A model can be an object of admiration, a miniature or a prototype, an abstracted phenomenon or applied theory, a literary text – practically anything from a human body on a catwalk to a mathematical description of a system. It can elicit desire, provide understanding, guide action or thought. Despite the polysemy of the term, models across disciplines and fields share a fundamental characteristic: their effect depends on a specific relational quality. A model is always a model of or for something else, and the relation is reductive insofar as it is selective and considers only certain aspects of both object and model. The literary examples of maps made to the scale of a territory described by Lewis Carroll and Jorge Luis Borges humorously point to the absurdity of thinking that models keep improving by becoming less reductive until they eventually coincide with their target.
Critical discussions of models often revolve around their restrictive function. Such critiques can draw on the notion of scientific paradigms, which articulate problems and solutions deemed exemplary by a community of scientists and thereby render alternative approaches increasingly implausible and marginal. Feminist, queer, and decolonial approaches have put forth powerful critiques of the oppressive function of identity models. In recent debates about technological developments, artificial intelligence is again and again found to reproduce entrenched biases, and its predictive models are said to flatten history into a pre-stabilized present. And yet models are less prescriptive and more ambiguous than codified rules or norms. In the sciences, they are usually considered more modest, tentative, and local than theories, which are more expansive and aspire to universality. They can indeed be considered as intermediaries between the theories and worlds they help constitute – as creative, partially autonomous tools for understanding and as media of theorizing and worlding.
What is the critical purchase of models and how does their generative potential relate to their constitutive reduction? What are the stakes in decreasing or increasing, altering or proliferating the reductiveness of models? How can one work with and on models in a creative, productive manner without disavowing power asymmetries and their exclusionary or limiting effects? To explore these and further questions, the ICI Berlin calls for applications from all fields, including – but not limited to – literary, film, and media studies, the history and theory of art and architecture, musicology, law and critical race theory, sociology, economics, philosophy, queer and gender studies, environmental and medical humanities, and history of science. We especially welcome applications from individuals who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in research.
The committed exchange between fellows is a central aim of the Institute. Applicants should be interested in a theoretical reflection on the conceptual and intellectual basis of their projects and in discussing it with fellows from other disciplines. In particular, fellows will be expected to participate in the weekly colloquia, bi-weekly informal meetings, and other activities of the Institute, to contribute to a common publication, and to be resident in Berlin for the duration of the fellowship.
The fellowships announced are for the academic years 2022–24 (12 September 2022 – 12 July 2024). There is no age limit, but applicants should have obtained their PhD within ten years of the date of appointment. The stipend is 2.200 EUR per month.
Interested applicants should read the full announcement on https://www.ici-berlin.org/fellowships-announcement/.