Department of Philosophy and Humanities

In keeping with the division of Critical Dance Studies’ theoretical, historiographic, and transdisciplinary orientation, research interests of its faculty cover a broad scope of topics. Ranging from the early modern period to the contemporary, research focuses on ballet and its 19th-century discourses, gestural thought in dance modernism, the discursive and material movements of Indigenous dance cultures, postcolonial practices and postmodern dance, intermedial fields of research (architecture, film, literature), reenactment, somatics, dance dramaturgy, curation, Black, queer and decolonial studies, and the environmental humanities.

Critical Dance Studies is integrated into diverse research contexts at Freie Universität Berlin, including the Collaborative Research Center 1512 "Intervening Arts," the Research Training Group 2638 "Normativity - Critique - Change," and the Cluster of Excellence "Temporal Communities." Researchers maintain close connections with dance scholars both within and outside Europe, resulting in international guest invitations, workshops, seminars, and conferences. Research is incorporated into lectures and seminars to familiarize students with cutting-edge approaches. The department’s cross-pollination between research and teaching enables its student body to move confidently within an international field of discourse in Critical Dance Studies when pursuing their individual research interests.

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