KEY AREA

Intercultural Knowledge

The University of Bern aspires to use its research in the area of intercultural knowledge to promote an exchange of information and reflection about cultural values. The Walter Benjamin Kolleg established the “Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professorship for World Literature” in the fall of 2013 as a means of inviting one international author each semester to offer courses aimed at advancing studies of the humanities and social sciences as well as to enrich the university’s cultural offerings with readings and other public events – in Bern and beyond. The guest professorship is supported by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland and Burgergemeinde Bern.

On the occasion of Dürrenmatt’s 100th birthday, however, a Swiss national was invited to the University of Bern in the 2021 spring semester: Playwright, novelist and essayist Lukas Bärfuss explored the works of Dürrenmatt as the 15th “Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature”. His weekly lecture course was entitled: “Madmen and Idiots”