Shaping Holiness brings together the complementary strengths of four major research institutions in Berlin and Brandenburg: the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW), the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), and the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg. Their collaboration creates a research environment in which philology, religious and manuscript studies, conservation, materials science, and digital research can enter into sustained dialogue, enabling holy writings to be explored across disciplinary and religious boundaries.
The development of Shaping Holiness is supported by the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin–Brandenburg, whose expertise in interdisciplinary network building and research development provides an important foundation for the initiative.
As the Centre’s long-term institutional home, the BBAW provides an exceptional environment for interdisciplinary exchange and sustained dialogue with neighbouring research projects that share comparable methodological interests in textual cultures, knowledge production, and cultural heritage.
The Staatsbibliothek contributes by granting access to its internationally renowned manuscript collections and expertise in manuscript studies.
BAM brings perspectives from conservation science and material analysis, opening new avenues for the investigation of inks, pigments, writing supports, and techniques of production and preservation.