Project acronym ADNABIOARC
Project From the earliest modern humans to the onset of farming (45,000-4,500 BP): the role of climate, life-style, health, migration and selection in shaping European population history
Researcher (PI) Ron Pinhasi
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary The colonisation of Europe by anatomically modern humans (AMHs) ca. 45,000 years before present (BP) and the transition to farming ca. 8,000 BP are two major events in human prehistory. Both events involved certain cultural and biological adaptations, technological innovations, and behavioural plasticity which are unique to our species. The reconstruction of these processes and the causality between them has so far remained elusive due to technological, methodological and logistical complexities. Major developments in our understanding of the anthropology of the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, and advances in ancient DNA (aDNA) technology and chronometric methods now allow us to assess in sufficient resolution the interface between these evolutionary processes, and changes in human culture and behaviour.
The proposed research will investigate the complex interface between the morphological, genetic, behavioural, and cultural factors that shaped the population history of European AMHs. The PI s interdisciplinary expertise in these areas, his access to and experience of relevant skeletal collections, and his ongoing European collaborations will allow significant progress in addressing these fundamental questions. The approach taken will include (a) the collection of bioarchaeological, aDNA, stable isotope (for the analysis of ancient diet) and radiometric data on 500 skeletons from key sites/phases in Europe and western Anatolia, and (b) the application of existing and novel aDNA, bioarchaeological and simulation methodologies. This research will yield results that transform our current understanding of major demographic and evolutionary processes and will place Europe at the forefront of anthropological biological and genetic research.
Summary
The colonisation of Europe by anatomically modern humans (AMHs) ca. 45,000 years before present (BP) and the transition to farming ca. 8,000 BP are two major events in human prehistory. Both events involved certain cultural and biological adaptations, technological innovations, and behavioural plasticity which are unique to our species. The reconstruction of these processes and the causality between them has so far remained elusive due to technological, methodological and logistical complexities. Major developments in our understanding of the anthropology of the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic, and advances in ancient DNA (aDNA) technology and chronometric methods now allow us to assess in sufficient resolution the interface between these evolutionary processes, and changes in human culture and behaviour.
The proposed research will investigate the complex interface between the morphological, genetic, behavioural, and cultural factors that shaped the population history of European AMHs. The PI s interdisciplinary expertise in these areas, his access to and experience of relevant skeletal collections, and his ongoing European collaborations will allow significant progress in addressing these fundamental questions. The approach taken will include (a) the collection of bioarchaeological, aDNA, stable isotope (for the analysis of ancient diet) and radiometric data on 500 skeletons from key sites/phases in Europe and western Anatolia, and (b) the application of existing and novel aDNA, bioarchaeological and simulation methodologies. This research will yield results that transform our current understanding of major demographic and evolutionary processes and will place Europe at the forefront of anthropological biological and genetic research.
Max ERC Funding
1 088 386 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31
Project acronym AGELESS
Project Comparative genomics / ‘wildlife’ transcriptomics uncovers the mechanisms of halted ageing in mammals
Researcher (PI) Emma Teeling
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2012-StG_20111109
Summary "Ageing is the gradual and irreversible breakdown of living systems associated with the advancement of time, which leads to an increase in vulnerability and eventual mortality. Despite recent advances in ageing research, the intrinsic complexity of the ageing process has prevented a full understanding of this process, therefore, ageing remains a grand challenge in contemporary biology. In AGELESS, we will tackle this challenge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms of halted ageing in a unique model system, the bats. Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to their body size, and defy the ‘rate-of-living’ theories as they use twice as much the energy as other species of considerable size, but live far longer. This suggests that bats have some underlying mechanisms that may explain their exceptional longevity. In AGELESS, we will identify the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals to achieve extraordinary longevity, using state-of-the-art comparative genomic methodologies focused on bats. We will identify, using population transcriptomics and telomere/mtDNA genomics, the molecular changes that occur in an ageing wild population of bats to uncover how bats ‘age’ so slowly compared with other mammals. In silico whole genome analyses, field based ageing transcriptomic data, mtDNA and telomeric studies will be integrated and analysed using a networks approach, to ascertain how these systems interact to halt ageing. For the first time, we will be able to utilize the diversity seen within nature to identify key molecular targets and regions that regulate and control ageing in mammals. AGELESS will provide a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of ageing, potentially uncovering the crucial molecular pathways that can be modified to halt, alleviate and perhaps even reverse this process in man."
Summary
"Ageing is the gradual and irreversible breakdown of living systems associated with the advancement of time, which leads to an increase in vulnerability and eventual mortality. Despite recent advances in ageing research, the intrinsic complexity of the ageing process has prevented a full understanding of this process, therefore, ageing remains a grand challenge in contemporary biology. In AGELESS, we will tackle this challenge by uncovering the molecular mechanisms of halted ageing in a unique model system, the bats. Bats are the longest-lived mammals relative to their body size, and defy the ‘rate-of-living’ theories as they use twice as much the energy as other species of considerable size, but live far longer. This suggests that bats have some underlying mechanisms that may explain their exceptional longevity. In AGELESS, we will identify the molecular mechanisms that enable mammals to achieve extraordinary longevity, using state-of-the-art comparative genomic methodologies focused on bats. We will identify, using population transcriptomics and telomere/mtDNA genomics, the molecular changes that occur in an ageing wild population of bats to uncover how bats ‘age’ so slowly compared with other mammals. In silico whole genome analyses, field based ageing transcriptomic data, mtDNA and telomeric studies will be integrated and analysed using a networks approach, to ascertain how these systems interact to halt ageing. For the first time, we will be able to utilize the diversity seen within nature to identify key molecular targets and regions that regulate and control ageing in mammals. AGELESS will provide a deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of ageing, potentially uncovering the crucial molecular pathways that can be modified to halt, alleviate and perhaps even reverse this process in man."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 768 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym AncestralWeave
Project 1,000 ancient genomes: gene-economy innovation in cattle, sheep and goat
Researcher (PI) Daniel BRADLEY
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2019-ADG
Summary The genetic threads of goat, cattle and sheep ancestry have been woven by human breeding, environmental pressures, hybridisation and the chance effects of genetic drift. The ancestral weaves of these key animals intertwine with human creativity in the most profoundly innovative episodes of the human past. Three broad episodes of particular import were: initial domestications circa 11 kya in Southwest Asia; the intensification circa 6 kya of use of those animal products which are harvested without killing such as wool, milk and traction; and the development of exceptionally productive landraces, later formalized into breeds, in recent millennia. However, each of these is loosely defined in time and space, the key traits are often osteologically invisible, and the vectors of causality in their virtuous cycles of gene-economy innovation are completely unknown.
A combination of high coverage ancient whole genome data coupled with new analysis methods that allow efficient computation of genomewide locus genealogies will be used to untangle the threads of ancestry in sheep, cattle and goat across the whole genome in these transformative phases. Combining these with additional low coverage genomes generated from less preserved samples will generate a total set of 1,000 ancient animal genomes. These data will be unprecedented and will allow tracking of selection at trait genes, in order to detect human agency in breeding and, in collaboration with archaeologist partners, asking are there periods and places where threads of innovation coalesce. The project will also use ancient epigenetics to explore archaeological variation in gene activation patterns and will seek to understand the problematic build up of harmful mutations that threaten livestock today. With cognate disciplines, it will compare signals of animal mobility identifying distinct genetic strata correlating with archaeological horizons and affording the prospect of DNA-dating in future excavation.
Summary
The genetic threads of goat, cattle and sheep ancestry have been woven by human breeding, environmental pressures, hybridisation and the chance effects of genetic drift. The ancestral weaves of these key animals intertwine with human creativity in the most profoundly innovative episodes of the human past. Three broad episodes of particular import were: initial domestications circa 11 kya in Southwest Asia; the intensification circa 6 kya of use of those animal products which are harvested without killing such as wool, milk and traction; and the development of exceptionally productive landraces, later formalized into breeds, in recent millennia. However, each of these is loosely defined in time and space, the key traits are often osteologically invisible, and the vectors of causality in their virtuous cycles of gene-economy innovation are completely unknown.
A combination of high coverage ancient whole genome data coupled with new analysis methods that allow efficient computation of genomewide locus genealogies will be used to untangle the threads of ancestry in sheep, cattle and goat across the whole genome in these transformative phases. Combining these with additional low coverage genomes generated from less preserved samples will generate a total set of 1,000 ancient animal genomes. These data will be unprecedented and will allow tracking of selection at trait genes, in order to detect human agency in breeding and, in collaboration with archaeologist partners, asking are there periods and places where threads of innovation coalesce. The project will also use ancient epigenetics to explore archaeological variation in gene activation patterns and will seek to understand the problematic build up of harmful mutations that threaten livestock today. With cognate disciplines, it will compare signals of animal mobility identifying distinct genetic strata correlating with archaeological horizons and affording the prospect of DNA-dating in future excavation.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 199 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-12-01, End date: 2025-11-30
Project acronym APCG
Project Arabic Poetry in the Cairo Genizah
Researcher (PI) Mohamed Ali Hussein Ahmed
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2019-STG
Summary Poetry enjoys a special place in Arabic culture and literature. For centuries, Arabs of all faiths have considered poetry a key source for knowledge, intellectuality and wisdom. In the pre-Islamic era, poetry was considered as ‘the Arab knowledge’ and ‘the Arab cultural archive’, in which the social and cultural history, language, arts, music, religious and Arab’s human experience were stored and preserved. Being a part of Arabic culture, Jews of Arab lands equally enjoyed writing and reading poetry. APCG will investigate for the first time a hitherto neglected collection of Arabic poetry fragments written in Hebrew script (in Judaeo-Arabic), which has been preserved in arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The fragments, numbered in the hundreds, constitute a unique source for understanding medieval and Early Modern Egypt from three main perspectives: Arabic studies, Jewish social and cultural studies, and anthropological studies.
The core aims of the project are:
• to make the entirety of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah accessible to both academic scholars and to the public in a comprehensive database and in critical editions;
• to reveal, through the study of poetry, hitherto hidden aspects of social and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East with regard to literacy, education and intercommunal relations;
• to explore hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and the social function of poetry in medieval and early modern Egypt through the study of Genizah poetry.
To achieve the planned main objectives, APCG carries out a thorough interdisciplinary study of Genizah’s Arabic poetry. This approach involves research from philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.
Summary
Poetry enjoys a special place in Arabic culture and literature. For centuries, Arabs of all faiths have considered poetry a key source for knowledge, intellectuality and wisdom. In the pre-Islamic era, poetry was considered as ‘the Arab knowledge’ and ‘the Arab cultural archive’, in which the social and cultural history, language, arts, music, religious and Arab’s human experience were stored and preserved. Being a part of Arabic culture, Jews of Arab lands equally enjoyed writing and reading poetry. APCG will investigate for the first time a hitherto neglected collection of Arabic poetry fragments written in Hebrew script (in Judaeo-Arabic), which has been preserved in arguably the most important Jewish treasure trove: the Cairo Genizah. The fragments, numbered in the hundreds, constitute a unique source for understanding medieval and Early Modern Egypt from three main perspectives: Arabic studies, Jewish social and cultural studies, and anthropological studies.
The core aims of the project are:
• to make the entirety of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the Cairo Genizah accessible to both academic scholars and to the public in a comprehensive database and in critical editions;
• to reveal, through the study of poetry, hitherto hidden aspects of social and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East with regard to literacy, education and intercommunal relations;
• to explore hierarchies, interpersonal relationships and the social function of poetry in medieval and early modern Egypt through the study of Genizah poetry.
To achieve the planned main objectives, APCG carries out a thorough interdisciplinary study of Genizah’s Arabic poetry. This approach involves research from philological, linguistic, literary, historical and anthropological perspectives.
Max ERC Funding
1 456 246 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-07-01, End date: 2025-06-30
Project acronym BeyondOpposition
Project Opposing Sexual and Gender Rights and Equalities: Transforming Everyday Spaces
Researcher (PI) Katherine Browne
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH2, ERC-2018-COG
Summary OPPSEXRIGHTS will be the first large-scale, transnational study to consider the effects of recent Sexual and Gender Rights and Equalities (SGRE) on those who oppose them, by exploring opponents’ experiences of the transformation of everyday spaces. It will work beyond contemporary polarisations, creating new possibilities for social transformation. This cutting-edge research engages with the dramatically altered social and political landscapes in the late 20th and early 21st Century created through the development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans, and women’s rights. Recent reactionary politics highlight the pressing need to understand the position of those who experience these new social orders as a loss. The backlash to SGRE has coalesced into various resistances that are tangibly different to the classic vilification of homosexuality, or those that are anti-woman. Some who oppose SGRE have found themselves the subject of public critique; in the workplace, their jobs threatened, while at home, engagements with schools can cause family conflicts. This is particularly visible in the case studies of Ireland, UK and Canada because of SGRE. A largescale transnational systematic database will be created using low risk (media and organisational discourses; participant observation at oppositional events) and higher risk (online data collection and interviews) methods. Experimenting with social transformation, OPPSEXRIGHTS will work to build bridges between ‘enemies’, including families and communities, through innovative discussion and arts-based workshops. This ambitious project has the potential to create tangible solutions that tackle contemporary societal issues, which are founded in polarisations that are seemingly insurmountable.
Summary
OPPSEXRIGHTS will be the first large-scale, transnational study to consider the effects of recent Sexual and Gender Rights and Equalities (SGRE) on those who oppose them, by exploring opponents’ experiences of the transformation of everyday spaces. It will work beyond contemporary polarisations, creating new possibilities for social transformation. This cutting-edge research engages with the dramatically altered social and political landscapes in the late 20th and early 21st Century created through the development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans, and women’s rights. Recent reactionary politics highlight the pressing need to understand the position of those who experience these new social orders as a loss. The backlash to SGRE has coalesced into various resistances that are tangibly different to the classic vilification of homosexuality, or those that are anti-woman. Some who oppose SGRE have found themselves the subject of public critique; in the workplace, their jobs threatened, while at home, engagements with schools can cause family conflicts. This is particularly visible in the case studies of Ireland, UK and Canada because of SGRE. A largescale transnational systematic database will be created using low risk (media and organisational discourses; participant observation at oppositional events) and higher risk (online data collection and interviews) methods. Experimenting with social transformation, OPPSEXRIGHTS will work to build bridges between ‘enemies’, including families and communities, through innovative discussion and arts-based workshops. This ambitious project has the potential to create tangible solutions that tackle contemporary societal issues, which are founded in polarisations that are seemingly insurmountable.
Max ERC Funding
1 988 652 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym CHROMARRANGE
Project Programmed and unprogrammed genomic rearrangements during the evolution of yeast species
Researcher (PI) Kenneth Henry Wolfe
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100317
Summary By detailed evolutionary comparisons among multiple sequenced yeast genomes, we have identified several unusual regions where our preliminary evidence suggests that previously unknown molecular biology phenomena, involving rearrangement of genomic DNA, are occurring. I now propose to use a combination of dry-lab and wet-lab experimental approaches to characterize these regions and phenomena further. One region is a 24-kb section of chromosome XIV that appears to undergo recurrent 'flip/flop' inversion between two isomers at a fairly high rate in five species as diverse as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Naumovia castellii, leading to a 1:1 ratio of the two isomers in each species. We hypothesize that this region is the site of a programmed DNA rearrangement analogous to mating-type switching. We have also identified two new genes related to the mating-type switching endonuclease HO, but different from it, that are potentially involved in rearrangement processes though not necessarily the inversion described above. We will determine the sites of action of these endonucleases. Separately, we have found evidence for a process of recurrent deletion of DNA from regions flanking the mating-type (MAT) locus in all yeast species that are descended from the whole-genome duplication (WGD) event, causing continual transpositions of genes from beside MAT to other locations in the genome. In related computational work, we propose to investigate an hypothesis that evolutionary loss of the MATa2 transcriptional activator may have been the cause of the WGD event.
Summary
By detailed evolutionary comparisons among multiple sequenced yeast genomes, we have identified several unusual regions where our preliminary evidence suggests that previously unknown molecular biology phenomena, involving rearrangement of genomic DNA, are occurring. I now propose to use a combination of dry-lab and wet-lab experimental approaches to characterize these regions and phenomena further. One region is a 24-kb section of chromosome XIV that appears to undergo recurrent 'flip/flop' inversion between two isomers at a fairly high rate in five species as diverse as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Naumovia castellii, leading to a 1:1 ratio of the two isomers in each species. We hypothesize that this region is the site of a programmed DNA rearrangement analogous to mating-type switching. We have also identified two new genes related to the mating-type switching endonuclease HO, but different from it, that are potentially involved in rearrangement processes though not necessarily the inversion described above. We will determine the sites of action of these endonucleases. Separately, we have found evidence for a process of recurrent deletion of DNA from regions flanking the mating-type (MAT) locus in all yeast species that are descended from the whole-genome duplication (WGD) event, causing continual transpositions of genes from beside MAT to other locations in the genome. In related computational work, we propose to investigate an hypothesis that evolutionary loss of the MATa2 transcriptional activator may have been the cause of the WGD event.
Max ERC Funding
1 516 960 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31
Project acronym ChronHib
Project Chronologicon Hibernicum – A Probabilistic Chronological Framework for Dating Early Irish Language Developments and Literature
Researcher (PI) David Stifter
Host Institution (HI) NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH
Country Ireland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Early Medieval Irish literature (7th–10th centuries) is vast in extent and rich in genres, but owing to its mostly anonymous transmission, for most texts the precise time and circumstances of composition are unknown. Unless where texts contain historical references, the only clues for a rough chronological positioning of the texts are to be found in their linguistic peculiarities. Phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the Irish language changed considerably from Early Old Irish (7th c.) into Middle Irish (c. 10th–12th centuries). However, only the relative sequence of changes is well understood; for most sound changes very few narrow dates have been proposed so far.
It is the aim of Chronologicon Hibernicum to find a common solution for both problems: through the linguistic profiling of externally dated texts (esp. annalistic writing and sources with a clear historical anchorage) and through serialising the emerging linguistic and chronological data, progress will be made in assigning dates to the linguistic changes. Groundbreakingly, this will be done by using statistical methods for the seriation of the data, and for estimating dates using Bayesian inference.
The resultant information will then be used to find new dates for hitherto undated texts. On this basis, a much tighter chronological framework for the developments of the Early Medieval Irish language will be created. In a further step it will be possible to arrive at a better chronological description of medieval Irish literature as a whole, which will have repercussions on the study of the history and cultural and intellectual environment of medieval Ireland and on its connections with the wider world.
The data collected and analysed in this project will form the database Chronologicon Hibernicum which will serve as the authoritative guideline and reference point for the linguistic dating of Irish texts. In the future, the methodology will be transferable to other languages.
Summary
Early Medieval Irish literature (7th–10th centuries) is vast in extent and rich in genres, but owing to its mostly anonymous transmission, for most texts the precise time and circumstances of composition are unknown. Unless where texts contain historical references, the only clues for a rough chronological positioning of the texts are to be found in their linguistic peculiarities. Phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon of the Irish language changed considerably from Early Old Irish (7th c.) into Middle Irish (c. 10th–12th centuries). However, only the relative sequence of changes is well understood; for most sound changes very few narrow dates have been proposed so far.
It is the aim of Chronologicon Hibernicum to find a common solution for both problems: through the linguistic profiling of externally dated texts (esp. annalistic writing and sources with a clear historical anchorage) and through serialising the emerging linguistic and chronological data, progress will be made in assigning dates to the linguistic changes. Groundbreakingly, this will be done by using statistical methods for the seriation of the data, and for estimating dates using Bayesian inference.
The resultant information will then be used to find new dates for hitherto undated texts. On this basis, a much tighter chronological framework for the developments of the Early Medieval Irish language will be created. In a further step it will be possible to arrive at a better chronological description of medieval Irish literature as a whole, which will have repercussions on the study of the history and cultural and intellectual environment of medieval Ireland and on its connections with the wider world.
The data collected and analysed in this project will form the database Chronologicon Hibernicum which will serve as the authoritative guideline and reference point for the linguistic dating of Irish texts. In the future, the methodology will be transferable to other languages.
Max ERC Funding
1 804 230 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym CIPHER
Project CIPHER: Hip Hop Interpellation (Le Conseil International pour Hip Hop et Recherche / The International Council for Hip Hop Studies)
Researcher (PI) J. Griffith ROLLEFSON
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK
Country Ireland
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary CIPHER will launch the global research initiative, Hip Hop Interpellation, pilot a new semantic digital/ethnographic web methodology, and codify the emergent discipline of global hip hop studies. It addresses the central question: why has this highly localized and authenticizing African American music translated so easily to far-flung communities and contexts around the globe? Through this specific question the project attempts to understand the foundational and broadly transferable question: how are globalization and localization related? To answer these questions CIPHER posits the Hip Hop Interpellation thesis, that hip hop spreads not as a copy of an African American original, but, through its performance of knowledge, emerges as an always already constituent part of local knowledge and practice. The theorization thus moves beyond the “hailing practices” described by Althusser’s theory of interpellation—the discursive webs that coerce ideological incorporation—to describing an interpolation that locates other histories within and through hip hop’s performed knowledges.
CIPHER’s semantic web methodology tests this thesis, tracking how hip hop memes—slogans, anthems, and icons—are simultaneously produced by people and produce people. This research clears the conceptual impasse of structural “cultural imperialism” vs. agentic “cultural appropriation” debates and instrumentalizes the methodological distance between ethnographic specificity and big data generality. It does so by creating a feedback loop between digital humanities methods (crowd sourcing, semantic tagging, computational stylometry) and ethnographic fieldwork techniques (interviews, musical analysis, participant observation). The result will be an iterative map of Hip Hop Interpellation/Interpolation created by stakeholders that is transformational of our understanding of culture and/as cultural production and transferable to pressing questions about globalization and l’exception culturelle.
Summary
CIPHER will launch the global research initiative, Hip Hop Interpellation, pilot a new semantic digital/ethnographic web methodology, and codify the emergent discipline of global hip hop studies. It addresses the central question: why has this highly localized and authenticizing African American music translated so easily to far-flung communities and contexts around the globe? Through this specific question the project attempts to understand the foundational and broadly transferable question: how are globalization and localization related? To answer these questions CIPHER posits the Hip Hop Interpellation thesis, that hip hop spreads not as a copy of an African American original, but, through its performance of knowledge, emerges as an always already constituent part of local knowledge and practice. The theorization thus moves beyond the “hailing practices” described by Althusser’s theory of interpellation—the discursive webs that coerce ideological incorporation—to describing an interpolation that locates other histories within and through hip hop’s performed knowledges.
CIPHER’s semantic web methodology tests this thesis, tracking how hip hop memes—slogans, anthems, and icons—are simultaneously produced by people and produce people. This research clears the conceptual impasse of structural “cultural imperialism” vs. agentic “cultural appropriation” debates and instrumentalizes the methodological distance between ethnographic specificity and big data generality. It does so by creating a feedback loop between digital humanities methods (crowd sourcing, semantic tagging, computational stylometry) and ethnographic fieldwork techniques (interviews, musical analysis, participant observation). The result will be an iterative map of Hip Hop Interpellation/Interpolation created by stakeholders that is transformational of our understanding of culture and/as cultural production and transferable to pressing questions about globalization and l’exception culturelle.
Max ERC Funding
1 990 526 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-08-01, End date: 2024-07-31
Project acronym CODEX
Project Decoding Domesticate DNA in Archaeological Bone and Manuscripts
Researcher (PI) Daniel Gerard Bradley
Host Institution (HI) THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Country Ireland
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary Through animal domestication humans profoundly altered their relationship with nature, controlling the breeding of their major food sources for material, social or symbolic profit. Understanding this complex process is a compelling research aim. There is a need to develop new high-resolution genetic tools to put flesh on the bones of this two-millenium long transition. These will take advantage of very recent advances: targeted next generation DNA sequencing, high throughput screening of expertly provenanced archaeological samples, and emerging knowledge of modern cattle, sheep and goat genome science plus their genetic geographies. Combining these, this proposal will develop an ancient DNA data matrix that will be unparalleled in archaeological science. These data will unlock the key genetic changes that accompany the domestic state and the breeding structures that are a consequence of human management. It will also identify the wild and proto-domestic populations that later herds emerge from. A more precise geography and timing of the key changes will enable richer contextualising inform our assessement of why these changes take place. The 10,000 year matrix for each species will function as a standard spatiotemporal reference grid on which any subsequent bone or animal artefact may be placed i.e. via genetic postcoding. Exceptional discontinuities in the matrix will highlight points of strong historical interest such as the emergence of new trade networks, migrations and periods of economic turbulence - perhaps driven by climate fluctuations or plagues. The final work objectives will focus on diachronic sample assemblages selected to have particular import for both historical events and transitions in material culture. For example, manuscript vellum samples will give a uniquely dated series that will enable correlation of genetic change with historical studies of the timing and impact of past animal plagues (e.g. in C 14th and C 18th Europe).
Summary
Through animal domestication humans profoundly altered their relationship with nature, controlling the breeding of their major food sources for material, social or symbolic profit. Understanding this complex process is a compelling research aim. There is a need to develop new high-resolution genetic tools to put flesh on the bones of this two-millenium long transition. These will take advantage of very recent advances: targeted next generation DNA sequencing, high throughput screening of expertly provenanced archaeological samples, and emerging knowledge of modern cattle, sheep and goat genome science plus their genetic geographies. Combining these, this proposal will develop an ancient DNA data matrix that will be unparalleled in archaeological science. These data will unlock the key genetic changes that accompany the domestic state and the breeding structures that are a consequence of human management. It will also identify the wild and proto-domestic populations that later herds emerge from. A more precise geography and timing of the key changes will enable richer contextualising inform our assessement of why these changes take place. The 10,000 year matrix for each species will function as a standard spatiotemporal reference grid on which any subsequent bone or animal artefact may be placed i.e. via genetic postcoding. Exceptional discontinuities in the matrix will highlight points of strong historical interest such as the emergence of new trade networks, migrations and periods of economic turbulence - perhaps driven by climate fluctuations or plagues. The final work objectives will focus on diachronic sample assemblages selected to have particular import for both historical events and transitions in material culture. For example, manuscript vellum samples will give a uniquely dated series that will enable correlation of genetic change with historical studies of the timing and impact of past animal plagues (e.g. in C 14th and C 18th Europe).
Max ERC Funding
2 499 693 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2018-06-30
Project acronym DAFINET
Project Dynamic Attitude Fixing: A novel theory of opinion dynamics in social networks and its implications for computational propaganda in hybrid social networks (containing humans and bots)
Researcher (PI) Michael QUAYLE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK
Country Ireland
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Understanding the coordination of attitudes in societies is vitally important for many disciplines and global social challenges. Network opinion dynamics are poorly understood, especially in hybrid networks where automated (bot) agents seek to influence economic or political processes (e.g. USA: Trump vs Clinton; UK: Brexit). A dynamic fixing theory of attitudes is proposed, premised on three features of attitudes demonstrated in ethnomethodology and social psychology; that people: 1) simultaneously hold a repertoire of multiple (sometimes ambivalent) attitudes, 2) express attitudes to enact social identity; and 3) are accountable for attitude expression in interaction. It is proposed that interactions between agents generate symbolic links between attitudes with the emergent social-symbolic structure generating perceived ingroup similarity and outgroup difference in a multilayer network. Thus attitudes can become dynamically fixed when constellations of attitudes are locked-in to identities via multilayer networks of attitude agreement and disagreement; a process intensified by conflict, threat or zero-sum partisan processes (e.g. elections/referenda). Agent-based simulations will validate the theory and explore the hypothesized channels of bot influence. Network experiments with human and hybrid networks will test theoretically derived hypotheses. Observational network studies will assess model fit using historical Twitter data. Results will provide a social-psychological-network theory for attitude dynamics and vulnerability to computational propaganda in hybrid networks.
The theory will explain:
(a) when and how consensus can propagate rapidly through networks (since identity processes fix attitudes already contained within repertoires);
(b) limits of identity-related attitude propagation (since attitudes outside of repertoires will not be easily adopted); and
(c) how attitudes can often ‘roll back’ after events (since contextual changes ‘unfix’ attitudes).
Summary
Understanding the coordination of attitudes in societies is vitally important for many disciplines and global social challenges. Network opinion dynamics are poorly understood, especially in hybrid networks where automated (bot) agents seek to influence economic or political processes (e.g. USA: Trump vs Clinton; UK: Brexit). A dynamic fixing theory of attitudes is proposed, premised on three features of attitudes demonstrated in ethnomethodology and social psychology; that people: 1) simultaneously hold a repertoire of multiple (sometimes ambivalent) attitudes, 2) express attitudes to enact social identity; and 3) are accountable for attitude expression in interaction. It is proposed that interactions between agents generate symbolic links between attitudes with the emergent social-symbolic structure generating perceived ingroup similarity and outgroup difference in a multilayer network. Thus attitudes can become dynamically fixed when constellations of attitudes are locked-in to identities via multilayer networks of attitude agreement and disagreement; a process intensified by conflict, threat or zero-sum partisan processes (e.g. elections/referenda). Agent-based simulations will validate the theory and explore the hypothesized channels of bot influence. Network experiments with human and hybrid networks will test theoretically derived hypotheses. Observational network studies will assess model fit using historical Twitter data. Results will provide a social-psychological-network theory for attitude dynamics and vulnerability to computational propaganda in hybrid networks.
The theory will explain:
(a) when and how consensus can propagate rapidly through networks (since identity processes fix attitudes already contained within repertoires);
(b) limits of identity-related attitude propagation (since attitudes outside of repertoires will not be easily adopted); and
(c) how attitudes can often ‘roll back’ after events (since contextual changes ‘unfix’ attitudes).
Max ERC Funding
1 499 925 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-12-01, End date: 2024-05-31
