Profiling of the Forum for lntercultural French Studies (Forum Interkulturelle Frankreichforschung - (FIFF)

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Hansen, since 11/2018
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; Art History
• Term: from 2012 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 230069005

lt is the aim of this proposal to consolidate the process of profile building of Mainz University's excellent research library "Forum for lntercultural French Studies" (Forum Interkulturelle Frankreichforschung - FIFF), begun in the first stage of funding, and to transfer it into sustainable structures. The profile building is achieved via supplemental purchase of relevant literature and thestrengthening of the digital infrastructure.Building on the first phase of work the collection's retrospective complementation shall be continued and conclud~d . Also, the digital services shall be optimized by the addition of valuable databases on cultural history which are Germany-wide available exclusively at the JGU. Corresponding with the former special collection's (Frankreichforschung: Kultur - Gesellschaft - Regionen I French Studies: Culture - Society - Regions) re-profiling into an intercultural and transcultural research platform, which was started in the first funding phase, the interdisciplinary and historico-culturally oriented collection will be further developed. The local will be considered in the context of the "global periphery" rather than the French center. The predominant hexagonal point of view will be expanded into a strenger attention on all francophone areas. By adapting this new perspective the FIFF reflects France's changing location in the globalization process and thereby stays abreast of resulting changes in research interests. JGU's research activities based on this collection shall be intensified further, networked and made visible nationally as well as internationally even more than has hitherto been the case. Therefore the work program is conducted cooperatively by University Library and Universlty; the tightintegration of research and information facility accounts for the originality and strength of the Mainz project.The applied for funding phase should serve to develop the FIFF's role and positioning within the university and scientific community so that its resources and activities can be transferred into a veritable France Research Center. In consultation with the university management all of JGU's activities related to France shall be integrated via the FIFF: i.e. the binational and trinational degree programmes as they are managed by the Dijonbüro as well as the work of the German-French Doctoral College (DeutschDFG-Vordruck 12.011 - 02/15 Seite 4 von 7 Französisches Doktorandenkolleg I DFDK). Thus the FIFF is supposed to become a centralflagship of Mainz University which is in the process of a strategic transformation.

• DFG Programme: Acquisition and Provision (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigators: Professorin Dr. Veronique Porra; Professor Dr. Gregor Wedekind
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Andreas Brandtner, until 11/2018