ACCELS - Aachen Center for Cognitive and Empirical Literary Studies

 

ACCELS, the Aachen Center for Cognitive and Empirical Literary Studies, is an initiative of the Institute for English Studies that is dedicated to the empirical study of literary reception processes among readers. In particular, the complex interaction of cognitive and emotional factors of comprehension as well as the relationship between general mental dispositions and culturally specific meanings can be studied using the example of literary reception.

The ACCELS wants to make a contribution to this. The center operates laboratories for the empirical research of reception processes; it acts as a platform for ongoing and planned doctoral and postdoctoral projects in the field of cognitive and empirical literary studies, and it organizes a wide variety of events.

ACCELS Research Program

The ACCELS research program offers space for a wide variety of projects that contribute to the study of reception processes on the basis of cognitive approaches and with different qualitative and quantitative empirical methods.

The guiding concept of the research, which connects the individual projects, is the reception-oriented understanding of the experientiality of literature.

ACCELS Events Program

The ACCELS events program is diverse. The Center hosts lecture series - for example Pandemics and Storytelling, Empirical Approaches to Literature - Chances and Challenges, workshops, summer schools, and master classes with internationally renowned researchers working in the field of cognitive and empirical literary studies.

ACCELS Cross-Reference Network

The ACCELS network serves as a lively exchange between disciplines at all stages of the careers of the persons involved and connects eight international institutes including the Center of Fictionality Studies at Aarhus University, the Stylistics Research Group at Sheffield Hallam University, the Digital Humanities Lab at the University of Basel and many more.