Prof Stephan Mühr, from the Department of Modern European Languages at the University of Pretoria (UP), was awarded a guest research fellowship at the Centre of Advanced Study in the College for Cultural Science (Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg) at Konstanz University, Germany for the period from September 2015 to January 2016. He is pursuing research on ‘narratives of infinity’ and offering a postgraduate seminar on ‘The history of science as cultural history’ in Konstanz University’s master’s programme, ‘Studies in European culture’. The scholarship granted by Konstanz University for this project amounts to about €15 000.

Bilateral relations between UP and Konstanz University have been thriving since 2009, when UP embarked on a project to adapt a master’s programme on cultural foundations of social integration and disintegration, using one of Konstanz University’s programmes as model. Since then, an average of three students per institution per annum has studied at the respective partner university, mainly funded by bursaries obtained through Konstanz University. In addition to student exchange, research-centred faculty exchange has also taken place.

As a result of this collaboration, three PhD research projects and many more by master’s students are currently in progress in South Africa. Stephan Mühr’s visit to this prestigious institution marks the latest stage in an intensive collaboration between these two powerhouses of research on African–European transcultural dynamics.

Konstanz University holds the 175th position in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the 19th among universities younger than 50 years. It is ranked first among German Universities with regard to third-stream income.

For more information on the PhD programme, ‘Europe in the globalised world’ at Konstanz University, which forms the basis of most of the South African research themes, click on the following link:

https://www.exzellenzcluster.uni-konstanz.de/europa-globalisierte-welt.html?&L=1

For more information about the respective master’s programmes, click on the following links:

www.up.ac.za/study-europe

www.europa-studieren.de