The changing nature of warfare, violence against civil society actors, and discussions about justice and justification are the three social dynamics that TraCe focuses on in its second funding phase starting April 2026. Following a positive evaluation, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) approved financial support for two more years, extending the center’s funding until 2028. “In the second funding phase, we want to build on our joint commitment to research, teaching, and knowledge transfer. At the same time, our intensive collaboration in light of social developments has shown that new cross-cutting themes need to be researched,” said Jonas Wolff, co-spokesperson for TraCe and member of the PRIF Executive Board.
One of these cross-cutting themes is violence against social activists. According to reports by civil society organizations such as Front Line Defenders and Global Witness, between 300 and 400 people who peacefully advocate for human rights are killed worldwide every year, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. This violence includes digital attacks against environmental activists, who also suffer from the impacts of resource extraction and climate change. “Interdisciplinary collaboration is key to understanding how and why political violence is changing, especially in the face of technological or environmental shifts,” says Astrid Erll, co-spokesperson for TraCe and professor of Anglophone literatures and cultures at Goethe University Frankfurt.
TraCe’s interdisciplinary work continues to focus on the evolving forms of political violence in relation to technological, political, and social changes, the transformation of institutions that either enable or restrict violence, and how political violence is interpreted and justified. The network’s overarching goal is to identify strategies for containing violence. A central concern of the network remains the dialogical transfer of knowledge in politics, the media, and civil society. Transfer activities to date include podcast episodes, public panel discussions, dialogue events in Brussels and Berlin, and workshops with practice partners, including a collaborative exhibition with KUNSTHALLE GIESSEN. The network also has two publication series.