To the Spa for Research

International Research Project Studies Social Significance of Health Resorts No 169/2019 from Jun 12, 2019 A team of researchers from the universities of Amsterdam and Lund, Queen Mary University in London, and Freie Universität Berlin is starting a research project on health resorts as a location of transnational encounter and debate. At Freie Universität Berlin the project is based at the Peter Szondi Institute of Comparative Literature. Entitled "The European Health Resort as a Transnational Public Space and Social Metaphor," the project is being funded by the European research network HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area). Researchers Wiebke Kolbe, Henrike Schmidt Astrid Köhler, and Christian Noack are working together with practitioners from a wide range of European countries. With a budget of 20 million euros, the research network HERA is currently supporting 20 research teams that are expected to gain new insights into the origin and function of public spaces as a prerequisite for social communication. On the German side, Spas have always been places where political and social boundaries and norms were tested and overcome. Spas are catalysts of modern tourism, and they have contributed to the spread of a new consumer culture in Europe.