Niels Penke receives funding in the Heisenberg program

How does popularity actually come about? And how do many people work together over a long period of time to ensure that certain ideas, narrative styles or trends endure? Dr. Niels Penke, PD Dr. Niels Penke, a specialist in German studies, wants to investigate these questions over the next five years at the Siegen Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the Popular". He has obtained funding for his research through the renowned Heisenberg Program of the German Research Foundation. The DFG will support the "Popularization and Duration" project with up to 570,000 euros over the next five years.

"I congratulate Niels Penke on this great success. Interdisciplinary research into the popular - i.e. that which attracts the attention of many - is one of the research lighthouses of our university. We are delighted that Dr. Penke will be strengthening this important area with his Heisenberg project," says University Rector Prof. Dr. Stefanie Reese.

Best place for research

"The University of Siegen and especially the Collaborative Research Center 'Transformations of the Popular' is simply the best place for me to do my research. Nowhere else can you find this thematic focus and this interdisciplinary exchange," explains Dr. Penke.

As part of his Heisenberg project, Niels Penke wants to look at popularization processes that have remained stable over the centuries. On the one hand, he will investigate why we often associate things that are very popular with terms from the field of illness: For example, we talk about something going "viral", mass phenomena developing into a "mania", or a trend spreading "like a fever". "This link between popularity and illness has been around for centuries. I want to show how these ways of thinking have developed, why they have remained so stable to this day despite all the historical upheavals and what messages they contain about culture and society," says Niels Penke.

References to the past and present of the popular

A second sub-project will look at the prehistory and early history of fantasy as one of the most popular genres of the present day: How did elements such as magic, invented worlds or prophecies develop in 18th and early 19th century literature and how did they eventually find their way into genre-defining fantasy drafts such as those of J.R.R. Tolkien? Aspects that have received little attention to date will also be considered - for example, Tolkien's engagement with the Brothers Grimm's text collections and their models.

But Penke also wants to look at the present in his research: A third sub-project will focus on how social media influences what literature is visible today and how it is talked about. In particular, Penke wants to take a close look at the platforms Instagram and TikTok: How do algorithms there determine what users get to see and in this way - at least in the short term - generate popularity? Linked to this are the questions of how reading, writing and talking about literature adapt to these conditions and what influence the platform infrastructures have on this.

Niels Penke studied German, Scandinavian Studies and Philosophy in Braunschweig and Göttingen and completed his doctorate at the University of Göttingen. After visiting research stays at Harvard University (USA) and the University of Tartu in Estonia, among others, Penke came to the University of Siegen in 2015, where he completed his habilitation in 2022. As coordinator of the "Popular Cultures" research center, he carried out important preparatory work for the special research area "Transformations of the Popular", in which he later worked as a research assistant.