Alanus University project funded by the Stifterverband

Award in the “One University – One Book” competition: As one of the ten best ideas, Alanus University’s project was awarded by the Stifterverband for German Science and the Klaus Tschira Foundation. In the coming year, lecturers, students and staff will engage with the monograph “Resonance – A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World” by Hartmut Rosa. The funding amounts to 10,000 euros.

When relationships affect and move us, when a landscape or a work of art speaks to us, when sparks fly in an encounter – then sociologist Hartmut Rosa speaks of “resonance.” In his book of the same name, he develops in a versatile and multi-layered way the thesis that such experiences, in which the world responds and, in a sense, begins to vibrate, are crucial to leading a good life. According to the author’s diagnosis, we are all searching for resonance. “For a long time, our university has encompassed a wealth of approaches and concepts that open up spaces of resonance. We would like to use the opportunity provided by the project to become more consciously aware of this treasure through reading the book, to unlock it, share it and carry it out into the wider world,” says Professor of Philosophy Thomas Schmaus, who, together with his colleague Bianka Mieskes, submitted the funding application for the university community.

Resonance and alienation – an exciting contrast
According to Hartmut Rosa, the opposite experience to resonance – and one that is widespread today – is alienation. Common “axes of resonance” such as family, friendship and politics, or work, school, sport, religion, nature, art and history, seem increasingly to fall silent. “We live in a time that is marked in many ways by competition and acceleration. And a major challenge of social distancing during the coronavirus crisis is not to sever the ‘wires of resonance’ connecting us to the world,” says Schmaus. For today’s society as well as that of the future, it is of particular importance to create more spaces of resonance: “Such a task seems tailor-made for an arts university that also helps shape alternative social, educational, therapeutic and economic models,” says Bianka Mieskes, artistic associate at Alanus University.

Alanus University would like to use the funding provided through the “One University – One Book” project to raise awareness of, develop and bring into society the resonance potential of the university community through reading Rosa’s work. Planned activities include reading groups, workshops, lecture series, courses, artistic transformations, exhibitions, inter- and transdisciplinary projects, and activities by students and staff. A Resonance Day is planned as the highlight in autumn 2020.