This project will bring Matthew Pelowski to Vienna University to undergo a unique two-way program of knowledge transfer and to conduct an innovative, integrated behavioral/neural study of art perception using causative brain manipulation via TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). Art is a unique feature of human life. Uncovering how it affects us requires joint expertise in aesthetics, psychology and neuroscience. Employing TMS, we will systematically manipulate three key brain regions (prefrontal, temporal and parietal), while individuals view a selection of art. Cognitive, emotional and evaluative reactions will be recorded via specially designed survey and assessed via a cognitive model which integrates these factors, both of which were created by Dr. Pelowski and which he will introduce to the Vienna group. Simultaneously, Dr. Pelowski will be supported by leading experts in art’s neural study under guidance of host Dr. Leder, and will receive training in TMS. By comparing responses to a control and using Dr. Pelowski's methodology, we will collect a comprehensive within-subject dataset of specific impact of brain regions on art experience. This research will provide the “next step” for clarifying previous cognitive and neurological findings, achieving their integration. It will clarify general questions of brain role in emotion and evaluation. It will also have wide inter-sectoral application to dementia research and art therapy, which will be explored with experts in Leder’s group, and will be a breakthrough to future study of integrated neuroaesthetics and psychology of art. This project will also create a new research direction, expanding from an established center at University of Vienna, continuing a key tradition in empirical aesthetics. It also creates a point of continuing collaboration between Vienna, US and EU, and will further launch the career of Dr. Pelowsk and extend his proficiency to causative brain research.

Adaptive evolution of flowers to optimize pollen transfer by animal pollinators is considered a key driver of plant speciation and the success of flowering plants. Plant-pollinator interactions are embedded in complex abiotic (climatic) and biotic (other plants/pollinators) contexts, and the structure and function of interaction networks changes across such contexts. To date, however, we lack a broad-scale perspective on how these contexts affect which flower phenotypes are ‘fit’, and how flowers evolve to adapt to these contexts. This knowledge gap limits our understanding of the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity, critically important in light of current global change. In MountBuzz, I aim at developing a novel context-dependent ecological perspective on the processes structuring the evolution of flower diversity by linking the commonly separated fields of community ecology and macroevolutionary modelling. First, to determine which flower phenotypes are ‘fit’ (high reproductive success) in different a-/biotic environmental contexts, my team and I will analyze plant-pollinator interactions and flower and pollinator trait data along four elevational gradients across the tropics. We will combine empirical field observations with pollination experiments to pinpoint context-dependent changes in phenotype-fitness relationships. Second, synthesizing across these results, we will test whether patterns of flower macroevolution follow predictable, context-dependent trajectories by employing machine-learning based predictive modelling and phylogenetic comparative methods. The results of MountBuzz will deliver a new perspective on the relative importance of pollinator-mediated selection and environment-dependent processes in driving flower evolution and plant diversification. My study set-up (cross-continental, cross-environmental, cross-lineages) further allows for identifying generalities in patterns, thereby delivering novel hypotheses for future research.

WILA19-91 main aim is to to bridge the gap between intellectual history and labor history, and through this methodological innovation not only highlight the disparity between intellectual labor and intellectual achievements, but also challenge historiography's perception of the latter. While intellectual history predominantly focuses on artistic and intellectual achievements, it often fails to question the underlying conditions that made such achievements possible. Consequently, many marginalized groups have been excluded from the canon, as they did not have the necessary working conditions to consistently produce intellectual or artistic labor. The WILA19-91 project focuses specifically on women's intellectual labor from 1919 to 1991, utilizing Yugoslavia as a transnational laboratory space to observe the dynamics of intellectual and artistic labor across different time periods, generations, social classes, nationalities, and ethnicities. The project's outcomes will contribute to establishing new norms for reevaluating artistic and intellectual achievements, ultimately broadening and decolonizing the canon. The project examines work conditions, considering the power structures associated with intellectual authorities, social prejudices, intimate beliefs, and invisible social agreements at various times. To achieve this, it explores the intersection of intellectual, labor, and gender history. By drawing on a diverse range of sources in different languages (Slovene, Croatian, Serbian, German) and amplifying the voices of women from ethnic and sexual minorities, this project will investigate working conditions, attitudes towards work, legislative changes, family dynamics, public reception, financial compensation and care work, in order to understand the division between intellectual work (as labor) and being an intellectual (as a status).