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The project “European Societal Challenges in German Culture: Exploring Ageing and Climate Change in Tandem”, based at the Centre for European Studies and led by Associate Professor Michaela Schrage-Früh, has been awarded €78,430.47 by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for two years (2025-2026).

Michaela will collaborate with Dr Tina-Karen Pusse at the University of Galway to explore cultural responses to current societal challenges, with particular focus on population ageing and climate change.

In media across Europe, population ageing is often depicted as a ‘burden narrative’, couched in metaphors of natural disaster such as the ‘silver tsunami’, while the impending climate catastrophe is frequently presented in terms of a generational war. Accordingly, this project seeks to analyse how both challenges are intertwined in German cultural representations in a comparative European perspective and explore in how far they confirm or challenge binary opposition based on chronological age. Besides a symposium and book publication involving research team members from Ireland, the UK, Germany, and Austria, the project entails a series of author readings and roundtable discussions, as well as a creative competition for undergraduate students of German in Ireland.

Also, “Promoting German Studies in Ireland – Irish-German Studies and its many facets: research, dialogue and promotion to enhance German Studies in Ireland in a European context”, based at the Centre for Irish-German Studies and led by Prof Gisela Holfter, was funded by the DAAD (€114,996.74), for three years (2025-2027).

The project includes four strands and will be undertaken together with Dr Joseph Twist, UCD; Associate Professor Marieke Krajenbrink, UL; Dr Linda Shortt, MU; Associate Professor Michaela Schrage-Früh, UL as well as Associate Prof Sabine Egger, MIC and Prof Paul Carmicheal, Ulster University, and other colleagues from CIGS, including Orla Prendergast, Dr Anita Barmettler and Associate Professor Veronica O’Regan. Among the areas that will be investigated are the history of German Studies from an international comparative perspective, the impact of and need for Modern Languages in Ireland, the need for specialised learning material and, as one strand, the reflection on how to enhance the dialogue between Ireland North and South, the UK and Germany. Among the anticipated results are conferences, two edited volumes as well as enhanced digital learning tools.