Funding Success in collaborative project between Film Studies and Modern Languages

Dr Paul Flaig and Dr Dora Osbourne (Modern Languages) have been successful in their application for a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) grant "German Screen Studies Network (GSSN): Media, Cultures, Histories".

This DAAD Promoting German Studies (PGS) grant will support an an exciting new phase in the UK German Screen Studies Network (GSSN) as it moves its operational base from King’s College London (KCL) to the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Launched in 2013 by Professor Erica Carter and Dr Martin Brady (KCL), the GSSN has previously received support through two rounds of PGS project funding. In 2021, the network moved to Scotland under the new co-directorship of Dr Dora Osborne and Dr Paul Flaig (St Andrews). As Principal Investigators in this Joint Research Project, Osborne and Flaig are here seeking support for a series of events and activities that would significantly expand the GSSN’s role as the UK’s premiere scholarly forum for exploring German-language film and film history.

Working across German and Film Studies, Osborne and Flaig will further push the GSSN in interdisciplinary directions. Based in Scotland and collaborating with new GSSN partners in Wales and the Midlands, they will expand the network’s activities beyond London across diverse regions throughout the UK. Both PIs also have established ties to Scottish institutions, including Goethe Institut Glasgow and Filmhouse Edinburgh, and have received funding from St. Andrews’ Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund to migrate the GSSN’s digital operations from KCL.

Seeking to build on these preparatory efforts, this grant offers funding for two major international conferences ("Labour on Film" at KCL and "The Future of German Screen Studies" at St Andrews), a symposium ("Documenting Socialism: New Perspectives on East German Documentary Film" at St Andrews), a research skills workshop ("Exploring Fassbinder" in Frankfurt-am-Main), a video platform ("FilmGut"), as well as a Network Coordinator to both administer these new initiatives with UK and German partners and to further develop the GSSN’s online presence. The grant’s total is €59,800.