Two ERC Starting Grants Awarded

SITESOFMEMORY

In her SITESOFMEMORY project, Dr. Jeannette Oholi will explore the contribution literature can make to the culture of memory in a pluralistic society. The project focuses on literature by racialized authors—that is, authors categorized based on physical or cultural characteristics—from the 20th and 21st centuries. Dr. Oholi builds upon existing research on memory in literary and cultural studies, but supplements it with anti-racism as a vision for a more just society. She is interested in the plurality and polyphony of memories, which the project aims to bring to light by examining literary texts in relation to one another. In this way, memories that have not previously been part of German memory culture will be made visible.

Curriculum Vitae: Dr. Jeannette Oholi

Dr. Jeannette Oholi is a scholar of literature and cultural studies. She studied German, African Studies, and Media Studies at the University of Bayreuth and earned her Ph.D. in 2023 from Justus Liebig University Giessen with a dissertation titled “Afropean Aesthetics.” She then spent two years conducting research as a Mellon Postdoc Fellow in the Department of German Studies at Dartmouth College in the U.S. She is currently a research associate at the Chair of General Cultural Studies at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. Upon the start of her ERC Starting Grant, she plans to join TU Dortmund University, where she has already served as a lecturer for two semesters.

PROMETHEUS

In his PROMETHEUS project, Dr. Christian Preuß will investigate how subatomic radiation processes in strong interactions can be described more precisely. Reactions between elementary particles—such as those that occur at particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva—are predicted using simulation programs. However, for an increasing number of measurements at particle accelerators, the accuracy of current theoretical predictions is no longer sufficient. The goal of PROMETHEUS is therefore to refine these predictions. To achieve this, the radiation processes will be divided into a semi-classical radiation pattern and quantum mechanical corrections, thereby improving the precision of existing models.

Curriculum Vitae: Dr. Christian Preuß

Dr. Christian Preuß studied physics at the University of Göttingen and earned his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics in 2021 from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He then spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich and two years as a research assistant and visiting professor at the University of Wuppertal. After working as a research assistant at the University of Göttingen, he has been a research assistant at RWTH Aachen University since March 2026. He will join TU Dortmund University to begin his ERC Starting Grant.

About the ERC Starting Grant

Through its Starting Grants, the European Research Council supports outstanding early-career researchers who earned their Ph.D. between two and seven years ago. The program offers them the opportunity to advance their research careers independently. Applicants for an ERC Starting Grant must have already demonstrated their potential for scientific independence and maturity.