Jonatan Kurzwelly, who co-leads the Radicalization, Terrorism, and Extremism Prevention Research Group at PRIF, is visiting the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from October 7 to 17, 2025, with his project “Over Their Dead Bodies.” This is his third stay as part of the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) program. The CAT program promotes networks of outstanding young scholars and enables them to meet during short stays at various participating institutes and to engage in exchange with local research communities.
One great benefit of the CAT programme, as Jonatan Kurzwelly reported, is the possibility of meeting and talking to numerous leading scholars from different disciplines in the natural and social sciences and humanities. For example, the group had several enriching discussions with Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, two renown historians. They discussed ideological continuities and discontinuities of imperialism and colonialism, while munching on breakfast breadrolls (as in the photograph). They elso engaged in conversations with biologists, geneticists, legal scholars, social psychologists, musicologists, artists, and other inspiring scholars. At the same time the Wissenschaftskolleg offered a perfect environment for focused group work, for finishing the group's joint articles and conceptualising new ones.
The project “Over Their Dead Bodies” was selected for the CAT program in 2024. It addresses the current use and handling of human remains in institutional collections. The central question relates to the nature of human remains and how the answer varies depending on the perspective, ranging from object, scientific evidence, and subject, individual, or even spirit.
