Interdisciplinary Constitutional Research
Freiburg-based researchers reach final stage of “Cluster of Excellence” funding application process
Researchers from the University of Freiburg, the Max Planck Institute, and the Walter Eucken Institute, who applied for Cluster of Excellence funding in the fall of 2023, have reached a crucial stage of the selection process – the submission of a finalized application.
An interdisciplinary group consisting of 25 Freiburg-based researchers have applied for funding for a Cluster of Excellence entitled “Constitution as Practice in Times of Transformation” (ConTrans). Within this context, researchers from the humanities and the social sciences are teaming up with the aim of conducting research on international constitutional issues. According to the initial letter of application, “ConTrans (...) brings together, for the first time, perspectives from a wide range of fields – from law and history to literature and psychology – in a comprehensive and long-term analysis of constitutions as social practices. This is the only way to capture variants of constitutionality across space and time.” The group has now reached the crucial stage of the selection process, with their finalized application due in the summer of 2024.
Participating researchers include experts from the University of Freiburg based in the Faculty of Philology, the Department of Philosophy, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Theology, and the Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences. They are joined by Ralf Poscher, who heads the Department of Public Law at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law and is also an honorary professor at the University of Freiburg, and Lars Feld, director of the Walter Eucken Institute and professor of economic policy.
Learn more about the German Cluster of Excellence strategy at https://uni-freiburg.de/university/topics-in-focus/excellence-strategy/.