Project Details
Projekt
GRK 3087: The Experience of Stories in the Digital Age (TESDA)
Subject Area
Social Sciences
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535594809
Humans spend a large part of their life with following stories. Theory and research of the last decades show that stories have a strong influence on users/recipients, and researchers have identified experiential states that are characteristic of story experience (e.g., narrative transportation, presence). Digital technologies and new media landscapes (e.g., artificial intelligence, virtual reality, social media) have added new, pressing challenges and opportunities to the research field. The aim of this Research Training Group (RTG) is to provide an interdisciplinary collaborative research environment (disciplines involved: communication science, psychology, computer science) that enables qualified doctoral researchers to conduct disciplinary and interdisciplinary research on stories in the digital realm. The challenges and opportunities of experiencing stories in the digital age that will be addressed in the RTG are structured along three main research areas: (1) Immersive virtual reality, (2) New (para-)social encounters, and (3) Epistemic challenges. The planned qualification program includes courses of a maximum of six semester hours during the semester, four spring/summer schools and regular TESDA events, which promote networking with external researchers and social stakeholders. Networking with the international research community is also facilitated by renowned international cooperation partners, some of whom are closely associated with the Research Training Group as Mercator Fellows. With this RTG, a new generation of researchers will be provided with an interdisciplinary set of knowledge and skills that enable them to master current and future challenges of human communication in the digital age. PhD students from different backgrounds will be qualified to answer cutting-edge research questions as part of multidisciplinary teams. We will empower the PhD students to accomplish an excellent scientific PhD project within 3.5 years, encourage scientific independence, creativity, and thinking across (disciplinary) borders. The RTG will provide a sought-after set of knowledge and skills for a future academic career. The RTG will be embedded in the research environment of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), a research-intensive university that strives towards the highest standards in research and interdisciplinary training. In the past ten years, JMU has become a renowned center of Media Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, and Educational and Developmental Psychology.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Markus Appel
