In Past events

21-22 May, Theatre in Iraq and the Arab gulf states

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 here until 12 May 2026. You can find the programme here and a booklet including abstracts here.

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In Past events

11 may, Film Screening: Leaving Greece (2013)

Monday, May 11, 2025, 5 pm Werkstattkino, Munich The documentary Leaving Greece (2013) by Anna Brass follows three young Afghan Men stranded in Greece, hoping to continue their journey to Europe. The film offers a moving portrayal of waiting, resilience, and the longing for self-determination. After the screening, our fellow Azadeh Sharifi will host an artist talk with the director Anna Brass. Anna Brass (*1981) is a German documentary filmmaker and cinematographer whose work explores themes of social injustice and experiments with documentary storytelling across different media, from cinema to online formats. Her films have been shown at international festivals and on television. She has served on juries such as the Hof International Film Festival and the Biberach Film Festival and has been a research associate in the Documentary Film Department at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) since 2019. Admission: A limited number of 14 free tickets are reserved for global dis:connect fellows and team members. Additional tickets can be purchased at the cinema box office for €6 (cash only). Continue Reading

In Past events

30 April, Suspended Futures

Is the future disjointed? Urged by the urgency of the present, we are forced to ask, is there a future?

 

Philosophy has thought time linear from its beginnings. The present however conceals openings for other temporalities, ones which thicken time and run counter to the narrowing down of the forward movement imposed by capitalism. The arrow of capitalist time, always pointing ahead, is at odds with Latin American and its deep histories and continuing processes of colonisation. When something is imposed, however, it cracks; to attend to those fissures means detecting that which has been erased and rewritten.

 

In this event, we explore strategies to critically dismantle and redefine temporalities. Working alongside the fellows from gd:c global disconnect, we propose to dwell in crevices as an act of suspension time, opening ourselves to other times, qualitative, anchored to the territories of Latin America, their spirituality and their rhythms. As a collective of fellows from CAPAS (Center for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies), we operate across disciplines to make sense of the current historical moment and offer some possibilities of alternatives and life after the end.

 

Join us for an event bringing together a symposium and an experimental workshop!

 

Co-coveners: Federico Cuatlacuatl, Luis Hernan, Gabi Balcarce (CAPAS)

 

Date: 30 April 2026

Venue: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, in cooperation with the Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS).

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In Past events

19-20 March, Blank space in the perception and epistemology of maps

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 here until 11 March 2026. You can find the programm here. Kindly note that the event will take place on-site (as opposed to hybrid).               Continue Reading

In Past events

26-27 February, dis:connected histories

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 here until 18 February 2026. You can find the programme here. Date: 26-27 February, 2026 Venue: Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect, Munich.   Continue Reading

In Past events

6-7 February, Empire and (im-)mobility in south and south-east asia, 19th and 20th centuries, in New Delhi

This workshop hosted at India International Centre in New Delhi on 6-7 February 2026 brings fresh and original perspectives on mobilities and immobilities created by/in the British and Dutch colonial empires in South and Southeast Asia. The workshop is convened by Harald Fischer-Tiné and Siddharth Pandey. In fundamental ways, colonial empires were all about mobility. The functioning of the imperial military and administrative apparatus, the production of colonial knowledge, the economic extraction of local resources, the export of colonial commodities were all based on relentless movement and circulation. This circulation, in turn, relied heavily on the use of various mobility technologies as well as on the creation of mobility infrastructures. It also crucially depended on the spatial movement of segments of the colonized population and/or external labour forces, clerks and military personnel, scientific experts imported from the imperial metropole or other world regions.  At the same time, however, imperial formations were at pains to restrict or suppress mobility. Thus, the ideal colonial subject was usually imagined as being sedentary and immobile, whereas ‘subaltern mobilities’ in general and the movements of potentially ‘dangerous’ population groups (such as nomads, ‘criminal tribes’, religious mendicants, diasporic anti-colonialists etc.) were seen as suspicious and in need of close monitoring. In the spirit of the gd:c’s double emphasis on connectivity and the absence thereof, this workshop wants to bring together scholars of history and neighbouring disciplines that provide fresh and original perspectives on mobilities and immobilities created by/in the British and Dutch colonial empires in South and Southeast Asia (and their respective global entanglements). The temporal focus may also be extended to the early postcolonial states that followed their collapse. While the ambiguities and tensions between forms of mobility and immobility and their relation to power may serve as a leitmotif, the focus of the individual contributions can be on the material, social, cultural, economic and political impact of particular transport technologies (steamships, railways, automobiles, bicycles, tongas etc.) and the basic infrastructures (railway tracks, roads, docks) they required, as well on the movement of certain groups of historical actors on both sides − and beyond − the colonial divide (soldiers, sailors, scientists, ‘peripatetic revolutionaries’, tourists and ‘globetrotters’, etc.) and the measures to control and check their mobility (passports, border controls, creation of surveillance networks). Another area of interest lies in the literary and artistic representation of various mobility experiences in travelogues, guidebooks, novels or films. The workshop will take place in New Delhi and is hosted by ICAS:MP, in cooperation with the Max Weber Forum Delhi and the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect. You can download the programme here and the book of abstracts here. More information is available at www.micasmp.hypotheses.org/upcoming-events .   You can find the conference report by Claire Louise Blaser HERE.   About the partners: The Delhi-based Merian – Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP) is one of five Maria Sibylla Merian Centres funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). ICAS:MP has been offering short-term fellowships to distinguished scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences since 2015. The Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies Delhi (MWF Delhi) by the Max Weber Foundation acts as an intermediary between German and South Asian research in the humanities and social sciences and provides a space for academic debate with and about the South Asian region. The Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) in Germany approaches globalisation through the lens of dis:connectivity. The term dis:connection emphasises the dynamic interrelationship between global integration, disintegration and (absent) connections. Both conveners are currently fellows at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect in Munich.     Continue Reading

In Past events

3 February, Reflexions on feminist art criticism

An open seminar/gathering with Katy Deepwell. What is the relationship between feminism (an umbrella term for multiple and different kinds of politics regarding women) and the writing of art criticism about contemporary art (ostensibly an aesthetic practice, within an institutional framework of publishing, exhibition and education)?¹ What concerns does feminist art criticism have which other forms of art criticism don’t? Are there principles or preoccupations which have marked the difference that feminist art criticism represents in recent decades? For example, is it about new subjects, new criteria, new sensibilities or approaches to writing art criticism or has it become a label attached to reading certain kinds of art practice – namely those artists already identified as feminist/queer feminist/black feminist/postcolonial feminist in their aesthetics/politics? The seminar will explore the tension between “doing” feminism as opposed to “being” a feminist, and consider what this distinction contributes to identifying standpoint/location and/or essentialist/anti-essentialist positions about women’s art production? To make this discussion more concrete, short examples of different forms of feminist art criticism will be presented and read by participants as the basis for discussion. Participants are welcome to bring a short example of what for them constitutes a “feminist reading” in contemporary art? Seminar will be in English. No preparatory reading required. This seminar follows Katy Deepwells lecture on Feb 2nd as advertised in gdc programme. Date: 3 February, 2026, 10:00-12:30 (with coffee) Please register here until 29 January 2026.

1. See: Deepwell, Katy. 2023. "The Politics and Aesthetic Choices of Feminist Art Criticism" Arts 12, no. 2: 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020063

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