to the website of the Gabriele Possanner Institute!
We are a group of scientists dedicated to inter- and transdisciplinary research, with a particular emphasis on the traditional humanities and liberal arts sciences.
One of our main concerns is to introduce the aspect of reflecting and deliberating into today’s world of science with its main focus on economic efficiency. Of course, reflecting has the disadvantage of being very hard to measure – but still it is of the utmost importance for science and research, as they influence and change society as a whole. In particular, looking back and recognizing roots is essential to understand why today is constructed as we see it, and to use these insights to contemplate paths into the future and to contribute to their development.
The purpose of the Gabriele Possanner Institute
Based on the awareness that every single scientist contributes to the creation of today and tomorrow and thereby provides important input to the life situation of other human beings, we feel responsible for what kind of knowledge we produce, and in what way. In this context, we see it as a key strength to be able to act independently of political framework conditions. As an extramural research community we do not however see ourselves as a competitor of already existing university and extramural facilities, but rather as an enrichment of the research landscape; we would like to offer scientists the opportunity of realizing projects that for whatever reasons could not be conducted within existing establishments. We also realize that increasingly there is less and less room for manoeuvre for those scientists working within institutions, which hampers or even prevents the actualization of creative ideas; here too we would like to offer support whenever possible.
Women in science
Currently, existing institutions make it impossible for numerous excellent scientists – especially women – to fully contribute their knowledge and skills. We have therefore made it our goal to support and promote the scientific activities of women in particular; however, this explicitly does not exclude the involvement of men in our research projects. It is for this reason that we have named our research community after Gabriele Possanner, the first woman to graduate with a doctorate degree from the University of Vienna. Further information on Gabriele Possaner and about us and our supported projects can be found in the respective sections of our homepage. We welcome any feedback, queries or discussion contributions and would like to ask you to send these statements to the person in charge of the project or to the administration.
