Cassandra Project
Dr. Julia Poertner from the German Section in the Department of Languages & Literatures has been awarded a SSHRC Institutional Grant for her project: “The Cassandra Project: Crisis Prediction Through Literary Analysis”.
The Cassandra Project was originally founded by Dr. Jürgen Wertheimer at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The SSHRC grant will help to establish a Canadian outpost for Project Cassandra at Acadia University, analyzing narratives of nature and culture in the Arctic region and broader geopolitical issues related to Canada’s international relations.
Named after the mythological figure Cassandra, whose accurate predictions of doom were ignored by those around her, the Cassandra Project highlights how narratives can serve as early warnings of impending crises. Literary works often reflect the cultural and societal shifts that precede political instability, violence, and environmental challenges. In an era where geopolitics and global uncertainties dominate the discourse, traditional crisis management tools are becoming increasingly ineffective. One important yet frequently overlooked resource is literature. The Cassandra Project demonstrates that through literary analysis, early indicators of emerging crises, from social tensions to regional conflicts, can be detected far before they become visible in more traditional, data-driven reports.