Change of Spokesperson at the Cluster of Excellence

14 October 2022

Photo: CSMC

Michael Friedrich (left) hands over to Konrad Hirschler (right).

Since the beginning of October, the Cluster of Excellence ‘Understanding Written Artefacts’ has a new spokesperson: Konrad Hirschler has taken over from Michael Friedrich, who has officially retired.

Without Michael Friedrich, neither the CSMC, founded in 2012, nor the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts, which has been connected to it since 2019, would exist in their present form. The sinologist has not only accompanied the expansion of crossdisciplinary and holistic manuscript research at the Universität Hamburg, combining the humanities, the natural sciences, and computer science, from the very beginning; he has played a key role in driving it forward at every stage: first in the Research Unit ‘Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa’ (2008-2011), later in the Collaborative Research Centre (‘Sonderforschungsbereich’) ‘Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa and Europe’ (2011-2020), and finally in the current Cluster of Excellence, he has always held leading positions.

Last year, he officially became professor emeritus but continued to lead the Cluster as senior professor during a transitional period. Now he is retiring. In his place, the Islam scholar Konrad Hirschler takes over the role of spokesperson. He came to Hamburg from Freie Universität Berlin in 2021 and has since then been the spokesperson of the ‘Research Field ‘Archiving Artefacts’, which he will continue to lead. He was officially elected the spokesperson of the whole Cluster at the annual members’ meeting in June 2022.

The spokesperson plays a key role in shaping the overall strategy of the Cluster, presiding over the meetings of its Steering Committee and representing it vis-à-vis the various institutions of the university and in the public. The term of office is three years, re-election is possible.