Forum Transregionale Studien
The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien is a platform that promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. The Forum provides scope for collaboration on common issues among researchers with different regional and disciplinary perspectives. It offers the possibility to try out and to develop research ideas and projects. It appoints researchers from all over the world as Fellows and develops formats for transregional scientific communication.
In cooperation with universities and research institutions in Berlin and the rest of Germany, the Forum carries out research programs and initiatives that address important questions in international and multidisciplinary groups of researchers. The Forum is led by a four-member Board consisting of Friederike Pannewick (Professor for Arabic Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg), Sérgio Costa (Professor of Sociology, Freie Universität Berlin), Andreas Eckert, (Professor of African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, currently on leave), and Barbara Mittler (Professor of Sinology, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg).
The Forum was founded in the Fall of 2009 in the legal form of a registered association with its seat in Berlin. It began its work in 2010 by sponsoring research programs in the areas of philology, jurisprudence, and urban sociology.
The following research programs are currently being carried out: “Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe” (EUME), “re:constitution: Analysis and Exchange on Democracy and the Rule of Law in Europe”, “Prisma Ukraïna – Research Network Eastern Europe”. “4ALaboratory: Art Histories, Archeologies, Anthropologies, Aesthetics” and “Zukunftsphilologie” are programs initiated by the Forum and currently continued at other institutions; they still maintain ties with the Forum.
Together with the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Freie Universität Berlin (since 2019), and the Cultural Studies Institute Essen, the Forum has sponsored an “Academy in Exile” since 2017. This Academy offers support for scientific work in exile to scholars and scientists from countries with limited civil and research freedoms.
Since 2020, the Forum, together with six universities and research institutions from Germany and Tunisia, has participated in the founding and development of the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) at Université de Tunis. In April 2021 the initiative Europäische Zeiten/European Times (EUTIM) started in cooperation with the universities in Frankfurt (Oder) and Potsdam. Another initiative is the Academy in Exile, which was founded in 2017 together with the University of Duisburg-Essen and KWI Essen, and which is continued since 2023 at the TU Dortmund.
The Forum is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care. In the area of internationalization, it cooperates with the Max Weber Foundation – German Humanities Institutes Abroad. Since April 2013, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has supported this cooperation within the framework of its project promotion. In the matter of general administration, the Forum works closely with the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
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