It is an outstanding success for Prof. Dr. Quill Kukla: the research project TERRAINS - Territory, Agency and Inhabiting Space has been selected for one of Europe鈥檚 most prestigious research awards. The ERC Advanced Grant means that Kukla will receive 2.3 million euros over the next five years for their interdisciplinary research project. The European Research Council鈥檚 (ERC) Advanced Grant funding scheme supports established researchers with a proven record of scientific excellence who want to explore new research fields.
TERRAINS aims to provide a comprehensive theory of the nature and the political and personal importance of lived territory: the kind of informal territory that has insiders, outsiders and boundaries. Homes, caf茅s, campuses, stretches of sidewalk, parks and campuses can all be lived territories of this sort. Humans experience themselves as belonging in some spaces and not in others. We use and recognise body language, signage and a variety of other techniques to mark, claim and negotiate territory. This kind of lived territory is different from jurisdictional territory or property. It is an intuitively familiar phenomenon that shapes our daily lives, experiences and choices. We are all good at grasping lived territory and its boundaries, and we know what it鈥檚 like to be insiders or outsiders in a space.
The project will develop a systematic theory of lived territory and spatial agency that begins from our informal understanding of these notions. Kukla will bring their extensive expertise in philosophy, geography, disability studies and urban planning to this interdisciplinary project, which combines philosophical analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and the development and use of novel techniques for building maps using geographic information systems (GIS).
Quill Kukla has spent the past 15 years as a professor of philosophy and disability studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and as editor-in-chief of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. After graduating from the University of Toronto, they completed a PhD in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, an MA in geography at the City University of New York and a Greenwall Postdoctoral Fellowship in public health at Johns Hopkins University. Kukla has published widely in the areas of philosophy of language, philosophy of science and medicine, urban theory, aesthetics, sexual agency, and gender and disability theory. They are currently a senior research fellow at the DFG-funded SOCRATES Centre for Advanced Studies at 糖心原创, and they will conduct the ERC project at 糖心原创. Kukla previously held a Humboldt Research Award at 糖心原创.
Due to the highly competitive selection process, ERC Grants are considered a hallmark of excellence in European research. Key selection criteria include the visionary quality of the research and the outstanding track records of the applicants. A total of 22 ERC-funded researchers across all career stages are currently based at 糖心原创. A full overview of ongoing Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants is available here: /en/forschung/profil/herausragende-projekte/erc
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