DRUCKFRISCH Book Discussion

About DRUCKFRISCH Book Discussion

Every two months, scholars present a new book from their research. Druckfrisch is an event series organised by ReCentGlobe and the European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH).

Publisher

Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 May 2024

Latest episode

5 Nov 2024

Latest episodes

8 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Nov 2024

   The D-Word: Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times

   Our next episode of the Druckfrisch book discussion series features The D-Word: Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times, edited by Christi van der Westhuizen, Siphiwe Dube, and Zwelethu Jolobe. This collection brings together critical perspectives from the Global South on the evolving challenges faced by democracy. Covering fields from philosophy to socio-legal studies and activism, the book bridges national and conceptual divides, offering new insights on democracy’s future. About the Book The D-Word: Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times Edited by Christi van der Westhuizen, Siphiwe Dube, Zwelethu Jolobe 2024, Mandela University Press This curated collection engages international debates about the current challenges facing democracy. Given the proliferation of “crisis” literature on democracy, this volume finds its distinctive niche in presenting perspectives from the global margins that bridge disciplinary, sectoral, national and conceptual divides. South Africans enter into conversation with scholars and activists from elsewhere in the Global South, including the Arab world and the rest of Africa, and from the European periphery. Insights on democracy are offered from a diversity of perspectives and voices, spanning philosophy, socio-legal and political studies, sociology, public administration, and queer and gender studies and activism. The book will be of interest to academics, activists, policymakers, development planners, and the general public. The Panel Editor at the event Christi van der Westhuizen is an Associate Professor at the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD), Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. As transdisciplinary scholar interested in identity, difference, ideology and democracy, with a postcolonial and postapartheid focus, she has published widely, both academically and popularly. Christi was a Visiting Professor at the Research Centre Global Dynamics and Institute of African Studies at Leipzig University in 2022. Apart from The D-Word, her scholarly books include, as co-editor, the Routledge International Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness (2022), and two monographs: Sitting Pretty: White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa (2017) and White Power & the Rise and Fall of the National Party (2007). Author at the event Rachid Boutayeb is an Assistant Professor of Social Philosophy and Ethics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has previously worked as a lecturer in philosophy, anthropology, and Islamic studies at various universities in Germany. He has authored numerous research papers on the ethics and social philosophy of migration. His most recent publications include “Tristesse oblige: Eine kleine Philosophie der Nachbarschaft” (Alibri, 2022) and “Modernity and Contemporaneity” (Arab Center for Research and Policy, 2024). Author at the event Svetluša Surová is President and Senior Researcher at the Minority Issues Research Institute (MIRI), headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia. As a Senior Researcher, she investigates minority policies in Serbia and Slovakia, diasporic policies, and collective identities of the Slovak minority in Serbia. She is also working on projects examining the impact of COVID-19 measures on human and minority rights in Slovakia and the political participation of minorities in Serbia. Her work was published in Fórum Társadalomtudományi Szemle, Frontiers in Human Dynamics, Citizenship Studies, Diaspora Studies, among others. Dr Surova is an Expert Member of the Group of friends of minorities in the National Council of Slovak Republic which has prepared expert analyses of approximately 70 laws that directly or indirectly concern minorities. Commentary Ulf Engel is a Professor for Politics in Africa at the Institute of African Studies. He is a visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and professor extraordinary at the Institute for Political Science at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He completed his doctorate in Hamburg in 1994 on the topic of “The Foreign Policy of Zimbabwe” and his habilitation in 1999 on the topic of “The Africa Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1999.” He is currently working on the African Union and challenges in the area of peace and security, as well as on theoretical perspectives for research on regional organizations and regionalism in the Global South. Moderation Constanze Blum is a postdoctoral researcher at the Leipzig section of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC). Her work focuses on (trans-)national approaches to social cohesion and populisms in Southern Africa, in particular in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Furthermore, Constanze’s research interests include the African Union, in particular the organization’s external partnerships in the field of peace and security as well as the day-to-day interactions between various actors in international cooperation. Before joining ReCentGlobe in October 2020, Constanze has worked in the field of rural development in Mozambique and as policy advisor for several NGOs in Berlin. She holds an M.A. in African Studies from Leipzig University and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Geneva.

2. 

   31 Jul 2024

   Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness

   This edition of ReCentGlobe’s Druckfrisch Book Launch features the book “Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness” with the editors Shona Hunter and our guest professor Christi van der Westhuizen. They were joined by the contributors Sarah Heinz and Mark Schmitt in conversation with discussant Evangelia Kindinger. ­ The Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness offers a unique decolonial take on the field of Critical Whiteness Studies by rehistoricising and re-spatialising the study of bodies and identities in the world system of coloniality. Providing a transdisciplinary approach and addressing debates about knowledges, black and white subjectivities and newly defensive forms of whiteness, as seen in the rise of the Radical Right, the handbook deepens our understanding of power, place, and culture in coloniality. Christi van der Westhuizen (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa), Associate Professor and Senior Researcher, is the head of the Research Programme at Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD). She was invited on a Visiting Professorship to Leipzig University, Germany, in 2022. Shona Hunter (Leeds Beckett University, UK) is a Reader in the Carnegie School of Education. She is the Programme Director for Research Degrees in the School and is a member of the Centre for Race Education and Decoloniality. Sarah Heinz (University of Vienna, Austria), has been interested in the specific role that literary and cultural texts have in shaping our sense of self and our perception of the world and others. Literatures and cultures provide us with scripts and ideals of who (and how) to be and lead our lives, but they can also question norms that we often take for granted. Mark Schmitt (TU Dortmund, Germany), is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Languages, Literature and Culture at TU Dortmund. His transdisciplinary work is situated in contemporary British literature and culture, cultural theory and Critical Whiteness studies among others. Evangelia Kindinger (HU Berlin, Germany), is Junior Professor for American Literature and Culture at Humboldt-Universität Berlin. She holds a PhD from Ruhr-Universität Bochum with the dissertation titled Homebound – Diaspora Selves and Spaces in Greek American Return Narratives.

3. 

   1 Jul 2024

   Austin Glatthorn: "Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire"

   In this edition of Druckfrisch Book Discussion, Austin Glatthorn (University of Southampton) discussed his book “Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire” with Ellinor Forster (Innsbruck), Barbara Babić (Leipzig), and Axel Körner (Leipzig). The interdisciplinary study “Music Theatre and the Holy Roman Empire: The German Musical Stage at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century” by Austin Glatthorn was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2022. It reveals the interconnected world of music theatre during the ‘Classical era’. The event took place as part of the ERC Study day, which is organised by the ERC Project “Opera and the Politics of Empire in Habsburg Europe, 1815–1914” in cooperation with the Centre of Competence for Theatre (CCT) and the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe).

4. 

   24 Jun 2024

   Jonathan Singerton: "The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy"

   In this edition of Druckfrisch we discussed the book “The American Revolution and the Habsburg Monarchy” with author Jonathan Singerton. The book presents the American Revolution from the perspective of the Habsburg monarchy. It reveals how, despite seeming antithetical to the American cause, the Habsburg dynasty and people in the Habsburg lands realized the opportunity unleashed by the creation of the thirteen United States of America, demonstrating the wider effects of the American Revolution beyond the standard Atlantic World and portraying the Habsburg Monarchy in a new, oceanic light. Chair: Maren Röger, Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO) Discussants: Jana Osterkamp, LMU München and Axel Körner, Universität Leipzig Reply: Jonathan Singerton, Universität Innsbruck The event was jointly organized by the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics, the ERC-Project “Opera and Politics of Empire in Habsburg Europe, 1815–1914”, and the Leibniz-Institute for History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).

5. 

   17 Jun 2024

   Sandrine Kott: "A World More Equal. An Internationalist Perspective on the Cold War"

   In this edition of Druckfrisch Book Discussion, Sandrine Kott (Université de Genève) discussed her book “Organiser le monde. Une autre histoire de la guerre froide” (SEUIL) with Katja Castryck-Naumann (GWZO), Antje Dietze (SFB1199), and Martin Deuerlein (University of Tübingen). An English translation of the book is now available under the title “A World More Equal. An Internationalist Perspective on the Cold War” at Columbia University Press. By adopting an international perspective, the book challenges the usual interpretation of the post-World War II period too often reduced to the Cold War seen as a global conflict between the United States and the USSR that would have dominated international affairs. This book looks at international organizations and associations as stages on which the Cold War discourse was deployed, but which are above all, especially their secretariats, spaces for dialogue and working together across the ideological divisions of the Cold War. It tells the story of this period through the prism of internationalism as an ideology and a social practice. Druckfrisch Book Discussion is an event series by ReCentGlobe and the European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH). This edition was organized in cooperation with: Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199: “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” Leipzig Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO)

6. 

   10 Jun 2024

   Jie-Hyun Lim: "Global Easts - Remembering, Imagining, Mobilizing"

   In this edition of ReCentGlobe’s Druckfrisch Book Discussion, organised jointly with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), will feature the book “Global Easts - Remembering, Imagining, Mobilizing” (Columbia University Press) with South Korean historian Jie-Hyun Lim. He was joined in the discussion by Katja Castryck-Naumann and Frank Hadler (both GWZO Leipzig). The book, which was published in July 2022, explores entangled Easts to reconsider global history from the margins. Examining the politics of history and memory, Lim reveals the affinities linking Eastern Europe and East Asia. He draws out commonalities in their experiences of modernity, in their transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and in the shaping of collective memory. Ranging across Poland, Germany, Israel, Japan, and Korea, Lim traces the global history of how notions of victimhood have become central to nationalism. He criticizes mass dictatorships of right and left in the Global Easts, considering Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt’s notion of sovereign dictatorship and the concept of decisionist democracy. Lim argues that nationalism is inherently transnational, critiquing how the nationalist imagination of the Global East has influenced countries across borders. More about the book (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbk95VDVyeEtuRWkycGtSZVlBaF93WTRhRFB3Z3xBQ3Jtc0tuNFRSWDlPUGVQM043NEUtRWowa25lVjVWa2VKMzRscHQwZXFQSXoxcFNTMG5wQmVhaU5ObFV0bEpjRjEtaUEwNEpzLVY5d180UVl1SzU4eW51R1lYbkdTc0pqRTBfNWhLN0NmVjZtREFNa2NyS2pTdw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fcup.columbia.edu%2Fbook%2Fglobal-easts%2F9780231206778&v=WmI6wGEVFlI) Jie-Hyun Lim is professor of transnational history and director of the Critical Global Studies Institute at Sogang University. He is coeditor of Mnemonic Solidarity: Global Interventions (2021), The Palgrave Handbook of Mass Dictatorship (2016), and Gender Politics and Mass Dictatorship: Global Perspectives (2011), among many other works.

7. 

   30 May 2024

   Ismay Milford: "African Activists in a Decolonising World"

   This edition of ReCentGlobe’s Druckfrisch Book Discussions on march 07 2023 at ReCentGlobe features the book “African Activists in a Decolonising World: The Making of an Anticolonial Culture, 1952–1966” by Ismay Milford, published by Cambridge University Press in the Global and International History Series. Three experts in the field joins the author Ismay Milford to critique the book and discuss its contributions to the global history of anticolonialism and decolonisation. Many thanks for the organization to Steffi Marung and Roman Krawielicki! Author: Ismay Milford is a historian based at ReCentGlobe, with research interests in East and Central Africa, activism, education, religion, and Cold War information politics. The book is based on her PhD thesis, awarded by the European University Institute (Florence) in 2019. Discussants: Ana Moledo is a PhD student in the project ‘“Free radicals”? Political mobilities and postcolonial re-spatialization processes in the second half of the 20th century’ within the SFB 1199 at Leipzig University. Her research interests lie in the field of global and transnational history, particularly with regard to colonialism and decolonization, transnational activism and radical politics and the Cold War in Southern Africa. Dr John Njenga Karugia is a researcher at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, and an independent consultant. His research specialisms include Chinese migration to Africa and the Indian Ocean as a memory space. Dr Mariusz Lukasiewicz is a historian of Southern Africa, based at the Leipzig University Centre for African Studies, with research and teaching interests in the history of economic institutions, financial intermediaries and business organisations. Chair: The event will be chaired by Dr Steffi Marung, director of the Global and European Studies Institute and PI of “‘Free radicals’? Political mobilities and post-colonial processes of re-spatialization in the second half of the 20th century” at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199 at Leipzig University. About the book: As wars of liberation in Africa and Asia shook the post-war world, a cohort of activists from East and Central Africa, specifically the region encompassing present-day Malawi, Zambia, Uganda and mainland Tanzania, asked what role they could play in the global anticolonial landscape. Through the perspective of these activists, Ismay Milford presents a social and intellectual history of decolonisation and anticolonialism in the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing on multi-archival research, she brings together their trajectories for the first time, reconstructing the anticolonial culture that underpinned their journeys to Delhi, Cairo, London, Accra and beyond. Forming committees and publishing pamphlets, these activists worked with pan-African and Afro-Asian solidarity projects, Cold War student internationals, spiritual internationalists and diverse pressure groups. Milford argues that a focus on their everyday labour and knowledge production highlights certain limits of transnational and international activism, opening up a critical – albeit less heroic – perspective on the global history of anticolonial work and thought. For more info, see the publisher: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/african-activists-in-a-decolonising-world/9628C2584632573703380F18B4EEE581 (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/african-activists-in-a-decolonising-world/9628C2584632573703380F18B4EEE581)

8. 

   6 May 2024

   Pierre Hazan: "Negotiating with the Devil: Inside the World of Armed Conflict Mediation"

   At the next edition of Druckfrisch Book Discussion, Pierre Hazan (Geneva) will present his new book “Negotiating with the Devil: Inside the World of Armed Conflict Mediation”. Comment by: Steffi Marung (Leipzig) Moderation: Gilad Ben-Nun (Leipzig) Organized in cooperation with the Global and European Studies Institute. After many years in the little-known world of back-channel mediation, helping sworn adversaries to prevent, manage or resolve conflict, Pierre Hazan felt compelled to re-examine the acute practical and ethical dilemmas that affected his work in Bosnia, Ukraine, the Sahel and the Central African Republic. What is the mediator’s responsibility when two belligerents conclude a peace agreement to the detriment of a third? Should mediators never be party to ‘ethnic cleansing’, even if it saves lives? Is a fragile peace worth sacrificing justice for—or will that sacrifice fuel another cycle of violence? In an increasingly dystopian world, Negotiating with the Devil offers both practical guidelines and a moral compass for mediators whose field of action has transformed dramatically. We have gone from soft to hard power; from ‘peace dividends’ to war in Europe; from the end of one Cold War to a new East–West confrontation in Ukraine; from Pax Americana to a multipolar world; from the dream of an all-powerful UN to the organisation’s marginalisation. Against this tapestry, Hazan sheds light on the complex work of those steering peace negotiations, blending vivid first-hand observation with sharp insights into the psychology of compromise as a first step towards peace.

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