criticism, the proposed research suggests a reversal of roles: instead of employing manuscript research with a view to making an edition, an electronic edition can be designed in such a way that it becomes a tool for manuscript research and genetic criticism. The research hypothesis is that such a rapprochement can be achieved by means of an approach to textual variants that values creative undoing (ways of de-composing a text as an integral part of composition and literary invention) more than has hitherto been the case in textual scholarship. This change of outlook will be tested by means of the marginalia, notes and manuscripts of an author whose work is paradigmatic for genetic criticism: Samuel Beckett. His manuscripts will serve as a case study to determine the functions of creative undoing in the process of literary invention and its theoretical and practical implications for electronic scholarly editing and the genetic analysis of modern manuscripts. Extrapolating from this case study, the results are employed to tackle a topical issue in European textual scholarship. The envisaged rapprochement between the disciplines of genetic criticism and textual scholarship is the core of this proposal’s endeavour to advance the state of the art in these disciplines by giving shape to a new orientation within scholarly editing."
Summary
"In the past few decades, the disciplines of textual scholarship and genetic criticism have insisted on their respective differences. Nonetheless, a rapprochement would be mutually beneficial. The proposed research endeavours to innovate scholarly editing with the combined forces of these two disciplines. Since genetic criticism has objected to the subservient role of manuscript research in textual criticism, the proposed research suggests a reversal of roles: instead of employing manuscript research with a view to making an edition, an electronic edition can be designed in such a way that it becomes a tool for manuscript research and genetic criticism. The research hypothesis is that such a rapprochement can be achieved by means of an approach to textual variants that values creative undoing (ways of de-composing a text as an integral part of composition and literary invention) more than has hitherto been the case in textual scholarship. This change of outlook will be tested by means of the marginalia, notes and manuscripts of an author whose work is paradigmatic for genetic criticism: Samuel Beckett. His manuscripts will serve as a case study to determine the functions of creative undoing in the process of literary invention and its theoretical and practical implications for electronic scholarly editing and the genetic analysis of modern manuscripts. Extrapolating from this case study, the results are employed to tackle a topical issue in European textual scholarship. The envisaged rapprochement between the disciplines of genetic criticism and textual scholarship is the core of this proposal’s endeavour to advance the state of the art in these disciplines by giving shape to a new orientation within scholarly editing."
Max ERC Funding
1 147 740 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym DigitalMemories
Project We are all Ayotzinapa: The role of Digital Media in the Shaping of Transnational Memories on Disappearance
Researcher (PI) Silvana Mandolessi
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2015-STG
Summary The project seeks to study the role of digital media in the shaping of transnational memories on disappearance. It investigates a novel case that is in process of shaping: the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in September 2014. The role of the new media in getting citizens’ attention and in marking a “turning point” was crucial to the upsurge of a counter-movement against the Mexican government and qualifies the event as significant for the transnational arena.
The groundbreaking aspect of the project consists in proposing a double approach:
a) a theoretical approach in which “disappearance” is considered as a particular crime that becomes a model for analyzing digital memory. Disappearance is a technology that produces a subject with a new ontological status: the disappeared are non-beings, because they are neither alive nor dead. This ontological status transgresses the clear boundaries separating life and death, past, present and future, materiality and immateriality, personal and collective spheres. “Digital memory”, i.e. a memory mediated by digital technology, is also determined by the transgression of the boundaries of given categories
b) a multidisciplinary approach situating Mexico´s case in a long transnational history of disappearance in the Hispanic World, including Argentina and Spain. This longer history seeks to compare disappearance as a mnemonic object developed in the global sphere –in social network sites as blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube– in Mexico and the social performances and artistic representations –literature, photo exhibitions, and films– developed in Spain and Argentina.
The Mexican case represents a paradigm for the redefinition of the relationship between media and memory. The main output of the project will consist in constructing a theoretical model for analyzing digital mnemonic objects in the rise of networked social movements with a transnational scope.
Summary
The project seeks to study the role of digital media in the shaping of transnational memories on disappearance. It investigates a novel case that is in process of shaping: the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in September 2014. The role of the new media in getting citizens’ attention and in marking a “turning point” was crucial to the upsurge of a counter-movement against the Mexican government and qualifies the event as significant for the transnational arena.
The groundbreaking aspect of the project consists in proposing a double approach:
a) a theoretical approach in which “disappearance” is considered as a particular crime that becomes a model for analyzing digital memory. Disappearance is a technology that produces a subject with a new ontological status: the disappeared are non-beings, because they are neither alive nor dead. This ontological status transgresses the clear boundaries separating life and death, past, present and future, materiality and immateriality, personal and collective spheres. “Digital memory”, i.e. a memory mediated by digital technology, is also determined by the transgression of the boundaries of given categories
b) a multidisciplinary approach situating Mexico´s case in a long transnational history of disappearance in the Hispanic World, including Argentina and Spain. This longer history seeks to compare disappearance as a mnemonic object developed in the global sphere –in social network sites as blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube– in Mexico and the social performances and artistic representations –literature, photo exhibitions, and films– developed in Spain and Argentina.
The Mexican case represents a paradigm for the redefinition of the relationship between media and memory. The main output of the project will consist in constructing a theoretical model for analyzing digital mnemonic objects in the rise of networked social movements with a transnational scope.
Max ERC Funding
1 444 125 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-07-01, End date: 2021-06-30
Project acronym EVWRIT
Project Everyday Writing in Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt (I - VIII AD). A Socio-Semiotic Study of Communicative Variation
Researcher (PI) Klaas BENTEIN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary This five-year project aims to generate a paradigm shift in the understanding of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique communication. Non-literary, ‘documentary’ texts from Ancient Egypt such as letters, petitions and contracts have provided and continue to provide a key witness for our knowledge of the administration, education, economy, etc. of Ancient Egypt. This project argues that since documentary texts represent originals, their external characteristics should also be brought into the interpretation: elements such as handwriting, linguistic register or writing material transmit indirect social messages concerning hierarchy, status, and power relations, and can therefore be considered ‘semiotic resources’. The project’s driving hypothesis is that communicative variation – variation that is functionally insignificant but socially significant (e.g. there are ~ there’s ~ it’s a lot of people) – enables the expression of social meaning. The main aim of this project is to analyse the nature of this communicative variation. To this end, a multidisciplinary team of six researchers (one PI, one post-doc, and four PhD’s) will apply recent insights form socio-semiotic and socio-linguistic theory to a corpus of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique documentary texts (I – VIII AD) by means of a three-level approach: (i) an open-access database of annotated documentary texts will be created; (ii) the ‘semiotic potential’ of the different semiotic resources that play a role in documentary writing will be analysed; (iii) the interrelationships between the different semiotic resources will be studied. The project will have a significant scientific impact: (i) it will be the first to offer a holistic perspective towards the ‘meaning’ of documentary texts; (ii) the digital tool will open up new ways to investigate Ancient texts; (iii) it will make an important contribution to current socio-semiotic and socio-linguistic research; (iv) it will provide new insights about humans as social beings.
Summary
This five-year project aims to generate a paradigm shift in the understanding of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique communication. Non-literary, ‘documentary’ texts from Ancient Egypt such as letters, petitions and contracts have provided and continue to provide a key witness for our knowledge of the administration, education, economy, etc. of Ancient Egypt. This project argues that since documentary texts represent originals, their external characteristics should also be brought into the interpretation: elements such as handwriting, linguistic register or writing material transmit indirect social messages concerning hierarchy, status, and power relations, and can therefore be considered ‘semiotic resources’. The project’s driving hypothesis is that communicative variation – variation that is functionally insignificant but socially significant (e.g. there are ~ there’s ~ it’s a lot of people) – enables the expression of social meaning. The main aim of this project is to analyse the nature of this communicative variation. To this end, a multidisciplinary team of six researchers (one PI, one post-doc, and four PhD’s) will apply recent insights form socio-semiotic and socio-linguistic theory to a corpus of Graeco-Roman and Late Antique documentary texts (I – VIII AD) by means of a three-level approach: (i) an open-access database of annotated documentary texts will be created; (ii) the ‘semiotic potential’ of the different semiotic resources that play a role in documentary writing will be analysed; (iii) the interrelationships between the different semiotic resources will be studied. The project will have a significant scientific impact: (i) it will be the first to offer a holistic perspective towards the ‘meaning’ of documentary texts; (ii) the digital tool will open up new ways to investigate Ancient texts; (iii) it will make an important contribution to current socio-semiotic and socio-linguistic research; (iv) it will provide new insights about humans as social beings.
Max ERC Funding
1 476 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym FHiCuNCAG
Project Foundations for Higher and Curved Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry
Researcher (PI) Wendy Joy Lowen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2018-COG
Summary With this research programme, inspired by open problems within noncommutative algebraic geometry (NCAG) as well as by actual developments in algebraic topology, it is our aim to lay out new foundations for NCAG. On the one hand, the categorical approach to geometry put forth in NCAG has seen a wide range of applications both in mathematics and in theoretical physics. On the other hand, algebraic topology has received a vast impetus from the development of higher topos theory by Lurie and others. The current project is aimed at cross-fertilisation between the two subjects, in particular through the development of “higher linear topos theory”. We will approach the higher structure on Hochschild type complexes from two angles. Firstly, focusing on intrinsic incarnations of spaces as large categories, we will use the tensor products developed jointly with Ramos González and Shoikhet to obtain a “large version” of the Deligne conjecture. Secondly, focusing on concrete representations, we will develop new operadic techniques in order to endow complexes like the Gerstenhaber-Schack complex for prestacks (due to Dinh Van-Lowen) and the deformation complexes for monoidal categories and pasting diagrams (due to Shrestha and Yetter) with new combinatorial structure. In another direction, we will move from Hochschild cohomology of abelian categories (in the sense of Lowen-Van den Bergh) to Mac Lane cohomology for exact categories (in the sense of Kaledin-Lowen), extending the scope of NCAG to “non-linear deformations”. One of the mysteries in algebraic deformation theory is the curvature problem: in the process of deformation we are brought to the boundaries of NCAG territory through the introduction of a curvature component which disables the standard approaches to cohomology. Eventually, it is our goal to set up a new framework for NCAG which incorporates curved objects, drawing inspiration from the realm of higher categories.
Summary
With this research programme, inspired by open problems within noncommutative algebraic geometry (NCAG) as well as by actual developments in algebraic topology, it is our aim to lay out new foundations for NCAG. On the one hand, the categorical approach to geometry put forth in NCAG has seen a wide range of applications both in mathematics and in theoretical physics. On the other hand, algebraic topology has received a vast impetus from the development of higher topos theory by Lurie and others. The current project is aimed at cross-fertilisation between the two subjects, in particular through the development of “higher linear topos theory”. We will approach the higher structure on Hochschild type complexes from two angles. Firstly, focusing on intrinsic incarnations of spaces as large categories, we will use the tensor products developed jointly with Ramos González and Shoikhet to obtain a “large version” of the Deligne conjecture. Secondly, focusing on concrete representations, we will develop new operadic techniques in order to endow complexes like the Gerstenhaber-Schack complex for prestacks (due to Dinh Van-Lowen) and the deformation complexes for monoidal categories and pasting diagrams (due to Shrestha and Yetter) with new combinatorial structure. In another direction, we will move from Hochschild cohomology of abelian categories (in the sense of Lowen-Van den Bergh) to Mac Lane cohomology for exact categories (in the sense of Kaledin-Lowen), extending the scope of NCAG to “non-linear deformations”. One of the mysteries in algebraic deformation theory is the curvature problem: in the process of deformation we are brought to the boundaries of NCAG territory through the introduction of a curvature component which disables the standard approaches to cohomology. Eventually, it is our goal to set up a new framework for NCAG which incorporates curved objects, drawing inspiration from the realm of higher categories.
Max ERC Funding
1 171 360 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym GRAPH
Project The Great War and Modern Philosophy
Researcher (PI) Nicolas James Laurent Fernando De Warren
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "The First World War was an unprecedented event of destruction, transformation, and renewal that left no aspect of European culture unchanged. Philosophy proved no exception: the war motivated an historically singular mobilization of philosophers to write about the war during the years of conflict; significant works of philosophy were written during the war years and immediately thereafter; the postwar decades of the 1920s and 1930s witnessed a systematic reconfiguration of the landscape of philosophical thought that still largely defines contemporary philosophy. Surprisingly, while the impact of the war on literature, poetry, and the arts, political thought has been a subject of intense inquiry and interpretation, the significance of the war for modern philosophy remains relatively unexamined, often misunderstood or simply taken for granted.
This project aims at understanding the impact of the Great War on modern philosophy. It aims to chart an original course and establish a new standard for the philosophical study of the relation between the First World War and 20th-century philosophy through a comparative and critical approach to a diverse array of thinkers. Specifically, this project will investigate the hypothesis of whether diverse philosophical responses, direct and indirect, immediately or postponed, can be understood as formulations of different questions posed, or better: catalyzed by the war itself. This project will additionally argue that the very idea that war could reveal, challenge or legitimate cultural or philosophical meaning is itself a legacy of a distinctive kind of war-philosophy produced during the war.
This project will be divided into four sub-projects: (1) ""Philosophy of War and the Wars of Philosophy,""; (2) ""The Philosophy of Language and the Languages of Philosophy""; (3) ""The Care of the Soul""; (4) ""Europe after Europe."""
Summary
"The First World War was an unprecedented event of destruction, transformation, and renewal that left no aspect of European culture unchanged. Philosophy proved no exception: the war motivated an historically singular mobilization of philosophers to write about the war during the years of conflict; significant works of philosophy were written during the war years and immediately thereafter; the postwar decades of the 1920s and 1930s witnessed a systematic reconfiguration of the landscape of philosophical thought that still largely defines contemporary philosophy. Surprisingly, while the impact of the war on literature, poetry, and the arts, political thought has been a subject of intense inquiry and interpretation, the significance of the war for modern philosophy remains relatively unexamined, often misunderstood or simply taken for granted.
This project aims at understanding the impact of the Great War on modern philosophy. It aims to chart an original course and establish a new standard for the philosophical study of the relation between the First World War and 20th-century philosophy through a comparative and critical approach to a diverse array of thinkers. Specifically, this project will investigate the hypothesis of whether diverse philosophical responses, direct and indirect, immediately or postponed, can be understood as formulations of different questions posed, or better: catalyzed by the war itself. This project will additionally argue that the very idea that war could reveal, challenge or legitimate cultural or philosophical meaning is itself a legacy of a distinctive kind of war-philosophy produced during the war.
This project will be divided into four sub-projects: (1) ""Philosophy of War and the Wars of Philosophy,""; (2) ""The Philosophy of Language and the Languages of Philosophy""; (3) ""The Care of the Soul""; (4) ""Europe after Europe."""
Max ERC Funding
1 652 102 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-10-01, End date: 2019-09-30
Project acronym HANDLING
Project Writers handling pictures: a material intermediality (1880-today)
Researcher (PI) anne REVERSEAU
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Not only does the writer’s hand hold the pen, it manipulates pictures as well. Writers touch, hoard, cut, copy, pin and paste various kinds of pictures and these actions integrate literature in visual culture in many ways that have never been tackled as a whole before.
Some writers spent their life surrounded by pictures taken from magazines, creating an inspirational environment; yet others nurtured their imagination with touristic leaflets and visual advertisements; others created fictional characters based on collected portraits. What do writers do with pictures? How does literature stage the pictures handled? From very concrete and banal uses of pictures will emerge a new vision of literature as intermediality in action.
This investigation applies the tool set of visual anthropology and visual studies to writers for a deeper understanding of visual ecosystems. Covering a large period, from the beginning of mass reproduction in the 1880s and the digital practices of today, HANDLING focuses on the French and French-speaking field and stands as a laboratory to refashion a broader model for relationships between image and text. Its main challenge is to get to the root of contemporary iconographic practices.
HANDLING is unconventional because literary studies usually focus on the text: contrary to the norm, it sets the image at the very centre of the literary act. This approach might yield promising results for the visibility of literature in the future, especially in exhibitions. Making these practices visible will make literature itself more visible.
As an internationally recognized specialist of text-image relationships with an in-depth knowledge of French/Belgian literature and photography, I will build a team and lead this 5-year ambitious project. Grounded in interdisciplinarity, it will show the significant and unexpected role of literature in material visual culture.
Summary
Not only does the writer’s hand hold the pen, it manipulates pictures as well. Writers touch, hoard, cut, copy, pin and paste various kinds of pictures and these actions integrate literature in visual culture in many ways that have never been tackled as a whole before.
Some writers spent their life surrounded by pictures taken from magazines, creating an inspirational environment; yet others nurtured their imagination with touristic leaflets and visual advertisements; others created fictional characters based on collected portraits. What do writers do with pictures? How does literature stage the pictures handled? From very concrete and banal uses of pictures will emerge a new vision of literature as intermediality in action.
This investigation applies the tool set of visual anthropology and visual studies to writers for a deeper understanding of visual ecosystems. Covering a large period, from the beginning of mass reproduction in the 1880s and the digital practices of today, HANDLING focuses on the French and French-speaking field and stands as a laboratory to refashion a broader model for relationships between image and text. Its main challenge is to get to the root of contemporary iconographic practices.
HANDLING is unconventional because literary studies usually focus on the text: contrary to the norm, it sets the image at the very centre of the literary act. This approach might yield promising results for the visibility of literature in the future, especially in exhibitions. Making these practices visible will make literature itself more visible.
As an internationally recognized specialist of text-image relationships with an in-depth knowledge of French/Belgian literature and photography, I will build a team and lead this 5-year ambitious project. Grounded in interdisciplinarity, it will show the significant and unexpected role of literature in material visual culture.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30
Project acronym HHNCDMIR
Project Hochschild cohomology, non-commutative deformations and mirror symmetry
Researcher (PI) Wendy Lowen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary "Our research programme addresses several interesting current issues in non-commutative algebraic geometry, and important links with symplectic geometry and algebraic topology. Non-commutative algebraic geometry is concerned with the study of algebraic objects in geometric ways. One of the basic philosophies is that, in analogy with (derived) categories of (quasi-)coherent sheaves over schemes and (derived) module categories, non-commutative spaces can be represented by suitable abelian or triangulated categories. This point of view has proven extremely useful in non-commutative algebra, algebraic geometry and more recently in string theory thanks to the Homological Mirror Symmetry conjecture. One of our main aims is to set up a deformation framework for non-commutative spaces represented by ""enhanced"" triangulated categories, encompassing both the non-commutative schemes represented by derived abelian categories and the derived-affine spaces, represented by dg algebras. This framework should clarify and resolve some of the important problems known to exist in the deformation theory of derived-affine spaces. It should moreover be applicable to Fukaya-type categories, and yield a new way of proving and interpreting instances of ""deformed mirror symmetry"". This theory will be developed in interaction with concrete applications of the abelian deformation theory developed in our earlier work, and with the development of new decomposition and comparison techniques for Hochschild cohomology. By understanding the links between the different theories and fields of application, we aim to achieve an interdisciplinary understanding of non-commutative spaces using abelian and triangulated structures."
Summary
"Our research programme addresses several interesting current issues in non-commutative algebraic geometry, and important links with symplectic geometry and algebraic topology. Non-commutative algebraic geometry is concerned with the study of algebraic objects in geometric ways. One of the basic philosophies is that, in analogy with (derived) categories of (quasi-)coherent sheaves over schemes and (derived) module categories, non-commutative spaces can be represented by suitable abelian or triangulated categories. This point of view has proven extremely useful in non-commutative algebra, algebraic geometry and more recently in string theory thanks to the Homological Mirror Symmetry conjecture. One of our main aims is to set up a deformation framework for non-commutative spaces represented by ""enhanced"" triangulated categories, encompassing both the non-commutative schemes represented by derived abelian categories and the derived-affine spaces, represented by dg algebras. This framework should clarify and resolve some of the important problems known to exist in the deformation theory of derived-affine spaces. It should moreover be applicable to Fukaya-type categories, and yield a new way of proving and interpreting instances of ""deformed mirror symmetry"". This theory will be developed in interaction with concrete applications of the abelian deformation theory developed in our earlier work, and with the development of new decomposition and comparison techniques for Hochschild cohomology. By understanding the links between the different theories and fields of application, we aim to achieve an interdisciplinary understanding of non-commutative spaces using abelian and triangulated structures."
Max ERC Funding
703 080 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym HOM
Project Homo Mimeticus: Theory and Criticism
Researcher (PI) Nidesh LAWTOO
Host Institution (HI) KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2016-STG
Summary Mimesis is one of the most influential concepts in Western thought. Originally invoked to define humans as the “most imitative” creatures in classical antiquity, mimesis (imitation) has recently been at the centre of theoretical debates in the humanities, social sciences, and the neurosciences concerning the role of “mimicry,” “identification,” “contagion,” and “mirror neurons” in the formation of subjectivity. And yet, despite the growing confirmations that imitation is constitutive of human behaviour, mimesis still tends to be confined to the sphere of realistic representation. The HOM project combines approaches that are usually split in different areas of disciplinary specialization to provide a correction to this tendency.
Conceived as a trilogy situated at the crossroads between literary criticism, cinema studies, and critical theory, HOM’s outcomes will result in two monographs and accompanying articles that explore the aesthetic, affective, and conceptual implications of the mimetic faculty. The first, radically reframes a major proponent of anti-mimetic aesthetics in modern literature, Oscar Wilde, by looking back to the classical foundations of theatrical mimesis that inform his corpus; the second considers the material effects of virtual simulation by looking ahead to new digital media via contemporary science-fiction films; and the third establishes an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophical accounts of mimesis and recent discoveries in the neurosciences. Together, these new perspectives on homo mimeticus reconsider the aesthetic foundations of a major literary author, open up a new line of inquiry in film studies, and steer philosophical debates on mimesis in new interdisciplinary directions.
Summary
Mimesis is one of the most influential concepts in Western thought. Originally invoked to define humans as the “most imitative” creatures in classical antiquity, mimesis (imitation) has recently been at the centre of theoretical debates in the humanities, social sciences, and the neurosciences concerning the role of “mimicry,” “identification,” “contagion,” and “mirror neurons” in the formation of subjectivity. And yet, despite the growing confirmations that imitation is constitutive of human behaviour, mimesis still tends to be confined to the sphere of realistic representation. The HOM project combines approaches that are usually split in different areas of disciplinary specialization to provide a correction to this tendency.
Conceived as a trilogy situated at the crossroads between literary criticism, cinema studies, and critical theory, HOM’s outcomes will result in two monographs and accompanying articles that explore the aesthetic, affective, and conceptual implications of the mimetic faculty. The first, radically reframes a major proponent of anti-mimetic aesthetics in modern literature, Oscar Wilde, by looking back to the classical foundations of theatrical mimesis that inform his corpus; the second considers the material effects of virtual simulation by looking ahead to new digital media via contemporary science-fiction films; and the third establishes an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophical accounts of mimesis and recent discoveries in the neurosciences. Together, these new perspectives on homo mimeticus reconsider the aesthetic foundations of a major literary author, open up a new line of inquiry in film studies, and steer philosophical debates on mimesis in new interdisciplinary directions.
Max ERC Funding
1 044 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31
Project acronym INVPROB
Project Inverse Problems
Researcher (PI) Lassi Juhani Päivärinta
Host Institution (HI) TALLINNA TEHNIKAULIKOOL
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2010-AdG_20100224
Summary Inverse problems constitute an interdisciplinary field of science concentrating on the mathematical theory and practical interpretation of indirect measurements. Their applications include medical imaging, atmospheric remote sensing, industrial process monitoring, and astronomical imaging. The common feature is extreme sensitivity to measurement noise. Computerized tomography, MRI, and exploration of the interior of earth by using earthquake data are typical inverse problems where mathematics has played an important role. By using the methods of inverse problems it is possible to bring modern mathematics to a vast number of applied fields. Genuine scientific innovations that are found in mathematical research, say in geometry, stochastics, or analysis, can be brought to real life applications through modelling. The solutions are often found by combining recent theoretical and computational advances. The study of inverse problems is one of the most active and fastest growing areas of modern applied mathematics, and the most interdisciplinary field of mathematics or even science in general.
The exciting but high risk problems in the research plan of the PI include mathematics of invisibility cloaking, invisible patterns, practical algorithms for imaging, and random quantum systems. Progress in these problems could have a considerable impact in applications such as construction of metamaterials for invisible optic fibre cables, scopes for MRI devices, and early screening for breast cancer. The progress here necessitates international collaboration. This will be realized in upcoming programs on inverse problems. The PI is involved in organizing semester programs in inverse problems at MSRI in 2010, Isaac Newton Institute in 2011, and Mittag-Leffler -institute in 2012.
Summary
Inverse problems constitute an interdisciplinary field of science concentrating on the mathematical theory and practical interpretation of indirect measurements. Their applications include medical imaging, atmospheric remote sensing, industrial process monitoring, and astronomical imaging. The common feature is extreme sensitivity to measurement noise. Computerized tomography, MRI, and exploration of the interior of earth by using earthquake data are typical inverse problems where mathematics has played an important role. By using the methods of inverse problems it is possible to bring modern mathematics to a vast number of applied fields. Genuine scientific innovations that are found in mathematical research, say in geometry, stochastics, or analysis, can be brought to real life applications through modelling. The solutions are often found by combining recent theoretical and computational advances. The study of inverse problems is one of the most active and fastest growing areas of modern applied mathematics, and the most interdisciplinary field of mathematics or even science in general.
The exciting but high risk problems in the research plan of the PI include mathematics of invisibility cloaking, invisible patterns, practical algorithms for imaging, and random quantum systems. Progress in these problems could have a considerable impact in applications such as construction of metamaterials for invisible optic fibre cables, scopes for MRI devices, and early screening for breast cancer. The progress here necessitates international collaboration. This will be realized in upcoming programs on inverse problems. The PI is involved in organizing semester programs in inverse problems at MSRI in 2010, Isaac Newton Institute in 2011, and Mittag-Leffler -institute in 2012.
Max ERC Funding
1 800 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29
Project acronym MAZEST
Project M- and Z-estimation in semiparametric statistics : applications in various fields
Researcher (PI) Ingrid Van Keilegom
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2007-StG
Summary The area of semiparametric statistics is, in comparison to the areas of fully parametric or nonparametric statistics, relatively unexplored and still in full development. Semiparametric models offer a valid alternative for purely parametric ones, that are known to be sensitive to incorrect model specification, and completely nonparametric models, which often suffer from lack of precision and power. A drawback of semiparametric models so far is, however, that the development of mathematical properties under these models is often a lot harder than under the other two types of models. The present project tries to solve this difficulty partially, by presenting and applying a general method to prove the asymptotic properties of estimators for a wide spectrum of semiparametric models. The objectives of this project are twofold. On one hand we will apply a general theory developed by Chen, Linton and Van Keilegom (2003) for a class of semiparametric Z-estimation problems, to a number of novel research ideas, coming from a broad range of areas in statistics. On the other hand we will show that some estimation problems are not covered by this theory, we consider a more general class of semiparametric estimators (M-estimators called) and develop a general theory for this class of estimators. This theory will open new horizons for a wide variety of problems in semiparametric statistics. The project requires highly complex mathematical skills and cutting edge results from modern empirical process theory.
Summary
The area of semiparametric statistics is, in comparison to the areas of fully parametric or nonparametric statistics, relatively unexplored and still in full development. Semiparametric models offer a valid alternative for purely parametric ones, that are known to be sensitive to incorrect model specification, and completely nonparametric models, which often suffer from lack of precision and power. A drawback of semiparametric models so far is, however, that the development of mathematical properties under these models is often a lot harder than under the other two types of models. The present project tries to solve this difficulty partially, by presenting and applying a general method to prove the asymptotic properties of estimators for a wide spectrum of semiparametric models. The objectives of this project are twofold. On one hand we will apply a general theory developed by Chen, Linton and Van Keilegom (2003) for a class of semiparametric Z-estimation problems, to a number of novel research ideas, coming from a broad range of areas in statistics. On the other hand we will show that some estimation problems are not covered by this theory, we consider a more general class of semiparametric estimators (M-estimators called) and develop a general theory for this class of estimators. This theory will open new horizons for a wide variety of problems in semiparametric statistics. The project requires highly complex mathematical skills and cutting edge results from modern empirical process theory.
Max ERC Funding
750 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-07-01, End date: 2014-06-30
Project acronym MusicExperiment21
Project Experimentation versus Interpretation: exploring New Paths in Music Performance in the Twenty-First Century
Researcher (PI) Paulo De Assis
Host Institution (HI) ORPHEUS INSTITUUT VZW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary As part of the historical shift out of a textual culture into a ‘mediatized’ image and sound culture, musical performance practices have undergone, in recent decades, a shift from text-based to performative-based renderings of musical works—focussing attention upon the experience of performance more as a material, present event, then as an ‘execution’ or ‘interpretation’ of an abstract work. The aim of this research proposal is to investigate: (a) the extent to which the traditional conception of musical interpretation is bound to a given historical period; (b) how new investigative paths can be created through experimental performance practices; and (c) the extent to which the scientific model of the practice of experimentation is transferable to music performance.
Crucial to these objectives is the material engagement in artistic practice, including the generation of concrete artistic outputs by the PI and other team members. The practice of music – understood as a fundamental methodological tool for the generation and exposition of new knowledge, will contribute decisively to innovations in both theory and practice, opening up opportunities for both scholarship and future performance practices. While exploring alternative approaches to music performance, this project will deliver concrete examples of such possibilities, situating itself at the frontline of the burgeoning field of Artistic Research.
Combining theoretical investigation with the concrete practice of music, this project presents a case for change in the field of musical performance. Alongside critical reflection on the state-of-the-art, it proposes a graspable and ‘audible’ alternative to traditional understandings of ‘interpretation’ in musical performance.
Hosted at the Orpheus Research Centre in Music, it will benefit from, and contribute to, the wider discourse on Artistic Experimentation, the Centre's current research focus.
Summary
As part of the historical shift out of a textual culture into a ‘mediatized’ image and sound culture, musical performance practices have undergone, in recent decades, a shift from text-based to performative-based renderings of musical works—focussing attention upon the experience of performance more as a material, present event, then as an ‘execution’ or ‘interpretation’ of an abstract work. The aim of this research proposal is to investigate: (a) the extent to which the traditional conception of musical interpretation is bound to a given historical period; (b) how new investigative paths can be created through experimental performance practices; and (c) the extent to which the scientific model of the practice of experimentation is transferable to music performance.
Crucial to these objectives is the material engagement in artistic practice, including the generation of concrete artistic outputs by the PI and other team members. The practice of music – understood as a fundamental methodological tool for the generation and exposition of new knowledge, will contribute decisively to innovations in both theory and practice, opening up opportunities for both scholarship and future performance practices. While exploring alternative approaches to music performance, this project will deliver concrete examples of such possibilities, situating itself at the frontline of the burgeoning field of Artistic Research.
Combining theoretical investigation with the concrete practice of music, this project presents a case for change in the field of musical performance. Alongside critical reflection on the state-of-the-art, it proposes a graspable and ‘audible’ alternative to traditional understandings of ‘interpretation’ in musical performance.
Hosted at the Orpheus Research Centre in Music, it will benefit from, and contribute to, the wider discourse on Artistic Experimentation, the Centre's current research focus.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 241 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym NARMESH
Project Narrating the Mesh: Ecology and the Non-Human in Contemporary Fiction and Oral Storytelling
Researcher (PI) Marco CARACCIOLO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2016-STG
Summary Today’s ecological crisis prompts us to rethink our attitude towards physical and natural realities that have traditionally been seen as opposed to human subjectivity and agency. What emerges from this “non-human turn” is a sense of our interdependence on things like the bacteria in our intestines or the carbon atoms supporting life on Earth. Ecological theorist Timothy Morton uses the metaphor of the “mesh” to express this idea of human/non-human interconnectedness. This project will map the formal and thematic strategies through which contemporary narrative practices engage with the non-human and envisage this interconnectedness.
Storytelling is an indispensable tool for making sense of experience by establishing temporal and causal relations. But it is also biased towards the human-scale realities of action and social interaction. How can narrative overcome this bias? How does it convey phenomena that challenge our belief in the ontological and material self-sufficiency of the human?
Comparing fictional narratives in print (novels and short stories) and conversational storytelling, we will systematically explore the ways in which narrative can forge connections across levels of reality, weaving together the human and the non-human into a single plot. The assumption is that narrative is a field where fictional practices are in constant dialogue with the stories told in everyday conversation—and with the culture-wide beliefs and concerns those stories reflect.
Through its three sub-projects, the proposed research charts this complex dialogue while greatly advancing our understanding of how stories can be used to heighten people’s awareness of the mesh and its significance. The project builds on a combination of methods (close readings of novels, qualitative analysis of interviews), aiming to open up a new field of study at the intersection of literary scholarship and the social sciences—with narrative theory serving as a catalyst for the interdisciplinary exchange.
Summary
Today’s ecological crisis prompts us to rethink our attitude towards physical and natural realities that have traditionally been seen as opposed to human subjectivity and agency. What emerges from this “non-human turn” is a sense of our interdependence on things like the bacteria in our intestines or the carbon atoms supporting life on Earth. Ecological theorist Timothy Morton uses the metaphor of the “mesh” to express this idea of human/non-human interconnectedness. This project will map the formal and thematic strategies through which contemporary narrative practices engage with the non-human and envisage this interconnectedness.
Storytelling is an indispensable tool for making sense of experience by establishing temporal and causal relations. But it is also biased towards the human-scale realities of action and social interaction. How can narrative overcome this bias? How does it convey phenomena that challenge our belief in the ontological and material self-sufficiency of the human?
Comparing fictional narratives in print (novels and short stories) and conversational storytelling, we will systematically explore the ways in which narrative can forge connections across levels of reality, weaving together the human and the non-human into a single plot. The assumption is that narrative is a field where fictional practices are in constant dialogue with the stories told in everyday conversation—and with the culture-wide beliefs and concerns those stories reflect.
Through its three sub-projects, the proposed research charts this complex dialogue while greatly advancing our understanding of how stories can be used to heighten people’s awareness of the mesh and its significance. The project builds on a combination of methods (close readings of novels, qualitative analysis of interviews), aiming to open up a new field of study at the intersection of literary scholarship and the social sciences—with narrative theory serving as a catalyst for the interdisciplinary exchange.
Max ERC Funding
1 130 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31
Project acronym NEUROEPIGENETHICS
Project Epigenetics, Experience and Responsibility: Implications for neurodevelopmental disorders
Researcher (PI) Kristien HENS
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary In folk psychology and in bioethical discussions, the central dogma of genetics is often taken for granted: humans are seen as defined in a genetic blueprint. The conceptualization of psychiatric conditions as innate or acquired, biological or psychosocial, genetic or environmental, influences the ascription of both capacity responsibility (the capacity to adapt or adjust one’s own behavior) and normative responsibility of individuals or the society towards those diagnosed. But findings in the field of epigenetics indicate that the social and physical environment influence how genes are expressed. Indeed, epigenetics may shed a new light on distinctions such as innate/acquired, genetic/environmental, biological/psychosocial: a far more complex view on neurodevelopmental disorders may emerge, with ethical implications. However, the implications of epigenetics for discussions on the scope and extent of normative responsibility have not been adequately addressed.
NEUROEPIGENETHICS aims to investigate the ethical implications of epigenetics for neurodevelopmental disorders. We will use theoretical and empirical methods to investigate how certain concepts (innate/biological/genetic) affect the ways in which professionals and stakeholders (persons with a neurodevelopmental disorder and their families) conceive of responsibility. We will evaluate how the emerging field of epigenetics alters the ascription of capacity responsibility and normative responsibility. We will research how individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)and their families experience the interaction between their condition and their biological and social environment. Finally, we will define moral responsibility in light of the emerging field of epigenetics in the area of neurodevelopmental disorders and child psychiatric practice.
Summary
In folk psychology and in bioethical discussions, the central dogma of genetics is often taken for granted: humans are seen as defined in a genetic blueprint. The conceptualization of psychiatric conditions as innate or acquired, biological or psychosocial, genetic or environmental, influences the ascription of both capacity responsibility (the capacity to adapt or adjust one’s own behavior) and normative responsibility of individuals or the society towards those diagnosed. But findings in the field of epigenetics indicate that the social and physical environment influence how genes are expressed. Indeed, epigenetics may shed a new light on distinctions such as innate/acquired, genetic/environmental, biological/psychosocial: a far more complex view on neurodevelopmental disorders may emerge, with ethical implications. However, the implications of epigenetics for discussions on the scope and extent of normative responsibility have not been adequately addressed.
NEUROEPIGENETHICS aims to investigate the ethical implications of epigenetics for neurodevelopmental disorders. We will use theoretical and empirical methods to investigate how certain concepts (innate/biological/genetic) affect the ways in which professionals and stakeholders (persons with a neurodevelopmental disorder and their families) conceive of responsibility. We will evaluate how the emerging field of epigenetics alters the ascription of capacity responsibility and normative responsibility. We will research how individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)and their families experience the interaction between their condition and their biological and social environment. Finally, we will define moral responsibility in light of the emerging field of epigenetics in the area of neurodevelopmental disorders and child psychiatric practice.
Max ERC Funding
1 453 012 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym NovelEchoes
Project Novel Echoes. Ancient Novelistic Receptions and Concepts of Fiction in Late Antique and Medieval Secular Narrative from East to West
Researcher (PI) Koen DE TEMMERMAN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary This project offers the first comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of receptions of ancient novels (1st-4th cent. AD) in (Greek, Arabic and western vernacular) secular narrative from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Novel Echoes follows up from the ERC Starting Grant project Novel Saints (on hagiography). It does so by taking ancient novelistic receptions towards entirely new, unexplored horizons.
Our knowledge about the early history of the novel is incomplete. Receptions of ancient novels have been studied for periods from the 11th and 12th cent. onwards but not systematically examined for preceding eras – much to the detriment of the study of both narrative (then and later) and the history of fiction. This project pursues the hypothesis that different secular, narrative traditions in this period were impacted (directly or indirectly) by ancient novelistic influences of different kinds and adopted (and adapted) them to various degrees and purposes; and that, since the ancient novel is a genre defined by its own fictionality, its reception in later narrative impacts notions of truth and authentication in ways that other (often more authoritative) literary models (e.g. Homer and the Bible) do not.
Novel Echoes strikes a balance between breath and depth by envisaging three objectives:
1. the creation of a reference tool charting all types of novelistic influence in secular narrative from the 4th to the 12th cent.;
2. the in-depth study of particular sets of texts and the analysis of their implicit conceptualizations of truth, authentication, fiction and narrative;
3. the reconstruction of routes of transmission in both the West and the East.
Given the project’s innovative focus, it will enhance our understanding of both the corpus texts and the early history of the novel; place the study of corpus texts on an improved methodological footing; and contribute to the theoretical study of the much-vexed question of how to conceptualize fiction.
Summary
This project offers the first comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of receptions of ancient novels (1st-4th cent. AD) in (Greek, Arabic and western vernacular) secular narrative from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Novel Echoes follows up from the ERC Starting Grant project Novel Saints (on hagiography). It does so by taking ancient novelistic receptions towards entirely new, unexplored horizons.
Our knowledge about the early history of the novel is incomplete. Receptions of ancient novels have been studied for periods from the 11th and 12th cent. onwards but not systematically examined for preceding eras – much to the detriment of the study of both narrative (then and later) and the history of fiction. This project pursues the hypothesis that different secular, narrative traditions in this period were impacted (directly or indirectly) by ancient novelistic influences of different kinds and adopted (and adapted) them to various degrees and purposes; and that, since the ancient novel is a genre defined by its own fictionality, its reception in later narrative impacts notions of truth and authentication in ways that other (often more authoritative) literary models (e.g. Homer and the Bible) do not.
Novel Echoes strikes a balance between breath and depth by envisaging three objectives:
1. the creation of a reference tool charting all types of novelistic influence in secular narrative from the 4th to the 12th cent.;
2. the in-depth study of particular sets of texts and the analysis of their implicit conceptualizations of truth, authentication, fiction and narrative;
3. the reconstruction of routes of transmission in both the West and the East.
Given the project’s innovative focus, it will enhance our understanding of both the corpus texts and the early history of the novel; place the study of corpus texts on an improved methodological footing; and contribute to the theoretical study of the much-vexed question of how to conceptualize fiction.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 375 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym NOVELSAINTS
Project Novel Saints. Ancient novelistic heroism in the hagiography of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages
Researcher (PI) Koen De Temmerman
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2013-StG
Summary "The novel is today the most popular literary genre worldwide. Its early history has not been written yet. In order to enhance our understanding of this history (both conceptually and cross-culturally), this project offers the first comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of the persistence of ancient novelistic material in hagiographical narrative traditions in the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (4th-12th cent.). This period constitutes a blind spot on the radar of scholars working on the history of the novel, who conceptualize it, much to the detriment of the study of narrative in subsequent periods, as an ‘empty’ interim period between the latest ancient representatives of the genre (ca. 3rd-4th cent.) and its re-emergence in 11th/12th-century Byzantium and 11th-century Persia.
This project, on the other hand, advances the hypothesis that different hagiographical traditions throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages were impacted (directly or indirectly) by ancient novelistic influences of different kinds and adopted, rehearsed, re-used and adapted them to various degrees as tools for the representation of saints as heroes/heroines. In this sense, constructions of heroism in these traditions should be understood to varying degrees as ‘novelistic’ and raise crucial issues about fictionalization and the texts’ own implicit conceptualizations of fiction.
Three stages of the project will test different aspects of this hypothesis. Firstly, the project will chart for the first time all novelistic influences in the hagiographical corpus texts. Secondly, it will analyze the impact of these influences on constructions of heroism in specific hagiographical traditions (mainly Latin, Greek and Syriac Martyr Acts, hagiographical romances and saints’ Lives) and examine implications for notions of fictionalization and/or strategies for enhancing verisimilitude and authenticity. Finally, diachronic and cross-cultural dimensions of the research hypothesis will be articulated through the study of continuity of hagiographical traditions (and their constructions of heroism) in narrative genres from the 11th and 12th centuries in the West (medieval romance), Byzantium (novels) and the East (Persian romance).
By generating an improved understanding of the impact of ancient novelistic material in different hagiographical traditions throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, this project aims to contribute not just to the history of the idea of fiction but also to the study of hagiography, the early history of the novel and to all disciplines that study these literary genres."
Summary
"The novel is today the most popular literary genre worldwide. Its early history has not been written yet. In order to enhance our understanding of this history (both conceptually and cross-culturally), this project offers the first comprehensive reconstruction and interpretation of the persistence of ancient novelistic material in hagiographical narrative traditions in the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (4th-12th cent.). This period constitutes a blind spot on the radar of scholars working on the history of the novel, who conceptualize it, much to the detriment of the study of narrative in subsequent periods, as an ‘empty’ interim period between the latest ancient representatives of the genre (ca. 3rd-4th cent.) and its re-emergence in 11th/12th-century Byzantium and 11th-century Persia.
This project, on the other hand, advances the hypothesis that different hagiographical traditions throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages were impacted (directly or indirectly) by ancient novelistic influences of different kinds and adopted, rehearsed, re-used and adapted them to various degrees as tools for the representation of saints as heroes/heroines. In this sense, constructions of heroism in these traditions should be understood to varying degrees as ‘novelistic’ and raise crucial issues about fictionalization and the texts’ own implicit conceptualizations of fiction.
Three stages of the project will test different aspects of this hypothesis. Firstly, the project will chart for the first time all novelistic influences in the hagiographical corpus texts. Secondly, it will analyze the impact of these influences on constructions of heroism in specific hagiographical traditions (mainly Latin, Greek and Syriac Martyr Acts, hagiographical romances and saints’ Lives) and examine implications for notions of fictionalization and/or strategies for enhancing verisimilitude and authenticity. Finally, diachronic and cross-cultural dimensions of the research hypothesis will be articulated through the study of continuity of hagiographical traditions (and their constructions of heroism) in narrative genres from the 11th and 12th centuries in the West (medieval romance), Byzantium (novels) and the East (Persian romance).
By generating an improved understanding of the impact of ancient novelistic material in different hagiographical traditions throughout Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, this project aims to contribute not just to the history of the idea of fiction but also to the study of hagiography, the early history of the novel and to all disciplines that study these literary genres."
Max ERC Funding
1 467 300 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31
