Since April 2021, the Research Training Group “Practicing Place – Sociocultural Practices and Epistemic Configurations” (GRK 2589/1), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has been based at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. The current first funding period ends after four and a half years (54 months) on September 30, 2025. An application for a second funding period has been submitted. Over a period of three years, the Research Training Group trains ten doctoral candidates who further develop the group’s research program in their doctoral thesis projects. The second cohort began in April 2024.

In its research program, the research group is dedicated to the interdisciplinary examination of the concepts of “place” and “placing.” In the context of global interdependencies, borderless media communication, and multiple conflicts, places and processes of (re)situating are gaining social, cultural, and political significance. The research program’s guiding principle is to understand places as practicings of place and to examine them as multifaceted, dynamic, affective, dialogical, and conflict-ridden networks of relationships. Accordingly, the research program focuses on the material, medial, and sociocultural practices of producing places, as well as on the epistemic configurations and situated forms of knowledge that have always underlain these practices and are continuously transformed and rearticulated in ongoing processes of meaning-making. The ontological question “What is a place?” is thereby replaced by the questions “What is a place like? How is it continuously (re)produced and (de)stabilized?” The research group is characterized by a distinctive interdisciplinary approach in which the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences collaborate. The subjects involved include Sociology, Romance studies, English Studies, geography, art history, and Philosophy. Within the research group, doctoral candidates, postdocs, and habilitation candidates collaborate with university faculty members and international partners.

Current funding period (2nd funding phase):
October 1, 2025 – March 31, 2030

Funding Agency
German Research Foundation (DFG; Grant Number GRK 2589)

Number of Research Fellows:
10 doctoral candidates, 2 postdocs, 12 associates

Website:
https://www.practicing.place

Qualification Concept

Admission to the research training group Practicing Place offers participants the chance to gain a further academic qualification while benefiting from a well-organized programme, which includes diverse opportunities for professional, interdisciplinary and international networking. In addition to intensive professional supervision by the participating researchers, members of the research training group play an active role in the research programme, for example, by planning and running  larger events or by organising workshops. The research training group has a network through diverse projects with academics in Germany and abroad, and facilitates the development and expansion of personal networks, for example, through externships at other universities and research institutions. In addition to the opportunities for individual and academic development offered by the research training group, fellows of the research group also have access to the KU's central training courses designed to support the pursuit of academic careers.