Networks, Complex Epistemologies, and The Quantified Self in US-American Literature and Culture

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Regina Schober
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 288469532

The network is a preferred metaphor and figure of thought of our current information age. As a transdisciplinary concept it serves to describe complex phenomena, recursive dynamics, and multilateral structures. The network model is particularly prevalent in US-American national, social, and individual processes of (self-)description and identity formation, in terms of describing democratic structures, concepts of diversity and pluralism, and a fundamental belief in the technological, economic, and aesthetic feasability as well as an evolutionary ideal of creativity. My second book project (Habilitation) entitled Networks and Complex Epistemologies in American Literature and Culture examines forms and functions of the network model in US-American literary, cultural, and epistemological history from the 19th century until today. In order to advance my research both for the second book and for a related project on the Quantified Self, I apply for a grant to perform research at the University of California in Santa Barbara. The research activities at the UCSB English Department and the Center for Information, Technology, and Society (CITS) provide an excellent environment for my work especially on contemporary literature, which deals with global challenges such as digitalization, globalisation, and ecological transformations in terms of an increased awareness of complexity. Another central focus of my research will be on debates in the Digital Humanities, more specifically on Big Data, information economies, and digital knowledge acquisition. Based on my research on networks, I will examine narrative negotiations of interconnected, data-driven, and increasingly quantifiable models of the human and projections of individual failure. In close collaboration with Prof. Alan Liu and his team I plan to organize a workshop on Narratives of Failure: The Quantified Self and the Digital Humanities. The results of this workshop will be prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed US-American journal.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Alan Liu