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Interdisciplinary Centres and Projects
University and non-university institutes specializing in cultural and regional expertise: Research into the contemporary Orient, advisory facilities on the media and politics, and documentation have been available since 1960 at the Deutsche Orient-Institut in Hamburg (www.doihh.de). At present the Institute is concentrating on the following priorities in the DOI special research programme 2002-2004:
"Developmental Dimensions of North Africa, the Middle East, and South-West Asia" with implementation of six sub-projects (on anti-Americanism, political stability, geopolitical changes, etc).
Details on www.menavision2010.org
In 1992 another interdisciplinary centre for Oriental Studies was established in Berlin: the Geisteswissenschaftlichen Zentrum Moderner Orient (Modern Orient Humanities Centre) - (www.zmo.de)
This Centre is financed by Berlin and the German Research Association (on the basis of fixed-term assistance for scholars working on specific projects). It has a staff of around 20 researchers who work on various related themes from the realms of history, politics, economics, and society in the Islamic Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.
One emphasis at present is the overall theme of "Movement and Institutions. Translocality in the transformation of the modern Middle East, Asia, and Africa". That includes sub-projects on 'Translocality', 'Constitution of a public', and 'Historical cultures'.
Model structures of interdisciplinary and international research have been particularly developed in Berlin by the Arbeitskreis Moderne und Islam (Modernity and Islam Study Group), organisationally linked to the Wissenschaftskolleg (College of Advanced Studies) - www.wiko-berlin.de
The Federal State of Berlin maintains an office there entrusted with implementation of a scholarly programme financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This involves a Berlin seminar, annual summer academies in the city or at research centres in the Muslim world, and year-long fellowships where preference is given to young scholars from the region.
In addition the Berlin Wissenschaftskolleg also prioritizes invitations to guest scholars from Muslim countries so that a highly internationalized research climate can develop in conjunction with the Modernity and Islam Study Group.
Current Projects:
- Cultural mobility in Near Eastern literatures
- Islamic and Jewish hermeneutics as cultural criticism
- Building-blocks for a social history of the Middle East
- Museum forum: presentation of non-European cultures in metropolises
- West-East Diwan: writers write about writers
Details on: www.wiko-berlin.de/kolleg/projekte/AKMI?hpl=2
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Developmental research in the social sciences and economics
In the sphere of developmental research in the social sciences and economics the following institutions have made a name for themselves with interdisciplinary activities:
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Centres for interdisciplinary research into intercultural relations with an emphasis on migration in Europe
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Interdisciplinary centres and networks
The development of Oriental Studies at German universities in recent years is characterized - in accordance with the 1999 recommendation by the Modernity and Islam Study Group - by interdisciplinary centres and networks, which bring together existing institutional and staffing capacity, thus making possible a broad-based interdisciplinary choice for students (B.A., M.A.):
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The Junior Research Group on "Islamic Networks in Local and Transnational Contexts (18th-20th Century)", based at Bochum University, is assisted by the Volkswagen Foundation and intended to further young scholars.
Details on: www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/orient/netzwerke.html
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Institutes abroad
The German Oriental Society's Orient Institute at Beirut (with a branch at Istanbul) both provides a link between national and international research interests and draws attention to German Oriental Studies (www.oidmg.org)
Current and longer-term emphases:
- Culture, history, and present day in Middle Eastern societies
- Linguistics and literature in the Middle East, Iran, and Central Asia
- Orality and writing in Islam
- Problems of urbanization in the Middle East
- Religions in the Middle East and Central Asia
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