GRK 2244:  Authority and Trust in American Culture, Society, History and Politics

• Subject Area: Literary Studies ; History ; Social Sciences
• Term: since 2017
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 285767768

Our research training group continues to aim at inspiring innovative doctoral dissertations in the field of American Studies, broadly defined. We have successfully worked with a multi-level qualification program designed to enable doctoral students to conduct their research in interdisciplinary and international networks and to complete their dissertation within a period of three years. The qualification concept includes measures tailored to academic as well as professional career paths.The topical focus of our interdisciplinary research program is the emergence and transformation of authority and trust in American politics, society, religion, and culture since the nineteenth century. Due to its early democratization, its egalitarian and libertarian political culture, its ethno-cultural heterogeneity, and its international predominance, the United States is a particularly interesting case study of authority and trust in the modern world, a topic that seems particularly relevant in light of the recent “crises” of authority and trust in the US and Europe.Our research program understands authority and trust as dynamic and complementary concepts that are constantly changing within the shifting figurations in the US and the world. The premise of our research program is that transformations of social authority can be better understood if they are viewed with reference to the lived experience of sociocultural trust relations.Our thematic scope encompasses three fields of research in particular: (1) The authority of the modern state and trust in public and social institutions; (2) the urban dimension of authority and trust; (3) authority and trust in culture and religion. Hence our focus includes state and private actors, social and economic structures, institutions and discourses as well as spatial dimensions and transnational interconnections.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Participating Researchers: Soledad Alvarez Velasco, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Manfred Berg; Professor Dr. Sebastian Harnisch; Professor Dr. Günter Leypoldt; Privatdozentin Dr. Margit Peterfy; Professor Dr. Magnus Schlette; Professor Dr. Jan Stievermann; Privatdozent Dr. Martin Thunert; Professor Dr. Welf Werner
• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Ulrike Gerhard, since 10/2023