In Past events, Past events 2023

7-8 September, Theatre, globalisation and illiberal regimes after 1989

The war in the Ukraine has highlighted the globalising propensities of non-democratic states such as Russia, China and Iran. There is a strong sense that illiberal, global interconnections are being (re)forged. These alternative globalisations are reflected in the dynamics of specific theatre cultures and are rooted in the trans-continental links established during the Cold War.

Patterns developed since the 1970s have carried over into the post-1989 period. Western-guided globalisation has hardly been ‘the only game in town’ in recent decades. The workshop therefore raises the fundamental question of how to approach theatre history and non-Western-centric interconnectedness after 1989.

Practioners and scholars will gather to discuss the relationship between global trajectories of illiberal regimes and their theatre cultures following the Cold War. The workshop engages with a variety of cases from the illiberal spectrum – from one-party states to theocracies and various forms of authoritarianism (competitive or one-person rule). The proceedings will focus on genealogies, commonalities and differences among various global engagements. We explore the role of theatre in the international configuration of illiberalisms in the post-Cold War world.

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In Past events, Past events 2023

24-27 July, global dis:connect Summer School 2023: Sea of absence? Globalisation, the Mediterranean and beyond

 

From 24-27 July, global dis:connect will welcome MA, doctoral students and creative professionals in all stages of their careers for a summer school on the absences produced by globalisation processes, focusing on the Mediterranean, particularly on the aspects of migration, tourism and (post)coloniality, in the past, present and future.

Like globalisation research generally, some of the most famous scholarship on the Mediterranean Sea has focused on the different connections that bind the ‘Middle Sea’ together (Braudel, 1949; Horden & Purcell, 2000). Its connections, however, have also created and obfuscated many absences: of people, of cultural belonging, of institutions, of personal and collective memories, of regions, of (art) objects, in archives, epistemologies, discourses, in stories and representations of and about the Mediterranean, and finally in our scholarship.

The summer school combines subjects such as art history, history, social sciences, media and film studies, theatre studies, literary and cultural studies with artistic approaches. It will allow the participants to present their own projects and will feature several master classes by renowned scholars, as well as art and film presentations.

  Organisers: Hanni Geiger and Tom Menger, Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect.  

Please note: the summer school is a closed event. Parallel to the summer school, global dis:connect is however hosting another event on the Mediterranean: an evening lecture by Eva Meyer and Eran Schaerf on the subject of ‘Migratory mindset and Levantine cosmopolis’, taking place at the Centre on 26 July (18.30). This event is open to everyone, for more information click here.

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In Past events, Past events 2023

26 July, Reading and discussion with philosopher Eva Meyer and artist Eran Schaerf: Migratory mindset and Levantine cosmopolis

Global dis:connect is honoured to host a reading and discussion with philosopher Eva Meyer and artist Eran Schaerf on the social model of Levantinism, its ambivalences and what it can offer in a globalised world.

The Levantines did not make it into postcolonial discourse, perhaps because they lack the ‘definitional security’ (Adorno) that the coloniser and the colonised seem to possess. For the capitalist market of identities, national territorialism and the East-West ideological partition, the Levantines and their definitional insecurity represent a danger. Going in between, the Levantines indicate an escape route, not from one ideology to another, but away from ideological mindsets altogether. They perform a migratory mindset that makes a difference instead of representing one. We opt to engage with the polyphonic web of Levantinisation instead of letting ourselves be torn apart by globalisation.

The reading takes place in parallel with the global dis:connect summer school entitled Sea of absence? Globalisation, the Mediterranean and beyond.

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In Past events, Past events 2023

10-11 July, Ecology, aesthetics and everyday cultures of modernity

As the Anthropocene charges ahead with its bewildering array of challenges, and numerous debates on ecology and the environment gather steam, it becomes impossible to think of our contemporary existence without paying attention to the presence and legacies of the natural world. This environmental heritage is not only configured ideologically and politically by human beings, but also habitually and aesthetically. Here, the concept of aesthetics operates much more capaciously and ubiquitously than only conveying ideas of taste or judgment, additionally signalling the sensorial, the embodied and the lived. Thinkers working across the disciplines of new materialism, anthropology, sociology, art history, cultural studies, geohumanities, craft studies and environmental humanities have been drawing attention to the dynamic intermingling of natural and cultural spheres, often through the lens of the aesthetic everyday.

This workshop brings together scholars from various areas of interest to deliberate the linkages between ecology, everydayness and aesthetics. Taking the modern period from the 19th century to the present as its broad temporal context, the event sheds a critical and creative light on the manifold ways in which the modern world experiments, challenges and accommodates socio-cultural expressions of ecological aesthetics.

      You may also download the book of abstracts as well as the bionotes of speakers and respondents.   Please click here to view an online photographic exhibition by the workshop organiser Siddharth Pandey, titled 'Highland Homes: Picturing Dwelling in the Western Himalayas.' The exhibition is an affiliate event to the workshop, and can best be viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. Continue Reading

In Past events, Past events 2023

8 July, URBAN BODIES PROJECT — MUNICH

  Venue: Saturday, 8 July 2023, 3 p.m.   Meeting point: Münchener Stadtmuseum (St.-Jakobs-Platz 1, 80331 Munich, outside) Entrance free!     For more infomation on the URBAN BODIES PROJECT by Yolanda Gutiérrez click HERE.   Continue Reading

In Past events, Past events 2023

3 July, Dis:connections in the global public humanities, perspectives on participation, translation and transfer

Interest in science communication and transfer is growing. This workshop attempts to negotiate challenges and opportunities in thinking through public humanities, including digital humanities, on a global scale.

09:00-18:00: Workshop In the first panel, we discuss what challenges the humanities currently face, interrogating what the humanities are and could be for from a global perspective. Such a perspective not only challenges the idea of the humanities as a European concept, but also forces us to think about what constitutes a public and/or community, and what the existence of various (global) publics and communities means for the idea of public humanities, its communication and transfer. The panel also addresses how we can develop a language capable of translating not only between different scholarly disciplines but also between different publics. The second panel asks how the humanities relate to the omnicrises of the present. How do, can and should the humanities participate in identifying, naming, discussing, combatting or otherwise relating to these crises? How can the quality of the humanities infuse publics and with which tools?   The third panel addresses the challenges and possibilities of digital tools for the global public humanities. How can they help overcome, alleviate and negotiate the challenges of the global humanities? How do digital humanities help us connect more globally, and how does its required infrastructure hinder inclusivity? The workshop closes with a panel on perspectives ‘from below’. As the workshop is co-organised by a network of junior scholars, whose aim is to strengthen the humanities’ perspective in society, we are especially interested in the role of junior scholars in practicing and representing global public humanities. How can their perspectives on the problems and potentials of the humanities be best integrated into a larger conversation, thereby accounting for the different positionalities of junior scholars in the global North and South? This panel also lets participants share their experiences of what practical challenges arise from the particular perspective of a career in the humanities and how they can overcome.   Speakers: Eva-Maria Bergdolt (CAPAS Heidelberg), Canan Hastik (TU Darmstadt), Sarah Dillon (Cambridge University), Premesh Lalu (University of Western Cape), Martin Puchner (former fellow at Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, LMU Munich; Harvard University), Gimena del Rio Riande (University of Buenos Aires), Lwando Scott (University of Western Cape), Inéz-Maria Wellner (VolkswagenStiftung/25humans)   18:30-20:00 Conversation (open to the public): Thinking the global, thinking the public: Public humanities and the world Participants: Sarah Dillon (Cambridge University), Roland Wenzlhuemer (Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, LMU Munich), the audience (everyone is invited to join the conversation). Chair: Tim Lanzendörfer (Goethe University Frankfurt)   Continue Reading