
A joint Master’s program at four European universities
Want to study in Lithuania and Germany and then also in Sweden or Estonia? The international Master's degree program Sociolinguistics and Multilingualism – or 'SoMu' for short – makes it possible. Universities in all four countries are working together to provide insight into the multifaceted linguistic landscape, society, and history of the Baltic region. Professor Anneli Sarhimaa of the Northern European and Baltic Languages and Cultures research and teaching unit at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has helped create this unique degree program.

Alumnus memories meet the new School of Music
Chris Bremus is a successful film composer. One important step to this career was his education at the School of Music of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Years later, the 37-year-old has returned to the campus to talk about his time at university, about movies, commercials, and about how lucky he has been.

Integration in practice and in theory
He never actually intended to go to university. After graduating from high school, Necati Benli preferred to join the Hesse State Police. However, in a roundabout way, this brought him eventually to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The president of police, Benli's superior, needed someone with specialist insight into Islam and its practices and wanted to use theory in order to underpin police procedure. And so he made Benli an unusual proposal.

From parchment to the Internet
The Augsburg Master Builders' ledgers offer deep insights into the history of an important German imperial city. This nearly seamless chronicle extends over almost five hundred years. Professor Jörg Rogge of the Department of History of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has initiated a project which aims at preparing a digital version of this amazing historical source documentation.

The Sams learns Arabic
Last year, the Goethe Institute awarded its German-Arabic Translation Prize in the Young Translators category to Mahmoud Hassanein, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germersheim. Here he talks about his work, about literature, and about cultures.

Arte es Vida – Life is Art
Through its internal Research Funding Line I, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) provides support to various research projects. Among these is an unusual undertaking that focuses on the Chilean artist collective C.A.D.A., its members, and their global links to other avant-garde movements. This is the particular interest of Liliana Bizama of the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies in Germersheim.

A donation of intellectual property
Books on brain research, on philosophy and psychology of mind are expensive, yet at the time of their appearance the publications themselves may already be obsolete. Thus, the Open MIND Project decided to take another path. It provides a compendium of high-quality specialist papers that is freely accessible online. The initiator of this huge venture is Professor Thomas Metzinger of the Department of Philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).

Of differences and differentiation
People are not simply different; they additionally make distinctions among themselves. At times, skin color is to play a role, then there is faith, nationality, gender. The research unit "Un/doing Differences. Practices in Human Differentiation" investigates the mechanisms that are behind what causes us to make distinctions and what it is that can make these distinctions disappear. A range of different researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are working hand-in-hand for this purpose – across the boundaries of their own disciplines.

A small country but major themes
Post-war Germany takes up a very special stance on Israel, though often a rather limited one. The conflict in the Middle East is taking center stage while the shared German-Jewish history always plays an important role. It is the aim of the Israel Study Unit of the Institute of Political Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) to make Germans aware of the many other facets of the country. A current project is a major conference entitled "Rapprochement, Change, Perception and Shaping the Future: 50 Years of German-Israeli and Israeli-German Diplomatic Relations."

Cuneiform tablets, lumps of coal, and a letter written by Brentano
The research collections held by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are to be exhibited publicly for the first time in Mainz City Hall. The universal exhibition 'VALUABLES' offers insight into a cross section of various subjects and disciplines. It brings together skulls and prophets, medical instruments and minerals, musical instruments and ancient coins and much more.