Document – Text – Editing
Conditions and Forms of Transformation and Modeling: a Transdisciplinary Perspective
Bergische Universität Wuppertal in cooperation with the Kirchlichen Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel
Both the University of Wuppertal and Wuppertal/Bethel Theological College possess a well-established focus on editorial studies, and in each case this has been singled out by university management as a distinctive feature of the institution’s academic profile. As such it receives significant extra support. Initiated by the departments of classics, German, history, philosophy, print and media technology, and Protestant theology, the research training group is, therefore, embedded in an ideal institutional structure. This is backed by a systematic practice of professorial appointments.
The object of the research training group is the editing of texts. In pursuit of this goal it exploits the double aspect of editorial studies as both theoretical discipline and scientific practice. Immersion in editorial theory on the one hand, and work on relevant documents on the other, ensures adequate coverage of the field, with a clear orientation on the practical use of its product in the participating disciplines. Empirically based, methodologically as well as theoretically staked out, and enriched with key transdisciplinary inputs, the project can be seen as a re-charting of editorial studies on a broad scale.
The research training group proceeds in three logically connected steps. Under the heading document it seeks to determine the actual object of the editorial process in the various disciplines concerned, for discipline-specific concepts have as yet barely achieved explicit formulation, let alone been adequately discussed at the transdisciplinary level. The second step considers text as an emerging product of the interface between editorial premises and document-directed work, taking account both of specific disciplinary interests and of the potential reception of the edition itself. The third level, editing, focuses on the different disciplinary modalities of knowing, with recourse to transdisciplinary theory. A further element introduced at this level is media technology; far from being relegated to the rank of useful apparatus, digital innovations are integrated into the editorial process at the conceptual level.
In this project research training goes hand in hand with a university qualification. The program is anchored in the contributory disciplines, whose ongoing dialogue both sharpens individual editorial concepts and provides impulses for a transdisciplinary perspective. Thus in the first phase the research training group is more closely concerned with concrete results proper to the specific disciplines, whereas the second phase widens to include transdisciplinary aspects, focusing on their integration into digital editorial solutions.
More information about #UniWuppertal:
