Visit at the University at Buffalo

Franz-Benjamin had the chance to exchange ideas with Barry Smith and Thomas Bittner during a short research stay at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. The focus was on establishing a substantive exchange and exploring possible collaborations.

In the discussions with Barry Smith, Franz-Benjamin’s ideas on the nature of representation and ideas concerning place conceptualization were reflected upon and critically scrutinized. This gave new impetus to both research and current teaching activities in Salzburg. In addition, ideas on processual entities were discussed in the area of formal ontology.

Franz-Benjamin shares a doctoral supervisor (Andrew U Frank) with Thomas Bittner as well as a strong interest in interdisciplinary research: Thomas Bittner works in both the Department of Geography and the Department of Philosophy. The joint discussions were dedicated, among other things, to the quantification of geographical information and corresponding concepts of granularity, as well as Franz-Benjamin’s ideas regarding the various levels of representation.

Link: Space and Place LAB News