Multilingualism, Migration and Cultural Transformation

Modern societies are characterised by migration, multilingualism and cultural transformation processes. As a global phenomenon, multilingualism continuously shapes and determines social structures, values and cultural identities as well as economic and political systems and educational institutions. This requires an elevated sensitivity in humanities research and teaching towards the polyphony of languages and cultures, which is increasingly evolving from an exception to a social norm.

Multilingualism and cultural transformations not only mirror society and provide a resource for linguistic communication, but are also the primary tool for knowledge discourses, education attainment, the construction of identities as well as for the negotiation processes necessary to social coexistence. 

The objective of the core topic area is to enable new perspectives on social, institutional and individual manifestations of multilingualism, migration and the resulting cultural transformations through interdisciplinary research in the humanities. Collaborative research aims to create synergies and research activities are to be sustainably networked at faculty and university levels.

The research projects in the core topic area are to be designed along the three dimensions of space - time - actors. In social, cultural, political or imagined spaces of multilingualism and language contact, actors and artefacts are at the centre of the examination of linguistic and cultural transformation processes. Focus is also placed on language acquisition, language mediation, translation and mediation actions. In spaces of multilingualism, such as in the education or health sectors, in economic or cultural institutions, multilingual actors with their diverse linguistic practices, ascriptions or constructions of meaning are to be increasingly brought into focus. With regard to the dimension of time, multilingualism, migration and cultural transformation will also be examined from a historical perspective.

With its inter- and transdisciplinary potential, research in the humanities plays a central role in reflecting on linguistic inequalities in their temporal dimension and critically questioning related political discourses.

In the sense of rethinking the humanities in view of the multiple challenges of contemporary societies and the high social relevance of multilingualism, migration and cultural transformation, this  core topic area will couple critical thinking with fieldwork and enable research at the interface of theoretical foundations and applied perspectives. A key objective and task here is to foreground the transfer of academic findings into teaching and society. This close coupling expresses the commitment of the future-oriented humanities to helping shape pluralistic societies and to finding joint inter- and transdisciplinary solutions to the multiple crises and challenges of the present and the future.