New research on Renaud de Montauban: What a rebellious knight reveals about centuries of European imagination

A newly approved project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) explores one of the most fascinating yet understudied figures of chivalric literature: Renaud de Montauban, cousin of Roland and a central character in the Matter of France. Giulia Zava, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, will investigate how Renaud’s character changes across time, genres and cultural contexts.

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Dreaming of a whole new life: book about lottery fantasies presented in Utrecht

Imagine if everything suddenly changed tomorrow. If a single win turned your life completely upside down. Precisely this dream of a radical new beginning was the starting point for an international research project in which Angela Fabris has been collaborating with Norwegian, Dutch, German, British and American literary, historical and media scholars over the past four years. The result is the anthology ‘Lottery Fantasies, Follies, and Controversies’, which will be presented at the Utrecht University Centre for Early Modern Studies on Friday, 6 March. The project was generously funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

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The feminine terms in the Ukrainian language: Olena Synchak searches for historical and political clues in MSCA4Ukraine project

Ukraine’s turbulent history, with its recurring Russian interventions, is also reflected in its language. Ukrainian linguist Olena Synchak is investigating how this is expressed in the use of feminine terms. She is supported by means of a highly competitive MSCA4Ukraine Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the European Commission. In our interview, she talks about the changes in her language – and how these are also reflected in touching stories told by Ukrainian women.

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A change of perspective alters not only our perception of others, but also our perception of ourselves

How do we perceive each other when we regard each other as strangers? This is one of the central themes identified by Cornelia Muschet in her literary analysis of Takua Ben Mohamed’s graphic novels. In her thesis, the doctoral candidate in Italian Studies came to a conciliatory conclusion: Ben Mohamed’s characters often accept prejudices about those from other cultures as fact, even though they do not exist. The author often sees herself as a stranger; she is perceived as different. Her work addresses topics such as questions of identity in clothing, the impact of images of others, stereotypes and prejudices in intercultural communication, and the concept of ‘othering’. In October 2024, Cornelia Muschet completed her doctoral thesis with an oral defence at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

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