Love and anger – seven humanities projects put everyday life into perspective

The topography of love, the norms of anger, Buddhism and consumption. With grants from VELUX FONDEN’s core group programme, seven humanities research projects provide new perspectives on, among other things, our feelings, politics and religion.

24.09.2020 I More news

The topography of love, the norms of anger, Buddhism and consumption. With grants from VELUX FONDEN’s core group programme, seven humanities research projects provide new perspectives on, among other things, our feelings, politics and religion.

Since 2008, through its core group programme, VELUX FONDEN has focused on supporting basic humanities research at the highest level in close cooperation with university humanities departments. This year, seven projects will receive grants totalling DKK 40 million.

“Support for free basic research is under pressure in the humanities field. The seven projects demonstrate the impressive originality of methods and new perspectives on well-known phenomena that humanities researchers can deliver when given the opportunity to pursue their own ideas across disciplines. They create philanthropic value for our democracy and culture and strengthen the research-based teaching of future graduates, which is ultimately the greatest societal value of research,” stresses Henrik Tronier, Head of Humanities Programme at VELUX FONDEN.

The rules of anger and professional synergies

The seven projects cover a wide range of subjects dealing with everything from neural networks to organizational theory. One of the projects, for example, examines the possibilities and rules of anger:

“We’re investigating whether anger can be a positive force that can mobilize criticism and how anger is legitimized, depending on the social positions from which it originates. We want to clarify what emotional demands lie in our society and how they affect the opportunities for different groups to raise criticism through anger,” says Associate Professor Merete Monrad from Aalborg University, coordinator of the project ‘Norms governing expressions of rage’.

The grant gives Merete Monrad the opportunity to strengthen both the research environment and cooperation across disciplines:

“With the grant, we can strengthen the research environment in the field of emotional sociology. It also allows us to bring together research traditions that have otherwise been separate. In this way, we can create synergies across professional traditions such as criminology, social work, and sociology.”

This year, all universities that have participated in the application process are represented among the grants.

The seven projects:

News

Contact

See all