By Christian Strümpell and Hasan Ashraf. Bangladesh is widely known as having rapidly grown into one of the world’s major producers of ready-made garments. In 1978, it counted 9 factories; in 1985, their number stood at 598; and in 1996 at 2,353.
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Outside Looking in: On Teaching Art History from the ‘Margins’
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Hala Auji (Art History, American University of Beirut, Lebanon). What does it mean to teach art history, a discipline still rooted in eighteenth-century European Enlightenment ideals, in present-day Lebanon? As an art historian of the Middle East living and working in Beirut, teaching courses on the region has proven to be more challenging than one might imagine.
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‘النَظر من الخارج: في تدريس تاريخ الفنّ من ’الهوامش
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
هلا عوجي (تاريخ الفنّ، الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت، لبنان). ما الذي يعنيه في لبنان اليوم أن ندرّس تاريخ الفنّ، ذلك الفرع الذي لا يزال يضرب بجذوره في المُثُل العليا لعصر التنوير الأوروبي في القرن الثامن عشر؟ بصفتي مؤرخةً للفنّ في الشرق الأوسط أعيش وأعمل في بيروت، ثبت لي أنّ مساقات التدريس في المنطقة أكثر تحدّيًا مما تخيّلت.
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From War-Torn Europe to Colonial Africa
by editorial board •
By Alfred Tembo and Jochen Lingelbach. While World War II was ravaging Europe, thousands of Polish people found a safe haven in British colonial Africa. This forgotten history shows us that migration patterns are constantly changing.
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Where Intellectual and Environmental Histories Meet: Kashf al-ẓunūn and its Addenda as a Source for Ottoman Environmental History
by Max Weber Stiftung •
By M. Fatih Çalışır. Main themes of environmental history. Environmental history is a kind of history that seeks an understanding of human beings as they have lived, worked, and thought in relationship to the rest of nature through the changes brought by time. As a relatively new field, it explores:
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History without Debate: A Reading of the Crisis in Arab Historiography
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Abdulhadi Alajmi (History, Kuwait University, Kuwait). Many universities in the Arab world, which annually publish thousands of theses, dissertations, academic articles and a numerous range of monographs, follow a common framework, which is the extensive collection of information.
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التاريخ بلا جدل: قراءة في أزمة الكتابة التاريخية العربية
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
عبد الهادي العجمي (تاريخ، جامعة الكويت، الكويت). الكثير من الجامعات التي تُصدِر في كلّ عامٍ آلافًا من الرسائل والأطروحات والمقالات العلمية والدراسات المتعدّدة والمختلفة، تتّبع إطارًا عامًا مشتركًا ألّا وهو الجمع الواسع للمعلومات، مشتركًا يفتقد لروح الجدل والفرضية. والحقيقة أن هذا المعطى التجريبي أصبح هو المنتج لاحقًا لما أسمّيه ’سلبية علم التاريخ‘ ولفقدان هذا الأخير لسمة التحليل النقدي والقدرة التنافسية في حيّز ومسار الفكر الثقافي والإنساني للمجتمعات العربية.
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“The workshops are seedbeds for degeneration”: Forms of Exposure and Protection of Workers’ Bodies in Vardar Macedonia
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Ivana Hadjievska. Between 1918 and 1941, Vardar Macedonia was the southernmost region in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It represented the Ottoman legacy in the kingdom, with its diversity of religions and ethnicities, and a population that predominantly subsisted on agriculture.
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Seasons of Capitalism: Human and Non-Human Nature in the Making of Lebanon’s Silk Industry
by Max Weber Stiftung •
By Graham Auman Pitts. Capitalism had it seasons in late-Ottoman Mount Lebanon. Each spring, the families that tilled orchards of mulberries purchased the eggs they needed on credit. Mulberry leaves nourished the eggs, which hatched and began to spin their cocoons once the temperature was reliably above 16° Celsius.
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The Strange Case of Portugal’s Returnees
by editorial board •
By Christoph Kalter. The year is 1975, and the footage comes from the Portuguese Red Cross. Who, or maybe what, are these people? Returnees or retornados is the term commonly assigned to more than half-a-million people, the vast majority of them white settlers from Angola and Mozambique, most of whom arrived in Lisbon in 1975.
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Humanities in Germany: Sciences Among Sciences
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Sabine Behrenbeck (Head of Department for Higher Education, German Council for Science and Humanities, Germany). There are many common problems and complaints regarding the humanities in anglophone nations and Germany, but there is also one important difference: In Germany the disciplines dealing with culture and language, religion and history are “sciences among sciences” (Wissenschaften unter Wissenschaften).
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الإنسانيات في ألمانيا: علومٌ بين العلوم
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
زابينه بيرنبيك (رئيسة قسم التعليم العالي، المجلس الألماني للعلوم والإنسانيات، ألمانيا). ثمّة كثير من المشكلات والشكاوى المشتركة المتعلّقة بالإنسانيات في البلدان الناطقة بالإنكليزية وفي ألمانيا، لكنّ هنالك أيضًا فارقًا مهمًّا: في ألمانيا، الفروع التخصّصية التي تُعنى بالثقافة واللغة والدين والتاريخ هي „علومٌ بين العلوم“ (Wissenschaften unter Wissenschaften). وما من تمييز بين ما يُسمّى „Geisteswissenschaften“ (العلوم الإنسانية) ومباحث أخرى من خلال تسميات خاصّة (مثل الإنسانيات أو الآداب الحرّة)، ولذلك يُنظَر إليها وتُعامَل على قدم المساواة لناحية اختيار الطلّاب أو المسارات الوظيفية أو تمويل الأبحاث.
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A Small Rift in the United States Regarding Palestine: A Shift in Rhetoric, But What About Foreign Policy?
by editorial board •
By Jeffrey G. Karam. For decades, the United States’ steadfast support for Israel has been one of the pillars of its foreign policy in the Middle East. This has allowed successive Israeli governments to act with impunity and evade accountability for crimes against Palestinians.
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The Fijeh Water Project and the Cholera Epidemic in 1903 Damascus
by Max Weber Stiftung •
By Benan Grams. On June 30th, 1903 Sultan Abdulhamid II approved a project to bring potable water to Damascus from the Ein el-Fijeh spring. The project was presented to the central government by Nazim Pasha, the governor of Syria, during a persistent cholera epidemic that afflicted Damascus throughout that year.
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Refugees and Religion
by editorial board •
By Birgit Meyer. The volume Refugees and Religion: Ethnographic Studies of Global Trajectories, co-edited by Birgit Meyer and Peter van der Veer, disputes a hard and fast distinction between migrants and refugees by showing how shifting legal arrangements as well as people’s varying statuses make the concept of ‘refugee’ dynamic.
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The Humanities in the Age of Digital Information Exchange
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Amani Albedah (Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences). This contribution offers a preliminary perspective on the state of the humanities today, as knowledge production takes an unprecedented turn in human history.
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الإنسانيات في عصر التبادل الرقمي للمعلومات
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
أماني البداح (نائب المدير العام للبرامج والوظائف المساندة، مؤسّسة الكويت للتقدّم العلمي، الكويت). تقدّم هذه المساهمة نظرة أولية إلى حال الإنسانيات اليوم، حيث يتّخذ إنتاج المعرفة منعطفًا غير مسبوق في تاريخ البشرية. وقد رسمتُ الملامح العامّة لنقاشي في خطوتين: الأولى هي محاولة تحديد بعض السمات الرئيسة لإنتاج المعرفة في اللحظة التاريخية الحالية التي سأسمّيها التبادل الرقمي للمعلومات.
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New Questions for Studying Plague in Ottoman History
by Max Weber Stiftung •
By Nükhet Varlık. Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is known to have affected human societies for at least the last five thousand years. During its long history, it sparked countless local epidemics and three known pandemics, which spread the bacterium to practically every corner of the world.
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Essentialism and the Making of African Refugees
by editorial board •
By Rose Jaji. African “refugeeness” in the media, policy, and academia is an essentialist physical image conflating material deprivation and multiple victimhoods. Historically, African refugees were capable of political participation even to the point of building vibrant states in the new lands they fled to in precolonial Africa.
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Material Determinations and Workers’ Identity: An Analysis of an Argentinian Steelworks
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Mariana Stoler. In Establecimientos Metalúrgicos Santa Rosa, the third biggest steel factory in Argentina between 1960 and 1981, the experience of a dangerous production process was a key element in the building of workers’ subjectivity.
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The Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin and Its Quest for Socio-Political Relevance: The Example of the TAMAM Project
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Roman Singendonk (Curator, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, Germany). The role that museums play in society has been constantly changing over the past decades, and now, more than ever, they are expected to serve society’s prosperity.
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متحف الفنّ الإسلامي في برلين وسعيه وراء صلة اجتماعية سياسية: مشروع “تمام” نموذجًا
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
رومان زِنغِندونك (قَيِّم، متحف الفنّ الإسلامي، برلين، ألمانيا). كان الدور الذي تؤدّيه المتاحف في المجتمع قيد تغيّر متواصل طوال العقود الماضية. ومن المتوقع الآن، أكثر من أيّ وقت مضى، أن تساهم المتاحف في ازدهار المجتمع.
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Cultivating Flowers and Loyal Subjects: A Case Study of the Işkodra Municipal Garden
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Berin Gölönü. Starting in the year 1870, a new type of public recreation space referred to as the “people’s garden” or municipal garden took root in the Ottoman Empire’s cities and towns. These formally landscaped spaces were modeled after Haussmann-era Parisian promenades.
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Mozambique’s borders
by editorial board •
By Adérito Júlio Machava. During the period prior to the setting up of the Portuguese colonial administration in southeast Africa, there were important waves of forced migrations caused by, firstly, the Mfecane, and secondly the defeat of King Ngungunhane in 1895, and the subsequent overthrow of the Gaza Empire.
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European Textile Production Subcontracting and the Transformation of Apparel Factories in Yugoslavia and Morocco
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Goran Musić. The effects that the emergence of “fast fashion” and textile production subcontracting have had on gendered labor in the European periphery is a relatively well researched topic in recent years. Though, there is a lack of historical perspectives explaining how these labor relations originally gained ground inside protectionist and planned economies during the Cold War.
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Archaeology in Algeria: Challenges of Multidisciplinary Research and the Identity Question
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Nadia Bahra (Archaeology, University of Constantine, Algeria). The worrying condition of archaeological sites and monuments and the alarm bells about the looting and destruction of antiquities are periodically reported on by Algerian media and social media outlets.
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علم الآثار في الجزائر: بين تحدّيات البحث المتعدّد والعابر للتخصّصات ومسألة الهوية
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
نادية باهرة (علم الآثار، جامعة قسنطينة، الجزائر). تشهد الساحة الإعلامية الجزائرية وصفحات التواصل الاجتماعي في الجزائر من حينٍ لآخر منشورات عن الوضع المقلق الذي آلت إليه المعالم والمواقع الأثرية، وضرورة دق ناقوس الخطر لما تتعرض له الآثار من نهبٍ أو تخريب. وتلقى هذه النشرات عادةً تفاعلًا وتعاطفًا من جماهير المهتمين بالآثار، كما تتبعها نشرات المؤسسات المكلّفة بالآثار باتخاذ تدابير عاجلة وإيفاد بعثةٍ مختصّة لإنقاذ ما يمكن إنقاذه.
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Café Saqafat – Sufi Music Heritage in the Times of the Coronavirus Pandemic
by editorial board •
By Rafique Wassan. Initiated in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, Café Saqafat is a new online social media broadcasting cultural work – mediated through FaceBook live streaming and later on a recorded version uploaded on YouTube.
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Congo’s White ‘Refugees’
by editorial board •
By Lazlo Passemiers. Not all people seeking refuge in Africa have been black. One group of white refuge-seekers in Africa consisted of whites who fled from their African countries of residence after the fall of colonial and white minority rule.
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Shakespeare, History and ‘Cancel Culture’
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Sabine Schülting. In an article published in September 2020, Peter-André Alt, Professor of German Literature at Freie Universität Berlin and President of the German University Rectors’ Conference (HRK), complains that contemporary culture seems to have lost any interest in history.
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‘شكسبير والتاريخ و’ثقافة الإلغاء
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
زابينه شولتنغ (اللغة الإنكليزية وآدابها، جامعة برلين الحرّة، ألمانيا). في مقال نُشر في أيلول/سبتمبر من عام 2020، اشتكى بيتر أندريه ألت، أستاذ الأدب الألماني في جامعة برلين الحرّة ورئيس مؤتمر رؤساء الجامعات الألمانية (HRK)، من أنّ الثقافة المعاصرة تبدو كأنّها فقدت أيّ اهتمام بالتاريخ. ولاحظَ أنّ الكتب المدرسية تكيّف لغات الماضي الأدبية مع طريقة تعبيرنا الحالية، وأنّ البطلات الكلاسيكيات والأبطال الكلاسيكيين – „ميديا وهاملت، فاوست وكليوباترا“ – يُعَصْرَنون في المسرح والسينما على حدّ سواء.
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Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Benedikt Pontzen. In Thomas Eriksen’s apt phrase, anthropology attends to “large issues in small places” – and so does my book, Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana, which takes Islam in a zongo as its subject.
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Book Review: Between East and South
by editorial board •
By Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen. Research on the global history of Cold War Eastern Europe is flourishing. This edited volume stems from two home-bases of the endeavour, Exeter and Leipzig, where most of the editors as well as the series Dialectics of the Global were or are based.
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Who compares? The commodification and decolonization of comparison
by editorial board •
By James D. Sidaway and Franz Waldenberger | The German gate of the fortress in the city of Landau, the hometown of one of the authors of this blog entry, shows the head of Louis XIV of France depicted as the sun with the Latin inscription “nec pluribus impar”.
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Disassembling Fordism from the Inside: Transnational Radicals in Detroit and Turin in the 1960s
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Nico Pizzolato. In the post-war period, during the climax of Fordism, factories became the birthplace of a new political praxis that mixed Marxist social theory with the bustling energy and initiative of novel demographics of workers.
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The Political Redefinition of Memory: The Problem of Studying History in Contemporary Iraq
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Haidar Lashkry (History, Koya University, Iraq). To contextualize, I am an Iraqi Kurdish historian who teaches medieval history at Koya University. Koya is a young university and has had a history department since its foundation in 2003; the department teaches general history with a focus on the Middle East in all periods but especially the medieval.
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إعادة تعريف الذاكرة سياسيًا: مشكلة دراسة التاريخ في العراق المعاصر
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
حيدر لشكري (تاریخ، جامعة كويه، العراق). بداية القول، أنا مؤرخ كُردي عراقي، أقوم بتدريس تاريخ العصور الوسطى في جامعة كويه، وهي جامعة فتیة تأسست في سنة ٢٠٠٣. منذ تأسیسها، أُنشئ فیها قسم التاریخ، حيث یُدرّس التاریخ العام، مع الترکیز علی تاریخ الشرق الأوسط بمختلف مراحله، خاصة التاریخ الوسیط.
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Threats to Academic Freedom — A Comment
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By David Armitage. Threats to academic freedom are now proliferating and accelerating in almost every part of the world. What could once be detected and resisted within specific local or national settings now increasingly appears to be part of a global movement to constrain, abridge, or abolish one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring positive freedoms.
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From the Niger to the Nile
by editorial board •
By Madina Thiam. On February 17, 1907, a brief note went out of the Dakar office of the Governor-General of French West Africa, addressed to subordinates. The governor had learned through French newspapers that: „According to a report on Northern Nigeria … thousands of Fulanis from the Middle Niger might be migrating from the French territory and heading towards the Nile valley.“
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Pluralities, Transfers, Memories: Some Reflections on the Humanities Today
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Daniel Weidner. What can the role of the humanities be facing a world in crisis? However we describe that very crisis, it is clear that a lot of the assumptions that have, so far, founded the self-understanding of the humanities are no longer evident: neither the universalism of the European or western culture, nor the humanist values or even the distinction between culture and nature.