The linguist Cornelia Ebert and the philosopher Darrel Moellendorf were elected to membership of the »Scholarly Society« (Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft) at the University of Frankfurt in the 2024 summer semester.

Founded in Strasbourg in 1906, the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft is closely associated with Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Its membership consists chiefly of professors from the university, but also includes members of other academic institutions in the city of Frankfurt. The key admission criteria are academic excellence and an interest in interdisciplinary discussion. The Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft sees its primary task in fostering the exchange between the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and medicine in an atmosphere of scholarly and scientific discourse. These discussions in turn influence and inspire the development of research and teaching at the university. This is particularly important at a time when scientific research is characterized by an increasing fragmentation and specialization of the individual sciences.

Cornelia Ebert has been Professor of Linguistics and Semantics at Goethe University Frankfurt since 2019. As a Goethe Fellow from 2020 to 2024, she worked on her research project »Visual Communication,« from which emerged the DFG Priority Program Visual Communication. Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Perspectives« (ViCom).

Darrel Moellendorf has been Professor of International Political Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt since 2013. He has been a Goethe Fellow at the Kolleg since the 2023 summer semester, working on a project entitled »Hope in the Age of the Anthropocene« as well as initiating activities on the Kolleg’s »Planetary Thinking« focus.

The membership of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft includes other professors at Goethe University who are associated with the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften. Among them are its director, Matthias Lutz Bachmann, the (former) members of the governing board Andreas Fahrmeir, Klaus Günther, Rainer Forst, and Christian Wiese as well as the Goethe Fellows Iwo Amelung, Gunther Hellmann, and Guido Pfeifer. The latter has been deputy chairman of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft since November 2021.