Principal Investigator

Johannes Völz

  • Biografische Angaben

    Prof. Dr. Johannes Völz (born 1977) is Heisenberg Professor of American Studies, Democracy, and Aesthetics at the Institute of English and American Studies, Goethe-University Frankfurt. He serves on the Board of Directors of Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Bad Homburg, Frankfurt’s Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, where he launched and co-directs the research focus „Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World“ (with Prof. Dr. Gunther Hellmann). He also serves on the editorial board of WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, the journal of the Institut für Sozialforschung. He currently leads the DFG research project „American Literature and the Transformation of Privacy.“ Moreover he is designated speaker of a Graduiertenkolleg initiative on „The Aesthetics of the Democratic Way of Life.“ Prof. Völz received his dissertation from the John F. Kennedy-Institute of North American Studies of the Free University Berlin and his habilitation from Goethe-University Frankfurt. He was awarded a Heisenberg Professorship by the German Research Foundation in 2016. Over the course of his career, he has spent five years of research in the U.S., at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. His work lies at the intersection of literary studies, cultural studies, aesthetics, and political theory. In the context of ConTrust, he focuses on the research field of political media aesthetics and affect. In the Summer term 2022, he is Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna. From Winter 2022 to Summer 2023, he will be Senior Fellow at the Käte-Hamburger-Kolleg for Global Cooperation Research, Duisburg.

  • Publikationen

    Voelz, Johannes. The Poetics of Insecurity: American Fiction and the Uses of Threat. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

    „Populism and the Politics of Distrust.“ The People: Belonging, Exclusion, and Democracy. Hg. Benjamin Kohlmann und Matthew Taunton. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2022 (forthcoming)

    Voelz, Johannes. “Toward an Aesthetics of Populism, Part I: The Populist Space of Appearance.” Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (REAL) 34 (2018): 203–228.

    Voelz, Johannes (with Tom Freischläger). “Toward an Aesthetics of Populism, Part II: The Aesthetics of Polarization.” Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (REAL) 35 (2019). 261–286.

    “Reading Populism with Bourdieu and Elias.” Reading the Social in American Studies. Hg. Astrid Franke, Stefanie Müller, Katja Sarkowsky. New York: Palgrave, 2022. 233-258.

News from the research center

News
09.02.2026

On the topicality of the concept of violence based on Camus and Derrida

Prof. Dr. Christine Abbt from the University of St. Gallen gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence as part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", she gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence. Under the title "Defending democracies. On the topicality of the concept of violence in Camus and Derrida", the philosopher discussed forms of violence and revolt and categorized them with regard to a democratic setting.

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Publication
04.02.2026 | Journal article

New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts

Wille, Tobias; Simon, Hendrik; Daase, Christopher; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Wheeler, Nicholas J.; Holmes, Marcus; Rathbun, Brian C.; Acharya, Amitav; Mitzen, Jennifer (2026): „New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts“. In: International Studies Review 28 (1), viaf027.

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News
02.02.2026

States competing for people - David Owen on civil geopolitics

As part of the lecture series "At the Crossroads - The Future of Democracy", David Owen from the University of Southampton presented his concept of civil geopolitics.

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News
20.01.2026

Christine Hentschel on reorientation in catastrophic times

As part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", the sociologist spoke about living in and dealing with catastrophic times. Against the backdrop of the destruction of living conditions, wars, permanent crises and threats to democracy, Hentschel addressed the infiltration of the catastrophic into everyday social life and a changing activist and literary approach to the future.

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Publication
08.01.2026 | Journal article

Gender Differences in Financial Advice

Bucher-Koenen, Tabea; Hackethal, Andreas; Koenen, Johannes; Laudenbach, Christine (2025): „Gender Differences in Financial Advice“. In: American Economic Review, 115 (12), pp. 4218–4252.

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Publication
19.12.2025 | Anthology

Faszination und Freiheit 

Günther, Klaus; Zabel, Benno (Hrsg.) (2025): Faszination und Freiheit - Gegenwartsdiagnosen im Anschluss an Christoph Menkes Theorie der Befreiung, Weilerswist (Velbrück Wissenschaft).

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Publication
12.12.2025 | Anthology

Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus. Das Strafrecht und die Vielfalt der Alternativen

Tobias Singelnstein, Christoph Burchard (2025)

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Publication
12.12.2025 | Chapter

Was bleibt von der Verantwortung jenseits der Strafe übrig?

Günther, Klaus (2025): „Was bleibt von der Verantwortung jenseits der Strafe übrig?“. In: Zabel Benno; Singelnstein; Tobias und Burchard, Christoph (Hrsg.): Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus. Das Strafrecht und die Vielfalt der Alternativen. Velbrück Wissenschaft, S. 207-241.

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News
11.12.2025

Jonathan White on future thinking in democracies

On the second date of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy". Political scientist White discusses views on the future of democracies. A follow-up report

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