Max Planck Institutes and Experts

The Caucasus has too often been reduced to ethno-nationalist conflicts. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology analyse how civil, political, and social components interact and how citizenship is compared between historical and contemporary notions and practices. Social citizenship continues to be relevant, especially for citizens who are detrimentally affected by migration, whether forced or voluntary.

A Bibliotheca Hertziana research project looks at the official art and architecture in Fascist Italy between 1936 and 1943, during the period of the ‘Rome-Berlin Axis’ proclaimed by Mussolini. The way in which the regime presented itself and the way in which the two totalitarian states perceived and influenced each other is of particular interest. The study focuses on Adolf Hitler’s visit to Rome in 1938, the events leading up to it and its consequences.

Modern medical diagnostics and brain research would be unthinkable without magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition to traditional imaging, which reveals anatomical structures, functional MRI (fMRI) has become a valuable tool. It comes close to allowing us to watch the brain at work and has contributed considerably to the advances in human cognitive neuroscience. However, fMRI is an indirect method, as it measures a surrogate signal, based on hemodynamics. Smart contrast agents (SCAs) shall overcome this limitation and allow a direct access to neuronal activity.

Researchers of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin asked more than 10,000 individuals in nine European countries about their knowledge of the benefits of early detection screening for cancer. It turns out that Europeans are poorly informed optimists when it comes to early detection screening.

The premodern Mediterranean is characterized by an exchange of goods, artifatcs and knowledge beyond religious, political or cultural confinements. Harbour cities like Venice, Genoa or Pisa built and took part in networks which reached as far as to the Black Sea, and from there to the trade routes for the Far East. The Mediterranean courts shared forms of representation which cannot be understood within one cultural paradigm alone. A research project of the Kunsthistorisches Institut combines case studies with a discussion of the methodological implications of a Mediterranean art history.