Kick-off event for the Transregional Studies Forum on 10 October 2011 in the Rotunda of the Altes Museum
Press release from 09/30/2011
The Forum Transregionale Studien introduces itself: Humanities and Social Sciences under Global Conditions
Press invitation:
10 October 2011, 7:00 p.m., Kick-off event Forum Transregionale Studien, Rotunda Altes Museum, Berlin
On 10 October 2011 at 7 p.m., the Forum Transregional Studies will be presented by Hermann Parzinger (President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), Jürgen Zöllner (Senator for Education, Science and Research), Andreas Eckert (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University) at a ceremony in the Rotunda of Schinkel's Altes Museum. The Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago) will give the keynote lecture on "Understanding the Other, or Why Objects and Texts Remain in Tension in Historical Studies".
The occasion for this ceremony is the arrival of over 30 international postdoctoral fellows who will be pursuing their research projects in Berlin in connection with four projects at the Forum.
The Forum was founded in October 2009 on the basis of the recommendations of the Berlin Science Commission. It is intended to promote research in the humanities and social sciences in Berlin that pursues important questions from a transregional perspective, i.e. comparing and linking different regions of the world. The Forum has the task of stimulating this type of research in Berlin and raising its profile internationally.
The Senate Department of the State of Berlin supports the Forum in order to utilise and strengthen Berlin's special potential in the field of transregional studies: No other place in Germany and few others in the world can boast a comparable density and diversity of research and expertise on Africa, Asia, Latin and North America, Europe and the Middle East. The state of Berlin is thus taking up suggestions from the German Council of Science and Humanities and the BMBF for the internationalisation of research perspectives in the humanities and the further development of regional studies. The topics to be dealt with in the Forum will also play an important role in the content of the future Humboldt Forum.
The Forum began its activities in spring 2010 with the sponsorship of three trans-regionally orientated projects in the fields of urban sociology, philology and law. From October 2011, a fourth project, Europe in the Middle East - The Middle East in Europe (EUME), will be continued as part of the forum.
The forum is supported by Berlin universities, research institutions and research associations. Hermann Parzinger is Chairman of the General Assembly. Andreas Eckert, Marianne Braig and Sebastian Conrad (both from Freie Universität Berlin) have been appointed to the Board of Directors. Birgit Meyer is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.
This press release as PDF document (PDF, 146 KB, not barrier-free)