on Affects in the Global Present

Summer Semester 2026 at Freie Universität Berlin

In 2026, the Collaborative Research Center 1171 Affective Societies enters its twelfth and final year of funding. This marks the beginning of the concluding phase of our work in the field of Affect Studies. We take this as an opportunity to invite all interested participants to a series of events.

With the Legacy Sessions, we aim to reflect on and revisit the research conducted since the inception of the CRC Affective Societies. Since 2015, our goal has been to develop a new understanding of societies that acknowledges the fundamental role of affects as key elements of the social and of collective life in the 21st century. By bringing together social sciences, cultural studies, and the humanities, we have explored a wide range of societal domains – including the dynamics of transformation and crisis in the global present.

The Legacy Sessions look back on these research trajectories, perspectives, and developments. At the same time, they take stock of the current situation: How do diverging affects shape the struggles of different actors over the organization of social life? How do affects themselves become sites of contention, as negotiations over ways of life, practices, identities, and institutions intensify in the context of overlapping global crises?

These and many other questions central to Affective Societies will be explored together with current and former researchers of the CRC, as well as practitioners and stakeholders from the respective societal fields.

The series will take place during the summer semester of 2026 and consists of ten events, held on Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in lecture hall J32/102 at Freie Universität Berlin (Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin).

Each session will be followed by an informal get-together.