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 explored 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.
For three days, this year’s summer school brought together eight junior and seven senior scholars from universities in Egypt, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Norway, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Kingdom to discuss theoretical approaches as well as participants’ research projects. Christopher Bahl (Durham University), Bilal Orfali (American University of Beirut) and Rana Siblini (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies) acted as mentors to the junior scholars. In addition, the junior scholars were offered individual coaching sessions by professional academic linguistic editors and trainers, Dani Nassif (University of Regensburg) and Rana Siblini (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies). The program was complemented by a keynote lecture by Christopher Bahl (Durham University, UK) and a public panel discussion on “How Does Arabic Matter in North-South-South Academic Cooperation?”.
The summer school was 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), as part of the research activities of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
Detailed reports:
- Mohamed Bataoui, Hassan First University, Morocco (English)
- Eman Sayyed, Cairo University, Egypt (Arabic)
- Souad Etmimi, Manouba University, Morocco (Arabic)
