Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS)

SCRIPTS unites eight major Berlin-based research institutions that share responsibilities in managing projects and resources. It is hosted by the Freie Universität Berlin and cooperates with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin), the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School, the German Insti­tute for Economic Research (DIW), the Berlin branch of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the Centre for East European and International Stud­ies (ZOiS), and the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO).

Scientists from 17 disciplines and numerous countries analyse contestations, contradictions, and developments of the liberal script worldwide. Cluster research teams are made up of doctoral researchers, post-doctoral researchers, and professors from social and area studies. Research projects are linked to at least one thematic “Research Unit”, of which there are four (“Borders”, “Orders”, “Re-Allocation” and “Temporality”). The two Junior Research Groups (JRG) and SCRIPTS’ cross-cutting units (the “Theory Network” (TN), the “Data and Methodology Center” (DMC) and the “Knowledge Exchange Lab” (KEL)) contribute to the research.

As an interdisciplinary research consortium, SCRIPTS connects academic expertise in the social sciences and area studies and collaborates with twenty-one research institutions in all world regions.

To foster international academic cooperation and to provide early career development, the Berlin International College of Research and Graduate Training (BIRT) has been established for SCRIPTS. It hosts the SCRIPTS doctoral programme and brings renowned visiting scholars to Berlin.

Beyond that, SCRIPTS is well connected with research institutes and knowledge exchange partners, including the Humboldt Lab at the Humboldt Forum Berlin and the German Federal Foreign Office, with whom the Knowledge Exchange Lab has partnered with on several projects. Such collaborative enterprises are aimed at fostering a mutual exchange of knowledge.

Following an inclusive and emancipatory vision of collaborative knowledge production, SCRIPTS aims at promoting diversity. We envision that people with individual experiences, talents, points of view and ways of thinking will decisively enrich the Clusters’ research and management units and will contribute to a multifaceted, interdisciplinary research output.

SCRIPTS is one of seven clusters of excellence currently based in Berlin that are being funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) over a period of seven years. The clusters of excellence are part of the Excellence Strategy, a program of the federal and state governments to promote outstanding research networks that serves to promote top-level university research in Germany.