7 June 2026 | Café Nerly, Marktstraße 6, 99084 Erfurt | Deadline: 30 April 2026
Tricksters are characters who can skilfully disrupt a given order. We encounter tricksters in mythology, literature, theatre and also in areas of the medialised public sphere such as politics. They walk between worlds, provoke, break rules. It is often difficult to determine who is good and who is evil.
In the SalonTrickSTAR, organised by the Cluster of Excellence "Imaginamics" and the Professorship for the History of Science at the University of Erfurt in cooperation with local actors from the performing arts, various trickster figures will perform and historians and artists will discuss the subversive potential of Arts in times of a carnivalesque present together with the audience. How do political spaces and their analysis and critique change when actors in positions of power adopt subversive strategies? And how can Arts react to a situation where reality often seems like satire?
The Salon TrickSTAR is intended to be an experimental free space in which scientific analysis of the present and artistic positions meet. To this end, we are looking for artistic contributions from the performing arts that either operate specifically with the figure of the trickster or see themselves in some other way as a subversive contribution to contemporary culture.
The contributions should have a length of 5 to 15 minutes and be realisable with little technical effort (no light changes, adaptable for an open space concept, no large structures). The submitted contributions can be excerpts from existing works or stand-alone formats. In addition, we would like to see a willingness to participate in discussions with scientists and the audience.
We offer an evening fee of 350€ per contribution as well as a lump sum for travel and accommodation costs.
Please send submissions by 30 April 2026 to Sonja Kessner and Johanna Hügel at the following address forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de - either in the form of a video recording (for excerpts from finished works) or as a short pitch together with a CV and a link to past works.
July 9–10, 2026 | Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana
Research on experts and expertise in state socialism has developed, in recent years, from national case studies embedded in overarching accounts of “Cold War expertise,” to transnational histories of knowledge production, to a renewed appreciation for thick descriptions of the political, social, and epistemological contexts of expertise as developed in and for the purposes of socialism. In particular, work in social history and the history of labor, the history of science, and intellectual history has been addressing the role of experts in the political economy and class structure of socialist countries in the region. This has also inspired efforts to revisit the conceptual and theoretical approaches to expertise with the insight of the historical legacies of anti-capitalist political epistemologies from East Central Europe. At the same time, new research has focused on the 1980s and 1990s as part of broader processes of transformation, combining perspectives on the shifts in global capitalism and the development of international expertise with accounts of political, economic, and social change on the semi-peripheries and theories of elite transformation. Taking stock of this scholarship and uniting approaches developed by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie research project “Trans/Socio: Transnational Sociology and Concepts of Social Expertise in Eastern Europe, 1970s–2000s” (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana) and the project “Political Epistemologies of Central and Eastern Europe” (PECEE), the “Experts in Transition” conference explores expertise at the end of state socialism in East Central Europe from three interconnected perspectives. Focusing on socialist experts, the experts of transition, and expertise after the end of socialism, we examine different understandings of the expert and the role of expertise through periods of transformation.
19 June 2026 | 10:00–19:00 | MPI for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin
The Forum on Literature and the History of Science offers early career scholars an opportunity to discuss their work-in-progress themed on the history of literature and science, as well as other closely relevant topics. To maximize the impact of our discussion for participants, we especially encourage presentations of unfinished projects in various stages of development. Feedback is provided by experts in the respective field.
In this view, all accepted speakers will be requested to pre-circulate papers of 10–20 pages among all registered participants. The papers can be written in English or German. The discussion of all papers will start with comments by experts appointed by the organizers and followed by responses of the authors, each paper receiving about an hour of discussion time.
All interested early career scholars are warmly invited to apply for participation in the Forum by 16 February 2026 with a title, an abstract of up to 500 words of the proposed paper, and an indication of academic affiliation. Accepted speakers will be requested to pre-circulate their papers in PDF format by 21 May 2026. Please register to participate in this event also by 21 May 2026.
To register or for other inquiries: dgermanese@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de |Full CfP
Keep up with all the News and Events from Erfurt's History of Science network and subscribe to our mailing list!
Registration for events in the summer semester is now open. We look forward to welcoming you to our courses!
Master of Arts
Bernhard Kleeberg: Emotions, Affects, History
Bernhard Kleeberg: Research colloquium on the history of science
Bachelor of Arts
Meike Katzek: Fundamentals of the History of Science
Bernhard Kleeberg/ Astrid Ackermann: IPS-A Migration
Bernhard Kleeberg: Social Darwinism from the 19th century to the present day
Studium Fundamentale
Bernhard Kleeberg/ Dirk Schuck: Carl Schmitt and the Left
Courses from previous semesters can be found in the archive.
![[Translate to English:] facebook icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_06-facebook_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] instagram icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_38-instagram_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] YouTube icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_18-youtube_white.svg)
![[Translate to English:] xing icon](/fileadmin/SocialMediaIcons/iconfinder_xing_white.svg)
University of Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
