It is being funded with around € 228,000 by the Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation as part of the zukunft.niedersachsen funding program.
"Contrary to previous assumptions, initial research suggests that female rulers are by no means portrayed as the more emotional ones," explains historian and project manager Prof. Dr. Christiane Kunst. However, this means that the emotional construction of gender in antiquity is fundamentally under scrutiny," says the Osnabrück University researcher.
In a long-term study, which will begin with the emotions in Hellenism, a database of emotionally coded gender attributions will be created using a discourse analysis approach and traditional historical methods.
Specifically, over the next three years, the researchers will attempt to take a closer look at female rulers such as the many Cleopatras and rulers such as Antiochos II and Ptolemy Physkon. "It is particularly important for us to find out to what extent there are male and female emotions," explains Dr. Nicole Diersen, the second person responsible for the project.
Further information for editorial offices:
Prof. Dr. Christiane Kunst, Osnabrück University
Department of History
christiane.kunst@uos.de
