Research Projects

Philosophy

The project "Lebensformen in Digitalisierten Lebenswelten" (in short: LeDiLe; engl.: Forms of Life in Digitalized Living Environments) at the Department of Philosophy aims to contribute to a better understanding and more reflective shaping of the 'digital revolution'. For this purpose, perspectives, discussions and insights from the philosophy of technology as well as from the ethics of technology are to be made useful for the design and development of technologies.

The aim of the project is to make methods from the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies usable for knowledge and technology transfer and to develop them further. In addition, the project aims to work out how research institutes, especially in the field of technology sciences, must be organized in order to integrate reflexive knowledge from cooperation with the humanities and social sciences into their processes in the long term. The project thus links method development with organizational development. This will be prototypically tested at the KIT Innovation HUB "Prevention in Civil Engineering".

Philosophy

Together with British philosopher H. McCabe, Schefczyk & Schmidt-Petri explore the use of innovative digital humanities tools in the history of philosophy and political ideas. Their project aims at showing the value of digital humanities in fields they have not yet been used in, encouraging the expansion of their use, and a re-consideration of what is often seen as the core method for engaging with historical texts: close-reading. In this context, they are developing a query algebra for temporal text corpora in co-operation with KIT computer scientists.

Science Communication

The goal of the project is to develop and disseminate Information Processing Systems (IPS) that will make independent observation of current events in the sciences more effective or even possible in the first place. In addition, IPS will provide access to scientific expertise for non-scientific audiences. Duration: 03/2019–02/2022. Sponsor: VW Foundation.

History

The KIT Department of History and the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg (State Office for the Preservation of Monuments) in Esslingen are working as project partners within the framework of the eHeritage funding program of the BMBF to process cultural monuments of technology into virtual 3D models using methods of SfM digitization. The project is being carried out by Erika Érsek, M.A..

Philosophy

In DebateLab, scholars study normative models of reasoning and argumentation; carry out logical analyses of policy debates and scientific controversies; and develop methods and tools to improve the argumentative quality of public reasoning. 

Science Communication

An advancing democratization of the European Union requires the promotion of an active European citizenship. Otherwise, public participation in the political process would not be possible. The understanding of science - scientific literacy - of individual citizens is becoming increasingly important for such participation. The project Persist_EU: Knowledge, beliefs, Perceptions about Science of European Students therefore addresses European students' assumptions about conflicting scientific topics and their knowledge appropriation in participatory formats. Duration: 11/2018–10/2020. Sponsor: Erasmus+.

History

A project by Rolf-Ulrich Kunze entitled "Ein schöner Tod und das ewige Leben: Der memorialisierende Blick auf die späte Dampftraktion in der Bundesrepublik, der DDR und Österreich seit 1950" ("A Beautiful Death and Eternal Life: The Memorializing View of Late Steam Traction in the Federal Republic, the GDR and Austria since 1950").

Philosophy

The "Forum für Kritische Interdisziplinarität" (Forum for Critical Interdisciplinarity) promotes the dialogue between scientific disciplines on typical borderline and cross-cutting issues. It was established by the biologist Peter Nick and the philosopher Mathias Gutmann from the KIT.

Science Communication

Building on the mediatization approach, the project will systematically research how scientists' media orientation affects the process of knowledge production and dissemination. Duration: 05/2019 – 04/2022. Funding: DFG.

Philosophy

In the aftermath of 9/11, many governments have increased their surveillance efforts in an effort to combat crime and terrorism. The current rise of mass surveillance has been facilitated by the internet, advancements in data-processing, intelligent face recognition and various other new technologies. The unprecedented extent to which even liberal democracies monitor their citizens raises pressing moral questions, which have so far received relatively little attention from philosophers.