History of Theatre Studies - Swiss/Austrian Networks and Contexts (HoTS)
Project lead: Birgit Peter (Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies (tfm), University of Vienna),
Beate Hochholdinger-Reiterer (Institute of Theatre Studies (ITW), University of Bern (Lead Agency))
Project team: Nicolas Cymara (Studentischer Mitarbeiter/ tfm, Universität Wien), Klaus Illmayer (Postdoc/ tfm, Universität Wien), Sara Tiefenbacher (Postdoc/ tfm, Universität Wien), Eva Waibel (Postdoc/ tfm, Universität Wien)
Term: 01.10.2023-30.09.2027 (University of Vienna)
Cooperation partners: Martina Cuba (Theatre, Film and Media Studies Library, University of Vienna), Tobias Hodel (Digital Humanities - Walter Benjamin Kolleg, University of Bern), Christian Lüthi (University Library, University of Bern), Stefanie Mahrer (Institute of History, University of Bern), Beate Schlichenmaier (SAPA - Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts), Kristina Schulz (Institut d'Histoire Université de Neuchâtel), Franziska Voß (Specialised Information Service (SIS) Performing Arts, Frankfurt am Main University Library)
Funding body: funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF, P I 6417-G) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (212859)
Project description:
This project, which is being carried out jointly by the University of Bern/ ITW (lead agency) and the University of Vienna/ tfm, proposes investigating the history of theatre studies in Switzerland and Austria from a decentralized perspective. By viewing the topic from the margins, we will be able to look at constellations, contexts and exclusionary mechanisms that have not yet been taken into account. The prerequisite for this perspective is the ineluctable fact that German-language theatre studies were first established during National Socialism.
We here confront the fact that theatre studies were supported on account of being considered ideologically highly relevant during the Nazi era; this in turn poses questions about whether exclusionary mechanisms founded on anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, misogyny or anti-democratic beliefs continued to be relevant when this discipline spread across the Germanspeaking countries after 1945. The resultant research questions are complex and heterogeneous, and have not yet been taken into account in our discipline. For this reason, the present project pursues an innovative approach, utilising a methodological
mix of comparative source analysis, historical contextualisation and digital humanities. It combines research perspectives from theatre studies, transnational history, memory studies, gender studies, queer studies and cultural studies with methodological-theoretical
foundations, analyses and procedures of the digital humanities. To this end, a digital research platform will be made available to the community in order to promote and ensure a permanent, reflexive approach to the history of the discipline.
The project sees itself as basic research into the history of theatre, which prepares previously ignored and unconsidered archival materials (including the Archive and Theatre Historical Collection, AuS tfm) for the historiography of the discipline for the first time. Archival materials that have not yet been considered are a methodological basis of the project. In addition to the traditional historical evaluation and analysis of the material, selected documents are made visible via the platform. The selection is based on multidimensional criteria concerning content, data protection and ethics.