International bilingual summer school, University of Münster, Germany, 28–30 August 2023
South-South at Center Stage: Representations, Relations and Interactions Beyond the West in Arabic Studies
How do Arabic literature and arts as well as the intellectual and academic discourse deal with languages, cultural practices and artistic expressions of the Global South, and vice versa? Which kind of concrete collaborations and interactions exist between universities and research institutions in the Arab world and in other regions of the Global South in the field of Arabic Studies?
For a long time, Arabic and Islamic Studies in Europe and North America have sought to analyze Arabic language and culture mainly in relation to Europe, the West or the Global North. This was part of a deep-rooted Eurocentrism that viewed the West as the center and the East as the periphery. With the rise of Postcolonial Studies, Global History and attempts to ‘provincialize’ Europe, new concepts of identity, modernity and history helped to overcome the East-West dichotomy and to put South-South interactions at the center. Addressing this topic, the summer school explores an emerging field of research in Arabic and Islamic Studies. South-South cultural exchange is an essential key to the understanding of Arabic literature, arts and culture as well as modern Arab scholarship dealing with these practices. The Arab world has always had manifold cultural, religious and linguistic ties with regions other than Europe and North America. Exploring South-South interactions, relations and representations generates much-needed knowledge that provides the basis for revising key concepts in Arabic Studies and developing new theories and methods.
The Call for Applications is addressed to outstanding junior scholars from Arab and European universities who are active in the field of Arabic Studies and would like to present their current research project. The research may take its orientation from a variety of disciplines (such as Literary Studies, Art History, Cultural Studies, History, Philosophy, Theology, Linguistics) and should be related — at least in partial aspects — to South-South interactions, relations and representations in Arabic Studies. Good knowledge of Arabic and English is required. Please see the Call for Applications for further information.
The summer school is organized by AGYA alumna Barbara Winckler (University of Münster, Germany) as well as AGYA members Christian Junge (University of Marburg, Germany), Lobna Said (Nile University, Egypt) and Peter Konerding (University of Münster, Germany). It is part of the research activities of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) and is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
