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Events
Experimental sites of dis:connectivity
The Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect (gd:c) invites master's students and doctoral candidates in the humanities, as well as creative professionals at any career stage, to participate in a week-long summer school in Munich, Germany. There are no participation fees. Accommodation and travel expenses will be covered for all participants coming from outside Munich.
Please apply until 1 March 2026. You can find all details in the call for participation.
About the theme "Worlds in the lab"
Worlds in the Lab explores laboratories as spaces where worlds—and their fragments—are reconfigured. These are experimental sites of dis:connectivity in which the ‘global’ is disassembled into analysable parts, imaginaries of planetary conditions fabricated, or alternative futures modelled, rehearsed, and resisted. Laboratories range from scientific observatories and sensor-equipped environments to landscapes, archives, exhibition spaces, cultural institutions, and art/design/film studios. Across these diverse settings, elements of the world are isolated, scaled, narrated, simulated, transformed, or imagined otherwise. Such experimental conditions open possibilities for new forms of inquiry and speculation; they also produce distortions and expose the limits, exclusions, and dis:connections that arise when complex environments are translated into manageable forms. Rather than treating laboratories as self-contained scientific spaces or metaphorical abstractions, the summer school approaches them as experimental infrastructures through which environments, ecologies, bodies, and planetary conditions are constantly re/made.
Building on recent scholarship in the environmental humanities, science and technology studies, the history of science, global history, media and visual studies, art/design/architectural theory, anthropology, and decolonial and Indigenous studies, the summer school explores how worlds-in-the-making emerge through laboratory practices such as modelling, prototyping, display, simulation, and field experimentation. It brings the laboratory—as a concept, practice, and space—into dialogue with the spatial, visual, and material cultures of world-making, including e.g., archives, lieu de mémoire, planetary analogues, atmospheric observatories, geoscientific proxies, environmental monitoring infrastructures, and exhibition architectures.
What happens when “the world” becomes a laboratory object, a test setting, a scenario, or a speculative prototype? How do laboratory sites mediate between global and local scales, between human and more-than-human realms, and between imagination and material constraints? What frictions, asymmetries, and disruptions may arise? Which affordances, knowledge, and opportunities can be drawn from these experimental sites of dis:connectivity?
The summer school will take place on July 20-24, 2026 at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect in Munich.
Organized by: Clemens Finkelstein, Susanne Quitmann, Aliena Guggenberger
Please apply until 1 March 2026. You can find all details in the call for participation.
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20-24 July, Worlds in the lab, gd:c summer school
Experimental sites of dis:connectivity
The Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect (gd:c) invites master's students and doctoral candidates in the humanities, as well as creative professionals at any career stage, to participate in a week-long summer school in Munich, Germany. There are no participation fees. Accommodation and travel expenses will be covered for all participants coming from outside Munich.
Please apply until 1 March 2026. You can find all details in the call for participation.
About the theme "Worlds in the lab"
Worlds in the Lab explores laboratories as spaces where worlds—and their fragments—are reconfigured. These are experimental sites of dis:connectivity in which the ‘global’ is disassembled into analysable parts, imaginaries of planetary conditions fabricated, or alternative futures modelled, rehearsed, and resisted. Laboratories range from scientific observatories and sensor-equipped environments to landscapes, archives, exhibition spaces, cultural institutions, and art/design/film studios. Across these diverse settings, elements of the world are isolated, scaled, narrated, simulated, transformed, or imagined otherwise. Such experimental conditions open possibilities for new forms of inquiry and speculation; they also produce distortions and expose the limits, exclusions, and dis:connections that arise when complex environments are translated into manageable forms. Rather than treating laboratories as self-contained scientific spaces or metaphorical abstractions, the summer school approaches them as experimental infrastructures through which environments, ecologies, bodies, and planetary conditions are constantly re/made.
Building on recent scholarship in the environmental humanities, science and technology studies, the history of science, global history, media and visual studies, art/design/architectural theory, anthropology, and decolonial and Indigenous studies, the summer school explores how worlds-in-the-making emerge through laboratory practices such as modelling, prototyping, display, simulation, and field experimentation. It brings the laboratory—as a concept, practice, and space—into dialogue with the spatial, visual, and material cultures of world-making, including e.g., archives, lieu de mémoire, planetary analogues, atmospheric observatories, geoscientific proxies, environmental monitoring infrastructures, and exhibition architectures.
What happens when “the world” becomes a laboratory object, a test setting, a scenario, or a speculative prototype? How do laboratory sites mediate between global and local scales, between human and more-than-human realms, and between imagination and material constraints? What frictions, asymmetries, and disruptions may arise? Which affordances, knowledge, and opportunities can be drawn from these experimental sites of dis:connectivity?
The summer school will take place on July 20-24, 2026 at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect in Munich.
Organized by: Clemens Finkelstein, Susanne Quitmann, Aliena Guggenberger
Please apply until 1 March 2026. You can find all details in the call for participation.
Continue Reading
9 January 2026
history, governance and the post-oil vision
Theatre in Iraq and the Arab Gulf has long shaped cultural life, political debate and social change. This workshop explores how theatre developed across the region, how states supported or controlled it, and how artists responded to oil wealth, governance and global influences. Speakers will examine how theatre reflects power, identity and modernisation, as well as how it adapts to post-oil futures. Through historical and contemporary case studies, the event highlights theatre as a space where culture, politics and society intersect. Participants can expect accessible discussions that connect regional theatre history with broader questions about culture, governance and global change.
The workshop will take place over two days, 21st-22nd May, 2026, at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect (gd:c) in Munich and is convened by Hadeel Abdelhameed, Christopher Balme and Viviana Iacob.
Please register 
Silences and absences that articulate the world
Maps often appear complete and objective, yet they also contain gaps, silences and blank spaces. This workshop explores how these absences actively shape how we perceive and understand the world, rather than simply marking what is missing or unknown. Speakers will discuss how omissions influence knowledge, power and politics across historical and contemporary contexts. Through examples from mapping and other related fields, the event shows how absence can communicate meaning just as strongly as articulated information. Participants can expect open discussions that rethink maps and other multimedia knowledge in an accessible and experimental way.
The workshop will take place on March 19-20, 2026 at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect in Munich.
Co-Conveners: Toby Yuen-Gen Liang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; Camille Serchuk, Southern Connecticut State University; Filipe dos Reis, University of Groningen
Please register 
Performance, representation, and display
Histories not only live in books; they appear on stages, in exhibitions and in everyday performances. This workshop explores how performing, representing and displaying the past can reveal dis:connected histories shaped by migration, colonialism and displacement. Artists and researchers will discuss how performance and visual practices make fragmented, suppressed or non-linear histories visible and negotiable. Through case studies from theatre, art and cultural institutions, the event questions dominant narratives and fixed timelines. Participants can expect lively discussions and creative approaches that reconsider how history is performed, experienced and shared today.
Please register 
This workshop hosted at