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HCTS welcomes first Fellows

In March, the first five fellows will start their research at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS). Later this year nine more fellows will join.

The Cluster “Asia and Europe” (HCTS) will become an institutional member of the Institute for World Literature (IWL) of Harvard University. The IWL is an annual four-week programme aiming to explore the study of literature in a globalising world.

The project "Visual Pilgrim" by Prof. Christiane Brosius, Yousuf Saeed and Suboor Bakht - in cooperation with the Heidelberg Research Architecture - has resulted in an online publication. Under the title "South Asia’s Islamic Shrines and Transcultural Visuality", 10 essays enhanced with texts, photographs and videos are now available online.

The Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” / Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies welcomes applications for up to eight doctoral scholarships. Applicants should submit their papers until March 15, 2014.

The Cluster/HCTS established a new cooperation with the Universities of Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan. It offers a new exchange programme with scholarship options for master and doctoral students, especially from the Asian studies, economics, and political sciences. Applications for the winter semester 2014 are accepted until April 1.

This film introduces Dr. Armin Volkmann and his Junior Research Group "Digital Humanities". The group is establishing a body of knowledge for digital methods and standards in the humanities. It is part of the University's Field of Focus 3, the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing and the Cluster "Asia and Europe".

The Chair of Buddhist Studies is hosting a summer school on colloquial Tibetan at the Cluster/HCTS from August 4 to 27, 2014. Participants will learn the language as well as discover a fascinating culture with a rich heritage. Interested students can apply until May 15.

: Dr. Kerstin von Lingen and her JRG "Transcultural Justice" in Hong Kong

Short News

Dr. Kerstin von Lingen and all members of Junior Research Group „Transcultural Justice“, including short term fellow Milinda Banerjee from Kolkata, have been invited to attend the international conference “The Origins of International Criminal law” at the City University of Hong Kong from March 1-2, 2014. The event is organised by the Forum of International Criminal and Humanitarian Law (FICHL).
PD Dr. Philipp W. Stockhammer (MC8) has been invited to give lectures at four renowned US universities. He will present the results of his research, which he conducted within the Cluster, at the University at Buffalo, at Cornell University (Ithaka), at George Washington University (Washington, DC) and at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) in March.
Junior Research Group “Transcultural Dynamics of Pentecostalism” calls for applications for the workshop “Studying Pentecostalism in a Transcultural Perspective” which will take place at the Karl Jaspers Centre from April 3 to 5. Applications can be sent until March 7.
The library of the South Asia Institute exhibits a selection of monographs entitled „Indische multinationale Konzerne und ihre Unternehmer“ at the Heidelberg University Library until the end of March 2014.

Media Reports

RNZ: Interview with Martin Nissen on the Cluster's new Open-Access Model.

RNZ: Article on Stefan Maul and Thomas Maissen's work in Cultural History.

Journal@RupertoCarola: Article about a new Open Access Project by the Cluster "Asia and Europe" and the University Library.

FAZ: Article by Prof. Axel Michaels published on Wendy Doniger's book on Hindusim being banned in India.

Bayerischer Rundfunk: Talk show with Dr. Kerstin von Lingen on the escape of Nazi criminals to South America.

Tweede Kamer: Live stream of a meeting of the Dutch Parliament with Hasan Ashraf on Bangladesh's textile industry.

More Media Reports

Research

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.

Read more about the Graduate Programme ...

Read more about the Current Graduates and their Projects ...

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: Knowledge Systems
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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C14 Medical Systems in Transition: The Case of the Ancient Near East

C15 Agrarian Alternatives: Agrarian Crisis, Global Concerns and the Contested Agro-ecological Futures in South Asia

All projects in Research Area C ...

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