New faces,
new ideas

Department of Biology and Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour

Project: GCoo-BreeD: advancing comparative research with a peer-reviewed, updatable and fair global cooperative breeding database

Partners
Michael Griesser (Swiss, Biology, University of Konstanz), Szymek Drobniak (Polish, Biology, Statistics, Jagiellonian University), Miyako Warrington (Canadian, Biology, Oxford Brookes University), Haneul Jang (South Korean, Anthropology, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse)

Goal and Outcomes
The goal is to realize the full potential of GCoo- BreeD. To this end, GCoo-BreeD’s team would be extended into a committed interdisciplinary research group with complementary expertise. GCoo-BreeD will provide users worldwide with a state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary database on key biological parameters and a unique classification tool for cooperative breeding species.

Department of Biology and Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour

Project: Using non-human primates to unravel ancient biocultural exchange networks

Partners
Nathaniel J. Dominy (American, Anthropology, Dartmouth College), Renée Friedman (American, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford), Salima Ikram

(Pakistani, Egyptology, American University in Cairo), Ahmed Ali Hassabellkreem Siddig (Sudanese, Environmental Conservation, Faculty of Forestry, University of Khartoum & Harvard Forest, Harvard University)

Goal and Outcomes
The project aims to investigate one of the oldest historically documented forms of human-animal interactions as an example for the environment-culture feedback loops. The project entails fieldwork on the Ennedi Plateau, Chad, in tandem with lab work at the University of Konstanz and Dartmouth College. Our project will add to the results of the African BioGenome Project. One of the outcomes will be publications in peer-reviewed journals as well as in popular science magazines.

Department of Computer and Information Science and Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour

Project: New impulses for open-endedness in embodied collectives

Partners
Claire Glanois (French, Mathematics, IT, University of Copenhagen), Petter Ögren (Swedish, Robotics, Perception and Learning, KTH, Stockholm), Carlos Gershenson-Garcia (Mexican, Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, State University of New York)

Goal and Outcomes
The group hopes to contribute to several challenges in open-endedness in embodied collectives through this project and believes that this project can lead to new insights for the domains of evolutionary biology, collective behaviour, artificial life, philosophy, machine learning and robotics. The outcomes of the project include a publication of a position paper as well as a benchmark for open-endedness in embodied collectives, organization of an international workshop in Konstanz and initiation of a later collaborative project.

Department of Literature

Project: Energy infrastructures and the nineteenth-century periodical press

Julia Ditter holds a BA and MA in British and North American Cultural Studies from the University of Konstanz. In 2022 she successfully completed her doctoral thesis at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before returning to Germany to work as an associate lecturer at the universities of Freiburg and Trier. Julia joined the University of Konstanz as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre of Cultural Inquiry in June 2023.

Julia’s main research areas are in British literature (C19-C21), Scottish literature, environmental humanities, cultural studies and critical theory, border studies, new formalism, energy humanities and infrastructure studies. In her previous research, Julia has focused on the relationship between borders and the environment in Scottish literature from the nineteenth-century to the present, which resulted in a monograph forthcoming with Bloomsbury.

Her research project at the Zukunftskolleg is entitled “Energy Infrastructures and the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press” and examines representations of energy infrastructures in the Anglophone periodical press of the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on British and Antipodean periodical publications. The project contributes to understanding the social, material and affective foundations of the (Western) reliance on fossil fuels by examining another age of energy transition, the nineteenth century, and exploring the foundations of dominant understandings of fossil energy. The project posits that the periodical press of the nineteenth century played a central role in the creation of systems and epistemologies of energy that continue to structure our understanding of and relationship with energy today. Through a reading of the mass medium of the periodical press, Julia examines the role that literary and cultural production play in mediating energy transition and reflecting on the process through which fossil fuels have come to form the energetic and ideational infrastructure of our lives in the West: from institutions, political systems and global networks to cultural practices, social formations and literary forms.

Department of Computer and Information Science

Project: Exploring collective motion through evolutionary game theory

The project aims to explore collective behaviour through the lens of evolutionary game theory. Most contemporary models for collective behaviour assume deterministic individual movements under noisy conditions. In reality, however, individuals can be irrational and may refuse to follow deterministic rules. Our primary goal is to investigate how these irrational individuals (defectors) affect collective behaviour, considering both the pros and cons. We will explore four sub-objectives:

1. The impact of defectors on collective behaviour.
2. Dynamic role switching and the emergence of leadership in swarms.
3. Analyzing the influence of varying time scales on individual behaviours within the game framework.

Department of Computer and Information Science

Project: Construction and analysis of the functional network of the C58/J strain: brain connectivity and complexity in a murine model of autism

This research project tackles a critical void in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) research, focusing on the development and analysis of functional brain networks in the C58/J mouse strain, which is significant due to its behavioural phenotypes that resemble aspects of ASD. ASD is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that presents substantial challenges to individuals, families and health systems worldwide. Its multifactorial aetiology –encompassing genetic, environmental and neurobiological factors – renders it a highly heterogeneous and difficult-to-diagnose condition.

The project pursues two primary objectives: 1) To develop a standardized preprocessing protocol for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data for the C58/J strain, filling a notable gap, as such a protocol does not currently exist, and 2) To conduct a detailed analysis of the functional brain networks after preprocessing. This analysis includes comparing these networks between the C58/J strain and the control C57BL/6 strain, which is widely recognized for its neurobiological normality and serves as a standard reference in neuroscience research.

Utilizing graph theory, the research aims to construct and analyze functional brain network models, offering a sophisticated mathematical framework to describe and quantify complex patterns of neural connectivity and complexity. This approach allows for the quantification of various connectivity and complexity aspects, such as node degree, clustering coefficients, and path lengths, providing a comprehensive understanding of the functional network organization in the C58/J mouse model.
A key component of this research is the comparison of functional networks derived from the C58/J strain with those from the C57BL/6 strain to identify specific neural circuit alterations potentially underlying the behavioural phenotypes associated with ASD. Additionally, the project will investigate the networks’ complexity, focusing on the intricate and dynamic interaction among different brain regions, which is often disrupted in ASD, leading to atypical information processing and integration.
By establishing a standardized method for fMRI preprocessing and the subsequent analysis of functional networks in the C58/J mouse model, this project aims to significantly advance our understanding of the neural basis of ASD. This could lead to the identification of novel biomarkers and diagnostic tools, contributing crucial insights to the neuroscience field and enhancing therapeutic strategies for ASD.

Department of Linguistics

Project: Cross-linguistic study on the processing of language production and understanding in children with ASD

Language acquisition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by dramatic delays, with first words produced at an average age of 38 months, compared to 8-14 months in typical development. Most studies have concentrated on pragmatic and prosody deficits, with few works addressing syntactic development in children. Because the major studies focused on English, it is unclear whether the results are specific to English or can be generalized cross-linguistically. Also, while a small child can recognize words in their native language, the same words require intention to speak and can take longer to produce. However, studying how children with ASD process and understand syntactically complex language may impact on their educational outcomes. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate syntactic processing in children with ASD, focusing on understanding and producing languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, English and German. We specifically intend to address the following questions: i) Which structures children with ASD understand but struggle to produce cross-linguistically; and ii) Which methods were used in such studies. The team has recognized that there may not be enough time to conduct experiments and will therefore conduct a critical bibliographical review to answer the previously raised questions.

Department of History and Sociology

Project: Housing strategies, living arrangements and intra-family politics of migrant families in a small Chinese city

Within families, housing serves as both a familial asset and a residential space for family members and is therefore closely associated with intra-family politics. Through a multi-sited ethnography, this research project interrogates how migrant families’ housing strategies and settlement patterns are shaped by and shape their intra-family politics. This inquiry is addressed through two dimensions explored in two papers.

The first paper examines how migrant families have developed various living arrangements across the rural-urban divide and how intergenerational relations have played out in this process. It especially pays attention to the agency of the older generation in navigating migration and managing intergenerational tensions.

The second paper focuses on the agency of women in providing housing for their elderly parents within the persistent dominance of patriarchal norms. Traditionally, the patriarchal kinship practice dictates that the son (and the son’s wife) cares for the elderly parents. Thus, the aspirations of migrant women directly challenge this tradition. This paper demonstrates that the realization of female migrants’ aspirations hinges on the conditions and strategies for avoiding conflicts with their husbands. The intricate and contradictory aspect is that circumventing the husband’s authority often depends on adhering to patriarchal norms.