Accessing Cultures

The emerging field “Accessing Cultures” bundles the exceptional disciplinary breadth of the University’s research, teaching and transfer activities which explore diverse cultures and cultural areas from antiquity to the present day. As the administrator and local partner of a number of museums and collections, the University of Münster has access to prominent cultural institutions which collect and investigate cultural artefacts and make them available to the general public. Special attention is devoted to developing and testing new approaches to studying cultures and the conditions of access to cultural assets in the digital age.

The research projects in the emerging field “Accessing Cultures” make temporally or spatially distant cultures just as accessible to us as cultures of contemporary and everyday life. They shed light on the significance and conditions of access to cultural assets and tie research perspectives from the fields of philology, archaeology, history, the study of historical theologies, art history and musicology to those of cultural and social anthropology, philosophy and law. In addition to conducting international field research in Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Armenia, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, Uganda, India and South and North America, the numerous project partnerships in this emerging field focus on investigating ordinary and extra-ordinary cultural phenomena within and outside Europe, producing digital editions and offering museum research and Digital Humanities perspectives.

• Research Focus "Ancient Cultures" 

  Research in Ancient Cultures at the University of Münster is conducted on an exceptionally broad disciplinary basis. Geographically, Münster’s approach to the ancient world extends from the Mediterranean and its neighbouring continents to the Near East and along the Silk Roads as far as China. Chronologically, the field spans not only prehistory, ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, ancient China, and the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian worlds, but also encompasses the Byzantine and Islamic periods as well as modern receptions and transformations. This long-term perspective on ancient lifeworlds is developed through multidisciplinary methods that also inform current academic and public discourses and are carried forward through knowledge transfer projects.

  At the heart of this research are texts, images, and artefacts, but also spaces, collective imaginaries, and systems of meaning. In the study of materials, texts, and music—as well as in regional studies—there are methodological intersections with computer science and the natural sciences. Research into ancient cultures in Münster provides essential foundational work, especially in excavation projects and the critical editing of texts.

  Key areas of teaching and outreach include the Archaeological Museum and the Bible Museum, degree programmes focused on antiquity, such as the Master's in AKOEM and the European Master of Classical Cultures as well as the Münster School of Ancient Cultures. With a strong international orientation, the study of ancient cultures in Münster is actively involved in global research networks that address topics such as sustainability, resilience, and the interrelationship of religion and society.

• Research Focus “Times and Practices of Artefacts”

  As material artefacts increasingly came into focus in the cultural sciences with the material turn, it is now not only traditionally object-oriented disciplines such as archaeology, art history, or social and cultural anthropology that engage with artefacts. Recent philosophical theories of artefacts have heightened awareness that artefacts are not necessarily material in nature; there are also artefacts—such as literary or musical works—that must be understood ontologically as abstract entities. As a result, the concept of the artefact is now also used to describe the objects of disciplines such as literary studies and musicology, and is becoming increasingly relevant for the characterisation of cultural assets in the digital age.

  The research focus “Times and Practices of Artefacts” brings together expertise from disciplines including Egyptology, Ancient History, Christian Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Classical Philology, Philosophy, History (Medieval History, History Education), Social and Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology), and Musicology. As a host and partner to a number of museums and collections, the University of Münster is home to significant cultural institutions that collect, study, and make cultural artefacts accessible to a wider public. Special attention is also given to the conditions of access to cultural assets in the digital age.