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).‎

Call for Applications (deadline: 20 May 2023)