About the IDK

In the IDK, which has its focus on the pre-modern period, we first intend to consider the history of philological practices in its longue durée over a period of more than four millennia and to explore this history exemplarily in the doctoral students’ dissertations. These dissertations will represent contributions to a new kind of history of knowledge and of scholarship.

Secondly, the IDK aims to compare conceptions and practices of philological work on a global scale, with the goal of identifying and exploring intercultural commonalities and differences between various pre-modern written cultures. Interdisciplinary foundational research is indispensable for the elaboration of global comparative perspectives in an international context.

Thirdly, the IDK aims to bring together contemporary theoretical conceptions and practices of philological work with historical perspectives, following the principle of no philology without literary and cultural studies.

Fourthly, in the sense of a future-oriented further development of philology, the new possibilities of technologies in the field of digital humanities will be harnessed to test new research horizons and interests.

The IDK strives to provide its doctoral students with a research environment that stimulates inventive research and creates a framework for excellence.

Central questions for the IDK

1. The question, relevant to the history of knowledge and science, of pluralistic historical conceptions, model formations, practices and terminologies of philology

2. The question, from the perspective of cultural studies, of possible global comparative perspectives and novel research insights that can be derived from these perspectives

3. The question of the development of perspectives for a future philology