By Nurçin İleri. The year 1933 was particularly significant in the history of Turkey. Following a long preparation process, the tenth-year anniversary of the Republic, which ran day and night on 29 October, was held more gloriously than those in previous years, serving as a model for the future.
TraFo
TraFo
The National Frame: Art and State Violence in Turkey and Germany
by editorial board •
By Banu Karaca. The National Frame emerged out of my long-term interest in art, aesthetics and politics. I have always been fascinated by the dominant notion that art is inherently good, by the many values that are accorded to art – be it that art furthers individual agency and critical faculties, the emancipatory potential of art, or its civilizing impact – and the realities that shape the daily workings of the art world.
TraFo
From Implicit Towards Explicit Comparative Research
by Max Weber Stiftung •
By Hendrik Meyer-Ohle | When I was an undergraduate student in the 1980s, majoring at a German University in Japanese Studies (contemporary Japanese society, politics and business) and business administration, there was broad consensus among scholars of Japanese Studies not to engage in explicit country comparisons
TraFo
Why Non-European Languages Matter to European Humanities: Area Studies and Postcolonial Philology
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Christian Junge. English is, without doubt, the dominant academic language of our time, especially in the natural sciences, where materials are often taught and published in English. On the contrary, in European humanities, scholars of literary and cultural studies, linguistics and philosophy teach and publish quite widely in minor academic languages, such as German, Italian or Polish.
TraFo
لماذا تهمّ اللغات غير الأوروبية الإنسانيات الأوروبية: دراسات المناطق وفقه اللغة ما بعد الاستعماري
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
كريستيان يونغي. لا شك أنَّ اللغة الإنكليزية هي اللغة الأكاديمية السائدة في عصرنا، لا سيما في العلوم الطبيعية، إذ غالبًا ما تُدرَّس المواد وتُنشر باللغة الإنكليزية. وبخلاف ذلك، فإنَّ باحثيّ الدراسات الأدبية والثقافية واللغويات والفلسفة، في الإنسانيات الأوروبية، يدرّسون وينشرون على نطاق واسع بلغات أكاديمية ثانوية، مثل الألمانية أو الإيطالية أو البولندية.
TraFo
The Long-lived “July Republic” and the Abolition of the Egyptian University’s Autonomy
by editorial board •
On September 28, 2020, a half-century had passed since the death of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The legacy of the “July 1952 Republic”, whose legal and political pillars he built between 1952 and 1954 and that he ruled until his death in 1970, is still omnipresent in today’s Egypt.
TraFo
L’historiographie africaine et les défis de la périodisation européenne : un commentaire historique
by editorial board •
Un texte de Ihediwa Nkemjika Chimee. L’historiographie africaine suit des divisions, schémas et séquences imposés par les européens. Ceux-ci ont affirmé dans le passé que l’histoire africaine n’existait pas et que l’histoire de l’Afrique débute avec l’histoire des européens en Afrique.
TraFo
Out of the Ivory Tower: Broadening Global History in Germany
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Julia Hauser. The humanities are united by their aim of promoting critical self-reflection. History shares this aim, and so do recent turns in the field.
TraFo
نزولاً من البرج العاجيّ: توسيع التاريخ العالمي في ألمانيا
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
بشار حيدر. ما يوحّد الإنسانيات هو هدفها المتمثّل في تعزيز التفكير الذاتي النقدي. ويشارك التاريخُ هذا الهدف، وكذلك تفعل الانعطافات الأخيرة في هذا الحقل.
TraFo
Notes from the Underground: Academic Freedom, (Un)Civil Society, and “Kulturkampf” in Hungary
by editorial board •
By Balázs Trencsényi. The attacks on the autonomy of universities and the attempts to curb the independence of research institutes, especially in the humanities and social sciences, have been central features of authoritarian political projects.
TraFo
“The Pictures Are the Thing”: Farm Security Administration Photographers Document the American Factory in the Depression Era
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Rick Halpern. The 1930s were a formative period for documentary photography in the United States. The twin phenomena of the Great Depression and the emergence of a militant workers’ movement gave photographers interested in the working class a surfeit of material to shoot.
TraFo
Russia’s 1990s: Global Perspectives – An Interview with Andreas Hilger
by editorial board •
This article is part of the TRAFO series “Emerging Topics. Insights from ‘Behind the Scenes’”. Today, we put the spotlight on the workshop “Russia’s 1990s: Global Perspectives” which will take…
TraFo
Keeping the Distance: why Europeans Find it so Difficult to Learn from East Asia
by editorial board •
By Marina Rudyak, Maximilian Mayer and Marius Meinhof. “We need not be at this point.” Such was the verdict of virologist Isabella Eckerle commenting on the second lockdown in the German talk show “Hart aber fair (Tough but Fair).”
TraFo
The Humanities’ Constant Need for Self-Justification
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Bashshar Haydar. It is not uncommon for people working in the humanities to feel the need to demonstrate the significance or, even, the relevance of their disciplines. There is not a matching pressure in the fields of natural sciences, whether applied or theoretical.
TraFo
حاجة الإنسانيات المتواصلة إلى تبرير ذاتها
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
بشار حيدر. ليس من غير المألوف أن يشعر العاملون في الإنسانيات بالحاجة إلى تبيان أنَّ لفروعهم أهميتها، أو حتى أنّها ذات صلة. ما من ضغط مماثل في مجالات العلوم الطبيعية سواء التطبيقية أو النظرية. يحتاج التباين الآنف في المواقف تفسيرًا، في ضوء الأهمية المفروغ منها التي للإنسانيات في حياتنا، على كلا المستويين الفردي والجمعي. ويكفي تأملٌ وجيز في الدور المركزي الذي تؤدّيه الفنون والآداب في تأطير قيمنا ومعاييرنا، والمؤسسات التي تجسّدها، لتأكيد ما للإنسانيات من تأثير واسع وعميق.
TraFo
Academic Presses in Czechoslovakia and Hungary under Communist Regimes
by editorial board •
Part of the TRAFO series “Academic Freedom” By Libora Oates-Indruchová Communist regimes recognized the political importance, and therefore danger, of the social sciences and the humanities. That is why they…
TraFo
Refugees in African History
by editorial board •
An interview with Marcia Schenck, Professor of Global History at the University of Potsdam, on her newly founded H-Net cross-network project “Refugees in African History”: „Historicizing the refugee experience is crucial to understanding that refugees are not exceptions but integral to the rise of nation-states.“
TraFo
Palsy-Walsy and Extremely Surly Social Distancing
by editorial board •
By Prem Poddar. As the uncertainty of the interregnum stretches and seems as pliable as a virus-stained concertina, I cannot go anytime soon to my cottage in the multikulti hills of the Himalayas on the Indian side. It is a fortune shared by a considerable number of folks stuck elsewhere and everywhere on this beleaguered planet.
TraFo
Middle Class Factory: The (partial) privilege of industrial labor in Tunisia
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By André Weißenfels. In the south of Tunis, around 450 Tunisians work at an offshore French electronics factory. Even though the majority of them work on the shop floor and have what is traditionally called “working class” jobs, they consider themselves to be middle class.
TraFo
The Humanities in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the Arab World and Germany – An Introduction
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
An Introduction to the TRAFO series “The Humanities in the 21st Century: Perspectives from the Arab World and Germany” by Nuha Alshaar, Beate La Sala, Jenny Oesterle and Barbara Winckler. This project is part of the activities of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA).
TraFo
الإنسانيات في القرن الحادي والعشرين: وجهات نظر من العالم العربي وألمانيا – مَدْخِل
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
مدخل إلى سلسلة TRAFO التي تحمل عنواناً „الإنسانيات في القرن الحادي والعشرين: وجهات نظر من العالم العربي وألمانيا“، كتبته بربارة وينكلر (جامعة مونستر) وبيآتا لا سالا (جامعة برلين الحرة) وجيني أوستيرله (جامعة باساو) ونهى الشعار (الجامعة الأميركية في الشارقة/ معهد الدراسات الإسماعيلية، لندن). وهذا المشروع هو جزء من نشاطات أكاديمية الشباب العربية الألمانية للعلوم والإنسانيات (AGYA).
TraFo
The Sociality of Theory
by editorial board •
By Francesco Anselmetti. A Flood in Baʿath Country, the 2003 documentary by Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay, opens with a stark confession on the director’s behalf. His career had begun in the early 1970s with a panegyric to the Baʿathist project of modernisation glorifying the construction of the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates, near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa.
TraFo
When Neighbors Expect the EU to Help Them Transform: Survey Data From Protesting Belarus
by editorial board •
By Stas Gorelik. When mass demonstrations erupted in Belarus in August 2020, Russia supported President Alyaksandr Lukashenka with a loan of around 1.5 billion dollars. Yet, the question of how international players can influence protest mobilization has not been researched in earnest.
TraFo
Port Cities of the Eastern Mediterranean
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Malte Fuhrmann. With my book, I aim to rise to that challenge by readdressing an issue of classic political and social history of the nineteenth century – that is, the issue of Europeanization.
TraFo
Photography as Policing Infrastructure During the Late Ottoman Empire
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By İlkay Yilmaz. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire attempted to construct new technologies of transportation and communication in its territories. These were not only new technologies for the empire, they were also new to the rest of the world.
TraFo
What Kind of Academic Freedom and for Whom? Karl Jaspers’ Idea of the University
by editorial board •
By Sandra Richter. The history of the university and the history of academic freedom are intertwined but not identical. In certain historical situations they have even differed radically – whether it be for political, economic, or administrative reasons, or because of personal failure.
TraFo
How does populism reshape pluralism and marginality in liberal democracies? – 5in10 with Felipe Hernández
by editorial board •
What was intriguing to you when you were a child? What is it that you always wanted to know about the world? I grew up surrounded by an ethnic, linguistic…
TraFo
Spaces of National-Industrial Modernity: Factories and Factory Women in Early Republican Turkey
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Görkem Akgöz. In the New Year’s special issue of the Vatan (Homeland) newspaper, a Santa Claus-like, Father Time figure (zaman, meaning time) rips off the year 1933 from the calendar to reveal the exciting prospects of the coming year.
TraFo
“Violence, Be It Visible or Invisible, Shapes All of Our Lives” – 5in10 with Sarah El Bulbeisi
by editorial board •
Sarah El Bulbeisi joined the Orient-Institut Beirut in November 2019 after completing her PhD at the Institute for Near and Middle East Studies at the LMU Munich, Germany. Prior to…
TraFo
The Suppression and Misuses of Academic Freedom During the Nazi Regime
by editorial board •
By Mitchell G. Ash. The freedom of science (Wissenschaftsfreiheit), or academic freedom, as it is called in English, has been addressed historically from multiple perspectives. In these remarks, I will focus on science and scholarship in one particularly infamous dictatorial regime.
TraFo
Urban Neighbourhood Formations: Boundaries, Narrations and Intimacies
by editorial board •
By Hilal Alkan and Nazan Maksudyan. Our edited book explores the themes of ‘neighbours’ and ‘neighbourhoods’ as points of departure for considering identity, coexistence, solidarity and violence, and their relationship to place.
TraFo
Social Distance, Hygiene and the Handshake: a Chinese Perspective
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Barbara Mittler. No Handshakes, no Hugs and no Bises: The global call for social distancing has significantly changed rules and gestures of conduct and etiquette that had travelled the world for centuries. The handshake is one such example.
TraFo
Infrastructures and Society in (Post-)Ottoman Geographies: Call for Contributions to the Series
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
We invite contributions to discuss and investigate how infrastructures shape and affect power relations and daily life; how they produce or organize inequalities, discrimination, or differentiated access to public goods and services; and how they may become part of state violence, or resistance, in Ottoman and post-Ottoman geographies.
TraFo
Academic Freedom is the Freedom to Know
by editorial board •
By Pascal Engel. We observe violations of academic freedom all the time. Speakers are “deplatformed” because of their political views, professors become the victims of campaigns in the media and social networks.
TraFo
On Twisted Logics and the Pandemic
by editorial board •
By Maria José de Abreu. The coronavirus pandemic has brought to the fore the powers of numbers. As a vast stream of graphics, numbers and curves in yielding the global spreading of the virus makes apparent, numbers appear to count for how we are breathing in the world.
TraFo
On Cultural Omnivorousness: Reinvention of Anatolian Pop as Turkish Psychedelic
by editorial board •
By Yaprak Melike Uyar. Due to globally unified measures for controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been almost one year since musicians have not met their audiences.
TraFo
Factory Reloaded: Transregional Perspectives on the Industrial Workplace
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
An introduction to the TRAFO Series “Factory Reloaded” by Görkem Akgöz, Malak Labib, and Nurçin İleri. Factories have received attention almost exclusively at times of crises, such as the Dhaka garment factory fire, the Foxconn suicides, or the liquidation of large public-sector companies in some developing countries.
TraFo
Threats to Academic Freedom – Historical and Contemporary Remarks
by editorial board •
An introduction by Gisèle Sapiro, Amr Hamzawy, and Başak Tuğ. Academic freedom is under threat today in many places of the world and it is urgent to create spaces of collective reflection on a principle that is fundamental to all intellectual practice.
TraFo
Exploring the role of technology for democracy – 5in10 with Cristina Blasi Casagran
by Moritz Buchner •
Cristina Blasi is Assistant Professor in EU law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a re:constitution Fellow 2020/21 at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
TraFo
Refugee Routes: Telling, Looking, Protesting, Redressing – An Academy in Exile Book
by Forum Transregionale Studien •
By Egemen Özbek. As Vanessa Agnew highlights in the Introduction to the volume, Refugee Routes is a response to the ever-growing number of refugees and internally displaced people around the world.