Researcher from Passau appointed to the Young Academy
Dr Tim Sommer from the Chair of English Literature and Culture at the University of Passau is one of four excellent researchers from across Bavaria who have been newly accepted by the Young Academy of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is investigating the historical development of the modern literary archive landscape in the English-speaking world.
Dr Tim Sommer was admitted to the Young Academy of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities on 1 March, photo: private
"Membership of the Young Academy will enable me to intensively advance my research on cultural institutions in the coming years. Among other things, an international workshop is planned at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich. I am looking forward to the interdisciplinary exchange with other fellows and with the full members of the Academy," says the literary scholar.
He will be supported by the academy with his research project "Literary Archive/Archive Literature: Institutions and Fictions since 1945". The project, which is located at the interdisciplinary interface of literary studies, media history and cultural sociology, is investigating the historical development of the modern literary archive landscape in the English-speaking world. The focus is on the role of archives in the contemporary literary field and on fictional adaptations of the archival topos. The project thus aims to analyse the complex intertwining of literary history and the history of literary institutions.
"With Tim Sommer's admission to the Junge Kolleg, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is honouring an outstanding scholar whose innovative work seeks to build bridges to numerous other fields of research and thus greatly enriches our interdisciplinary media and cultural history work in Passau," says Professor Katharina Boehm, holder of the Chair of English Literature and Culture, where Dr Tim Sommer researches and teaches.
Since 2010, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities has been supporting outstanding postdocs in Bavaria through its Young Academy. The selected projects are characterised by scientifically significant questions, creative ideas and innovative research approaches at the interfaces between the disciplines. Membership of the Young Academy is associated with a research grant of 12,000 euros per year. Membership generally lasts for three years and can be extended to a maximum of six years. The Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts finances the Young Academy.
This article has been machine translated.
