Home - Cluster Asia and Europe

Asia and Europe in a Global Context

The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows" at Heidelberg University is part of the Excellence Initiative of the German state and federal governments. The objective of the Cluster is to examine processes of cultural exchange with a strong focus on interdisciplinary research.

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Call for Panels: Annual Conference 2012

The organisers of the Annual Conference invite scholars to submit panel proposals. The theme of this year's conference is "Things that connect – pathways of materiality and practice". The conference will take place from October 10-12 in Heidelberg, and is being organised by Research Area D "Historicities & Heritage".

The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" welcomes applications for its Summer School "Seeing Matter(s): Materiality and Visuality" to take place at the Karl Jaspers Centre from Sunday, July 29, to Saturday, August 4, 2012.

The Junior Research Group A4 “Bureaucracies”, coordinated by Dr. Susan Richter, organises a panel on “Rethinking Reform” in Hong Kong. The panel will be part of the 3rd Annual Conference of the Asian Association for Public Administration (AAPA), which will be held from 10 to 11 February 2012 at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

The Heidelberg Research Architecture (HRA) organises a number of workshops at the Karl Jaspers Centre between February 6 and 10, 2012.

The first group of doctoral students completed the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies. The Closing Ceremony for them was held on Thursday evening.

"Global Philosophies? Reflections and Challenges between Asia and Europe" was the topic of the Cluster’s lecture series during the winter term 2011/12. It was organised by Prof. Birgit Kellner (Chair of Buddhist Studies).

A delegation from Heidelberg University and the Cluster "Asia and Europe" gave a presentation to the German Research Foundation (DFG) on Wednesday, 18th January, in Berlin. The presentation was part of the renewal application of the Cluster for a second funding period.

Dr. Susan Richter, Junior Research Group Leader, has been interviewed about her book "Thronverzicht". The Interview has been broadcasted on TV in Germany (RTL) and Switzerland (SF1).

The Cluster "Asia and Europe" cooperates with various institutions around the globe, for instance the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.

Dr. Deepali Gaur Singh and her research work are introduced in this film portrait. The researcher and media practitioner focuses on the Afghan diaspora in Germany.

Funding and career opportunities for young researchers.

Gender and Diversity

Newsletter by the Equal Opportunities Office (PDF, German)

E-Journal

Peer-reviewed, open-source e-journal on Transcultural Studies

Cluster Book Series

"Transcultural Turbulences" was edited by Prof. Christiane Brosius and PD Dr. Roland Wenzlhuemer.
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Transcultural Studies

The first volume of the new book series was edited by project D1 "Historicizing Violence".
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Reports, Interviews & Films

Find reports, interviews and films on our new Page 2.

eZine

Find more eZines (PDF, 3 MB)
in the press area

The autumn issue of the newsletter has been published.

DFG Cluster Portrait

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Cluster introduction on the DFG Video Portal on the Excellence Initiative.

People & Project Finder

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Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies
The Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) offers a structured PhD programme within the interdisciplinary research environment of the Cluster. The doctoral programme offers (a) an introduction to theories and methodologies of transcultural studies, (b) access to a well-equipped work environment supported by European and Asian institutions, (c) participation in the gathering of textual and nontextual source material, (d) support of PhD projects which are linked to the broad research fields pursued by the Cluster.

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Research Area A: Governance & Administration
This Research Area deals with the cultural flows through which concepts, institutions and practices that have to do with governance and administration are transferred across cultures locally, regionally, or globally, and are reconfigured in a continuous but non-linear historical process.

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A1 Citizenship as conceptual flow: Asia in a comparative perspective

A2 Cultural flows in history education: shifting re-creations of European and Asian ‘Others’ in East Asian schoolbooks

All projects in Research Area A
Research Area B: Public Spheres
Central themes of Research Area B are public spheres - as media, events and spaces - that have been and are built by political and cultural flows between Asia and Europe. There are three research foci: a) aspects of mediality, visuality and textuality, b) aspects of public life, events and performance, and c) aspects of public space and urbanity.

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B1 Gauging Cultural Asymmetries: Asian Satire and the Search for Identity in the Era of Colonialism and Imperialism

B2 Creative Dissonances: Music in a Global Context

All projects in Research Area B ...
Research Area C: Health & Environment
Research Area C focuses on the transfer between Asia and Europe of practices concerning, institutions for, ideas about, and perceptions of health and environment. Practice is the privileged point of access in this Research Area because the processes underlying both health and environment are juxtaposed here with the often pressing need to find a working solution.

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C1 Medical Systems in Transition: The Case of the Ancient Near East

C2 Large Dams: Contested Environments between Hydro-Power and Resistance

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Research Area D: Historicities & Heritage
This Research Area analyses different concepts of histories as competing interpretations of time and space. Instead of focusing on models of unified universal or world history, it puts the emphasis on the entanglement of multiple historicities with different cultural background through cultural flows in the way in which history, memory, and their trajectory are handled.

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D1 Historicizing the Experience of Violence without Frontiers. Influence and Importance of Shifting Asymmetries.

D2 Materiality and Practice: Cultural Entanglements of 2nd millennium BC East Mediterranean Societies

All projects in Research Area D
Heidelberg Research Architecture
The Cluster brings together a multicultural, multilingual scholarly community for purposes of research in an interdisciplinary field. Efficient collaboration among the researchers in the analysis of transcultural flows requires an IT infrastructure for data storage and exchange, communication and on-line team-work, and, importantly, for information retrieval and analysis.

HRA-Portal