Events
Cologne International Forum Event Series
Perspectives
Truth Matters: Exile and Academia
Keynote Speech by Amira Ahmed (University of Cologne)
Panel discussion with Angelika Nußberger (University of Cologne), Samer Alkarkoukly (University Hospital Cologne, Board Member German-Syrian Research Society), Denis Yagodin (CTO, Araminta)
This panel discussion is part of the University of Cologne’s contribution to the 25th anniversary of the Scholars At Risk network. With Truth Matters, we reaffirm our commitment to academic freedom and the protection of threatened scholars. What does it mean to pursue knowledge when the home country becomes dangerous, inaccessible, or lost? On June 9, we will bring together different perspectives at the intersection of human rights, academic freedom, civic technology, and expressions in times of oppression and displacement. Angelika Nußberger, Denis Yagodin, Amira Ahmed, and Samer Alkarkoukly will discuss the challenges of academic restrictions and solidarity, as well as the far-reaching consequences of political and transborder repression on academia.
Angelika Nußberger
Angelika Nußberger received her doctorate in 1993 in Würzburg with a study on Soviet constitutional law in the transition period. In 1994/95, she completed a research stay at Havard and worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law from 1993 to 2001. From 2001 to 2002, she was legal advisor to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
In 2002 she hablitated with a thesis on social standards in international law. In addition, she was appointed professor at the University of Cologne in the same year, where she has headed the Institute for Eastern European Law and Comparative Law since 1 October 2002.
In 2010, Angelika Nußberger was elected as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On 1 February 2017, she was elected Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights. She held this office until January 2020 and was the first German Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights. After her return to the University of Cologne in 2020, she became Director of the newly founded Academy for European Human Rights Protection.
Samer Alkarkoukly
Samer Alkarkoukly is a Syrian displaced physician and researcher, Board Member of the German-Syrian Research Foundation, and mentor to students and early-career researchers from conflict-affected regions.
He holds an MD and an MSc in Global Health and is currently completing a PhD in medical data science at the University of Cologne, where he also works as a research associate at University Hospital Cologne, focusing on clinical data interoperability, data quality, and digital health infrastructures.
Before continuing his academic career in Germany, he contributed to humanitarian and public health operations during the Syrian conflict through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the World Food Programme — experience that continues to shape his engagement with questions of displacement, academic continuity, and access to knowledge in times of crisis.
Denis Yagodin
Denis Yagodin works at the intersection of technology, civil society, and human rights. Before joining the not-for-profit corporation Araminta, he led the Innovation Team at Teplitsa, a capacity-building initiative supporting civil society organizations in Russia through the strategic use of technology.
At Araminta, he supports human rights defenders by strengthening their digital security practices and expanding their technical toolkits. He works directly with activists to assess and adopt new technologies and AI-based solutions that improve advocacy work while maintaining operational safety.
Denis Yagodin also contributes to Araminta’s business and human rights work, where he applies his expertise in technology, civil society, and risk analysis to develop tools that support human rights due diligence and corporate accountability.
Amira Ahmed
Dr. Amira Ahmed is a Sudanese scholar and practitioner with extensive global expertise in migration and refugee studies. Currently a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cologne, her research investigates the experiences of Sudanese migrants and refugees in Germany. Her multidisciplinary work spans critical issues including human trafficking, brain drain, cultural heritage, gender, and the impact of climate change on migration.
Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Ahmed served as an Assistant Professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where she taught sociology, anthropology, and community development. Complementing her scholarly work, she has significant field experience with international organizations, including IOM (Jordan and Egypt) and IFRC (Switzerland).
Iran - Historische Beziehungen, Milizen und die Frage nach internationaler Verantwortlichkeit
Plenumsdiskussion mit Prof. Katajun Amirpur (Universität zu Köln), Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad (Center for Middle East and Global Order), Prof. Felix Lange (Universität zu Köln),
Moderation: Prof. Fabian Klose (Universität zu Köln)
Der militärische Konflikt zwischen den USA, Israel und Iran fordert durch die Blockade der Meerenge von Hormus auch die Rolle Europas konkret heraus. Nicht zuletzt mit der nun anvisierten direkten Beteiligung Deutschlands am geopolitischen Brennpunkt bleibt eine Diskussion über internationale Verantwortung erforderlich.
Unsere Paneldiskussion am Cologne International Forum thematisiert Irans Position innerhalb völkerrechtlicher Rahmenbedingungen und erforscht, wie historische Beziehungen die aktuelle geopolitische Positionierung geprägt haben. Unsere Expert*innen in Völkerrecht, Nahostpolitik und Regionalanalyse diskutieren, wie diese Transformationen Irans internationale Beziehungen und interne Dynamiken umgestalten und wie die Iraner*innen diese Phase erheblicher Umwälzungen navigieren.
Durch die Kombination der Perspektiven möchten wir ein differenziertes Verständnis von Irans Entwicklung und der Kräfte, die seine Zukunft prägen, ermöglichen.
Katajun Amirpur
Prof. Katajun Amirpur ist deutsch-iranische Islamwissenschaftlerin, Politologin und Publizistin. Sie ist Lehrstuhlinhaberin am Institut für Kulturen und Sprachen der islamisch gerpägte Welt an der Universiät zu Köln und betreibt Forschungen zu Iran und iranisch geprägten Kulturen und Gesellschaften Asiens ebenso wie zu iranischen Diasporagemeinschaften in der ganzen Welt. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt bildet die Geschichte kultureller Beziehungen zwischen dem iranischen Raum einerseits und dem europäischen und asiatischen Raum andererseits. Ihre Forschung stellt Grundlagen für die notwendige kritische Reflexion und Bewertung aktueller Entwicklungen, Argumentationen und öffentlicher Diskurse zur Verfügung, die gerade für den iranischen Raum in seinen internationalen Beziehungen von großer Bedeutung sind.
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad ist ein deutsch-iranischer Politologe und Autor mit Schwerpunkt Naher/Mittlerer Osten, westlicher Außenpolitik und post-unipolarer Weltordnung. Zuletzt erschien von ihm Iran – Wie der Westen seine Werte und Interessen verrät. Er ist Gründer und Direktor des Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG), einer ehrenamtlich geführten Denkfabrik, die zu Transformationen und einer Interessen und Werte versöhnenden Außenpolitik forscht. Er lehrt zudem Nahost-Politik und internationale Sicherheit an der Hertie School in Berlin und unterrichtete zuvor an Universitäten in Prag, Tübingen, der FU Berlin und in London. Fathollah-Nejad ist ehemaliger Iran-Experte der Brookings Institution in Doha (BDC, 2017–20), der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (DGAP, 2015–18) und des Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs der American University of Beirut (AUB-IFI, 2022–24).
Felix Lange
Felix Lange ist seit August 2023 Direktor des Instituts für Völkerrecht und ausländisches öffentliches Recht an der Universität zu Köln. Seine Promotion an der Humboldt-Universität über den Einfluss des Völkerrechtlers Hermann Mosler auf die westdeutsche Völkerrechtswissenschaft der Nachkriegszeit wurde durch die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht ausgezeichnet. Nach einem Forschungsaufenthalt an der Princeton University und seiner Tätigkeit als Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter in der DFG-Kollegforschungsgruppe “The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?” wurde Herr Lange an der Humboldt-Universität habilitiert.
Fabian Klose
Prof. Fabian Klose leitet seit dem Sommersemester 2019 den Lehrstuhl für Internationale Geschichte und Historische Konflikt- und Friedensforschung an der Universität zu Köln. Er schloss seine Habilitation 2017 an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München ab, wo seine Habilitationsschrift “In the Cause of Humanity” 2018 mit dem Carl-Erdmann-Preis des VHD ausgezeichnet wurde. Vor seiner Berufung nach Köln war er Gastprofessor am Centre d’Histoire der Sciences Po Paris und vertrat den Lehrstuhl für Zeitgeschichte an der LMU München. Seit 2014 ist Fabian Klose Academy Leader der Global Humanitarianism Research Academy (GHRA).
SALON: FILM SCREENING & CONVERSATION
Richard Kiaka, Hauke-Peter Vehrs
‘Mtu ni Watu’ Documentary: Reflections about Fieldwork, Assistance and Partnership in a Collaborative Research Setting
Tuesday, June 30, 2026, 4 p.m.
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
The International Forum Tandem collaboration between Dr. Richard Kiaka and Dr. Hauke-Peter Vehrs centred on the production of the documentary Mtu ni Watu, which explores the often unacknowledged role of research assistants in anthropological fieldwork. Positioned at the intersection of local knowledge and academic inquiry, collaborations between research assistants and academic researchers play a crucial role in shaping ethnographic research processes and facilitating engagement with local communities. Yet the perspectives and contributions of research assistants are rarely acknowledged or represented in the final outputs of academic research.
The documentary seeks to address this gap by providing a platform through which research assistants can share their experiences and reflections on the research process. In doing so, it offers a more nuanced account of ethnographic practice and opens space for dialogue about the nature of collaboration, authorship, and partnership in field-based research.
In this presentation, we reflect on the filmmaking process undertaken in Kenya—from the initial conceptual development and project design, through the acquisition of funding, fieldwork and filming, to post-production and the project’s formal completion. We also discuss how the collaboration has continued and evolved beyond the UoC TANDEM initiative, highlighting the broader methodological and ethical implications of collaborative storytelling in anthropological research.
Richard Kiaka
Dr. Richard Kiaka completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Hamburg in 2018, focusing on environmental (in)justices in community based-based water and wildlife management in Namibia. Since 2019, he conducts research on community-based conservation in Kenya’s rangelands and agrarian transformation in western Kenya. Dr. Kiaka is currently a lecturer at the School for Field Studies, Centre for Wildlife Management Studies in Kenya (www.fieldstudies.org/centers/kenya/), and teaches in the field of human dimensions in the conservation of endangered species.
SALON: CONCERT & PRESENTATION
Luis Gimenez Amoros
Geographies of Cultural Coexistence
Thursday, July 9 2026, 6 p.m.
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Music repertoires can illuminate past and present forms of cultural coexistence across present state borders. Drawing on musicological and cultural-historical perspectives, this presentation asks whether reviving such musical repertoires from eastern Spain can help advocate for shared histories that transcend national narratives. The discussion situates the idea of revitalization within broader debates on cultural practices between the Global South and North. In so doing, this presentation highlights the potential of musical heritage to foster collective memories of coexistence and intercultural dialogue in cultural history.
Luis Gimenez Amoros
Luis Gimenez Amoros is a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Global South Studies Center located at the University of Cologne. Previously, he has been an Ethnomusicology lecturer at the University of Cologne (Germany), Universidade Federal da Bahia (Brazil), Rhodes University (South Africa), Sultan Idris University (Malaysia), and a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Center for Humanities research.
His academic research (more than 30 publications) focuses on music and refugees in the Sahara Desert (doctoral dissertation), sound repatriation and revitalization of historical recordings from African sound archives and southeastern Spanish cancioneros: and the historical circulation of Iberian music within an Afro-Asian context and in Latin America. His publications include the monograph ´Tracing the Mbira Sound Archive in Zimbabwe´ (Routledge, 2018) and the awarded album series ´The Unknown Spanish Levant´ (recorded in Egypt, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, Turkey and Spain).
University of Cologne International Events Calendar
SALON: LECTURE
Olivier Corneille
Implicit Measures in Psychological Research (And Beyond): Promises, Setbacks, and the Better Value of Self-Reports
Thursday, May 21 2026, 6 p.m.
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Self-report measures directly ask respondents to report their mental content, such as thoughts and feelings. By contrast, implicit measures aim to assess thoughts and feelings using performance indicators (for example, response times, error rates and response frequencies) under conditions that favor automatic processing. Implicit measures are now widely used in psychological science and beyond, because they are assumed to be superior to self-reports in various ways. In this talk, I will argue that, despite the enthusiasm for implicit measures, self-reports are most often the better measurement option. First, the use of implicit measures is often based on mistaken assumptions about the disadvantages of self-reports. Second, self-reports have advantageous characteristics that are currently unmatched in implicit measures. This calls for a more sophisticated use of self-reports and for caution when using implicit measures in basic and applied research.
Olivier Corneille
Olivier Corneille obtained his PhD in 1997 from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Following a post-doctoral research stay at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, he secured a permanent position as Research Associate at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), before transitioning to Assistant and Associate Professor positions at the UCL. He is now holding a Full Professor position at UCLouvain. Olivier Corneille chaired his research department (IPSY) from 2012 to 2015. He has been a member of UCLouvain’s Research Council from 2018 to 2024. Additionally, he has served as Associate Editor for Social Cognition and Social Psychological and Personality Science. He is a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Olivier Corneille’s primary research interests revolve around cognitive processes involved in attitude formation, cardiac interoception, and the influence of repetition on truth judgments.
The Crisis of Georgian Universities: Causes, Consequences and Futures
Keynote Speech by Ilia State University
Panel Discussion with Christina Bogner, Mikheil Elashvili, Nils Hein, Hannes Laermanns
Over the last years the government of the Republic of Georgia has made headlines with suspending negotiations to join the EU until 2028 and implementing the Foreign Agents Registration Act following the Russian model. However, a widely overlooked process is in motion to change the University landscape of the country drastically.
After a speech of the Georgian Prime minister Irakli Kobachidse last year the government has started to cut the independence of the Universities, limit the number of students dramitcally and disconnect Georgia from the European Higher Education Area. The consequences of these measures for students, staff, education, international exchange, research cooperation and the democracy in Georgia will bei discussed in our panel after a keynote speech from Ilia State University.
Christina Bogner
Prof. Dr Christina Bogner leads the ecosystem research working group at the Institute of Geography of the University of Cologne since 2019 and focusses on soil processes and statistical data analysis. She and her working group are members of the CRC 1357 Microplastics and the SFB/TR 228 Future Rural Africa. Since 2023, she is the head of the International Master of Environmental Sciences (IMES) Program, as well as of the anticipated Joint International Master of Environmental Sciences (JIMES), a joint master degree with the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, India. Furthermore, she serves as vice-dean of for international relations and communication of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the UoC.
She is also active as a tandem host for the project: From Lab to Community: A Collaborative Approach for Education and Awareness on Microplastics.
Mikheil Elashvili
Prof. Dr Mikheil Elashvili is a professor at the Ilia State University in Tbilisi and since 2017 the Director of the Center for Cultural Heritage and Environmental Studies. He has been coordinating the joint research projects with the UoC since 2013 and conducted several of these personally together with Dr Laermanns. Prof. Elashvili also serves as guest professor at the Bridgewater University, Massachusetts (USA).
Nils Hein
Dr. Nils Hein is a geographer and ecologist specializing in climatology, biogeography, and biodiversity research. He currently serves as a Project Coordinator and Advisor to the Scientific Director at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig.
Nils Hein has held several leadership and academic positions, including Associate Professor for Climatology and Biogeography at Ilia State University (Georgia) and Interim Professor for Physical Geography at the University of Cologne.
A key figure in international research cooperation, he served as a coordinator for the Caucasus Barcode of Life (CaBOL) project and the Caucasus Leibniz Biodiversity Center. His expertise bridges the gap between landscape ecology, climate impact, and scientific management.
Hannes Laermanns
Dr. Hannes Laermanns is a scientific staff member at the Institute of Geography of the University of Cologne. He is the academic manager of the of the International Master of Environmental Sciences (IMES) Program since 2023, and will coordinate the anticipated Joint International Master of Environmental Sciences (JIMES). Since the beginning with his PhD project, Dr Laermanns has been working together with the Ilia State University in Tbilisi and conducted different research projects together with the Georgian colleagues of the ISU.
SALON: CONVERSATION
Nicole Bögelein, Mitali Nagrecha
Institutional Racism in the Criminal Justice System - An American and a German Research Perspective in Conversation
Monday, May 18 2026, 6 p.m.,
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
In recent years, institutional racism has been a topic of scholarly and public discussion in the United States more than in Germany. Institutional racism refers to the idea that individuals belonging to racialized groups have worse life chances and outcomes because of systemic and institutional differences that produce these unequal outcomes. In the case of criminal justice, people from racialized groups are more likely to be criminalized and are sentenced more harshly.
Mitali Nagrecha and Nicole Bögelein jointly conducted a research project on institutional racism in the German criminal justice system. In their conversation, they will share what they have learned, including differences in their findings about Germany and the literature from the United States.
Nicole Bögelein
PD Dr. Nicole Bögelein is a research associate at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cologne. Nicole is a sociologist and conducts research on fines, imprisonment for non-payment of fines, sentencing and radicalization. She is co-editor of the open access journal “Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal”. She recently published the book "True Criminology. Mythen, Fakten, Hintergründe" - explaining crime and criminalization to a wider public.
In Cooperation with AmerikaHaus NRW
Glenn Tiffert: Navigating Engagement with China in Trade, Research, and Beyond
The lecture and discussion will be in spoken English
Engagement with China increasingly takes place at the subnational level, where universities, local governments, and economic actors shape partnerships in research, trade, and supply chains. At the same time, these stakeholders are often on the front lines of navigating the political and security dimensions of cooperation with the People’s Republic of China. In this keynote, Glenn Tiffert, a leading expert on Chinese politics and influence operations, will examine how subnational actors can better understand and manage the opportunities and risks associated with engagement with China. Drawing on his research on the Chinese Communist Party’s global strategies, Dr. Tiffert will discuss how issues such as research security, political influence, and supply chain dependencies intersect and what this means for institutions across Germany.
Following the keynote, Daniel Sprick will moderate an in-depth dialog with Glenn Tiffert, opening up the discussion and inviting deeper reflection on the implication for German and European stakeholders.
Glenn Tiffert
Glenn Tiffert is a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. He co-chairs Hoover’s Program on the U.S., China, and the World and directs Stanford's participation in the $67 million SECURE program authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act to bolster the security of the U.S. research enterprise. His work focuses on the integrity of knowledge ecosystems, science and technology policy, and the domestic and international affairs of the People’s Republic of China and foreign influence operations. He is the author or contributor to numerous Hoover publications, including Silicon Triangle: The United States, Taiwan, China, and Global Semiconductor Security (2023). Tiffert holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
SALON: LECTURE
Matthias Lehmann
Nationalism, Internationalism, Zionism: Jewish Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Monday, April 27 2026, 6 p.m.
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
This talk explores the birth of Zionism, the Jewish national movement, as a product of the European fin-de-siècle. At the turn of the century, the Jewish world witnessed a series of changes that would shape the Jewish experience of the following century, and into the present. The rise of nationalism across Europe raised the question of Jewish belonging, at the same time as the age of globalization created new transnational bonds of solidarity among Jews. At the same time, modern antisemitism pushed Jews to rethink their political future, in Europe and beyond.
Matthias B. Lehmann
Matthias B. Lehmann is a German-American scholar of modern Jewish history. His main interests are nineteenth century Jewish history, international Jewish philanthropy, and Sephardic cultural history. After studying in Freiburg, Jerusalem, Madrid, and Berlin, he received his Ph.D. at Freie Universität Berlin in 2002. Lehmann taught Jewish Studies and History at Indiana University, Bloomington (2002-2012) and as Teller Family Chair in Jewish History at the University of California, Irvine (2012-2023). Since 2023, he is professor of modern Jewish history and director of the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. Lehmann is an elected member of the American Academy of Jewish Research and editor of the journal Jewish Social Studies.
Perspectives: LECTURE
Grenzen, Flucht und Vulnerabilität: Postmigrantisches Tandemgespräch Wissenschaft – Geflüchtetenarbeit – bürgerschaftliches Engagement
The venue is wheelchair accessible.
Diese Veranstaltung setzt sich mit zentralen Herausforderungen und Widersprüchen aktueller Migrations- und Grenzpolitik auseinander. Im gemeinsamen Gespräch mit Tahara Adda, ehrenamtlicher Ansprechpartnerin im „Somalisch-deutschen Verein“ in Dortmund, und Dr. Andrés Otálvaro, Politikwissenschaftler und erfahrenem Akteur in der Geflüchtetenarbeit, wird das europäische Festungs- und Grenzregime kritisch diskutiert und kontrastiert mit lokalen, postmigrantischen Praktiken von Solidarität, Autonomie und inklusiver Teilhabe.
Im Fokus stehen dabei nicht nur die strukturellen Gewaltformen an den äußeren und inneren Grenzen Europas, sondern auch die individuellen Erfahrungen von Vulnerabilität, Überlebensstrategien sowie die langen Prozesse des Ankommens und der Teilhabe von geflüchteten Menschen in Deutschland. Vulnerabilität erscheint nicht nur als Forschungsgegenstand, sondern auch als emotional erfahrbare Dimension der Gespräche.
Die Veranstaltung verbindet, durch Frau Addas jahrzehntelanger Erfahrung in der Begleitung von Geflüchteten, wissenschaftliche Analyse mit praxisnaher Perspektive. Adda’s Fokus liegt dabei vor allem bei der Begleitung von Familien und alleinstehenden Frauen, sowie ihre Vernetzungsarbeit mit migrantischen Organisationen. Dr. Otálvaro wird diese Perspektive durch eine politikwissenschaftlich-historische Einordnung von Flucht, (Post-) Migration und dekolonialen Transformationsprozessen ergänzen, gestützt auf theoretischen Reflexionen und praktischen Erfahrungen in der nationalen Geflüchtetenarbeit und Forschung.
Tahara Ahmed Adda Menye
Tahara Adda ist als qualifizierte Sprach- und Integrationsmittlerin tätig und wirkt zudem als Dozentin in der Ausbildung neuer Qualifizierungsteilnehmender mit. Seit mehr als vier Jahrzehnten engagiert sie sich ehrenamtlich und unterstützt Menschen nachhaltig bei ihrer Teilhabe und Integration sowie bei der Bewältigung alltäglicher Herausforderungen. Im Somalisch-Deutscher Verein e. V. fungiert sie als zentrale ehrenamtliche Ansprechpartnerin für Familien sowie für alleinstehende Frauen und begleitet diese bei ihrem langjährigen Ankommensprozess in Deutschland. Darüber hinaus übernimmt sie die Verantwortung für die Kontaktpflege und Kooperation mit anderen migrantischen Organisationen (MO).
Dr. Andrés Otálvaro
Politikwissenschaftler und Historiker mit Fokus auf (Post-)Migration, Flucht und dekoloniale Transformationsprozesse. Seit 2015 aktiv in der Migrations- und Geflüchtetenarbeit, zwischen 2018 und 2025 Bundeskoordinator beim Bundesverband NeMO e.V. (Netzwerke von Migrant:innenorganisationen), wo er die Projekte „GLEICH teilhaben“ und „samo.fa“ verantwortete. Aktuell Lehrbeauftragter an der IU Internationale Hochschule in Köln und bei dem SprInt-Netzwerk. Verfügt über umfangreiche Forschungserfahrung und Lehrtätigkeit in Deutschland, Kolumbien, Venezuela und Peru. Zu seinen Publikationen zählen u. a. „Ein Paradigmenwechsel in der Migrationspolitik“ (Z´Flucht, Nomos 2025) und „Nahe bei den Menschen“ (Transcript 2025).
SALON: LECTURE
Joybrato Mukherjee
»Science Diplomacy in geopolitisch turbulenten Zeiten: Wissenschaft als Kooperations- und Konfliktraum«
4 February 2026 - 6 p.m.,
International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken German.
Wirtschaftlicher Protektionismus, Konfrontationen auf den Weltmeeren, Systemrivalitäten, Kriege - der Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) spricht in einem Positionspapier aus dem Jahr 2022 von einer "neuen Welt(un)ordnung". Diese Entwicklung betrifft auch den Wissenschaftssektor. Internationale Zusammenarbeit als bewährtes Grundmuster wissenschaftlichen Fortschritts steht zunehmend unter Druck. Fließen wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse unbeabsichtigt ins Ausland ab und werden dort missbräuchlich verwendet? Wie lassen sich die gewachsenen Strukturen grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit während laufender kriegerischer Konflikte aufrecht erhalten? Und welche Rolle spielen die deutschen Hochschulen und Wissenschaftsorganisationen in dieser Gemengelage?
Wie eine strategisch aufgestellte "Science Diplomacy" dazu beitragen kann, auch in Zeiten zunehmender Konflikte und eines harten globalen Wettbewerbs Verständigung, Dialog und Aushandlung von Konflikten im wissenschaftlichen Raum zu ermöglichen, ist Gegenstand des Vortrags und der anschließenden Diskussion.
Joybrato Mukherjee
Professor Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee has been Rector of the University of Cologne since October 2023. From 2009 to 2023, Prof. Mukherjee served as President of JLU Giessen. From 2012 to 2019, he additionally held the office of Vice President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and since 2020 he has served as the DAAD's Honorary President. He is a member of several academic advisory boards and boards of trustees, including those of various non-university research institutions.
Joybrato Mukherjee's research focuses on computer-assisted corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, English syntax and the study of language varieties. Numerous research and teaching stays have taken him to various universities abroad.
SALON: LECTURE
Nils Ringe
»Die Sprache(n) der Politik: Wie die Mehrsprachigkeit die Politikgestaltung in der Europäischen Union beeinflusst«
20 Januar 2026 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken German.
Das Motto der Europäischen Union (EU) – “In Vielfalt geeint“ – ist besonders greifbar in ihrer Mehrsprachigkeit. Doch wie wirkt sich der institutionelle Multilingualismus auf den Politikbetrieb der EU aus? Dieser Vortrag veranschaulicht ihn als einen allgegenwärtigen und folgenreichen Bestandteil der EU-Politik. Ausführliche Interviews mit fast 100 politischen Entscheidungsträgern und Sprachdienstleistern in den wichtigsten Institutionen der EU zeigen, gepaart mit quantitativen und linguistischen Daten, wie die Mehrsprachigkeit politische Interaktionen, Beratungen und Verhandlungen, und letztendlich auch die politische Kultur der EU beeinflusst.
Nils Ringe
Nils Ringe ist Professor und Robert F. and Sylvia T. Wagner Chair im Department of Political Science der University of Wisconsin-Madison, wo er von 2014-21 das Center for European Studies und von 2015-22 das Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence leitete und von 2015-21 einen Jean-Monnet-Lehrstuhl innehatte. Er forscht zur Politik der Europäischen Union, Sprache und Politik, Populismus, Gesetzgebung, Wahlen, politischen Parteien und politischen Netzwerke.
In Kooperation mit dem Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen der islamisch geprägten Welt
Perspectives: POETRY READING
»„Ich vermischte die Stimmen“ — Gedichte und Texte von Esther Dischereit auf Deutsch, Hebräisch, Arabisch und Jiddisch«
16 December 2025, 6 p.m. - International House (Kringsweg 6) / hybrid
The venue is wheelchair accessible.
ALL-EYES-ON-GAZA
Lyriklesung und Gespräch über die Situation in Israel, Palästina und Deutschland. Moderiert von Stephan Milich (SKIW)
Esther Dischereit
Esther Dischereit gehört als Lyrikerin, Erzählerin, Essayistin, Theater- und Hörstückautorin sowie Literaturkritikerin zu den herausragenden Stimmen deutsch-jüdischer Literatur der zweiten Generation nach dem Holocaust. Unter anderem erhielt sie 2009 den Erich-Fried-Preis, von 2012 bis 2017 lehrte sie als Professorin an der Universität für angewandte Kunst in Wien. Zuletzt erschien 2024 ihr Roman "Ein Haufen Dollarscheine" bei MaroVerlag. Esther Dischereit liest neue und ältere Gedichte und Kurzprosa und spricht mit Stephan Milich über die Situation für Kultur, Gesellschaft und Wissenschaft nach dem 7. Oktober.
SALON: LECTURE
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
»One brain – many languages? Why language diversity is important for understanding human cognition«
1 December 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
The ability to communicate via language is a key part of what makes us human. However, despite decades of research, how the brain supports language-based communication remains only partially understood. Contributing to this enduring mystery is the massive diversity of the world’s languages: it is estimated that there are currently over 7000 living languages. Language is therefore arguably the most diverse of human cognitive abilities. This presentation will explore the implications of linguistic diversity for understanding not only how the brain processes language but also human information processing / cognition as a whole.
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of South Australia (UniSA) and a current member of the University of Cologne's Global Faculty program. Prior to joining UniSA in 2014, she was Professor of Neurolinguistics at the University of Marburg and a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Prof. Bornkessel-Schlesewsky is known internationally for her research on cross-linguistic diversity in the cognitive neuroscience of language, with other research interests including interindividual differences and lifespan changes in human information processing. Her research has been recognised with honours including the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation and an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.
SALON: LECTURE
Sarah Halpern-Meekin
»Relationship dynamics: Understanding on-again/off-again relationships«
17 November 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
While research often focuses on relationship formation—dating, cohabiting, and marriage—and dissolution—breakups and divorces—it often neglects that relationships are messy. Couples may have churning relationship dynamics, characterized by multiple breakups and reunions. This talk describes these relationship patterns among young adults and among parents in the United States and discusses the relationship, individual, and family dynamics that are associated with this kind of relationship volatility.
Sarah Halpern-Meekin
Sarah Halpern-Meekin is a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the School of Human Ecology, as well as the director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Halpern-Meekin uses qualitative and quantitative methods to study romantic relationships and low-income families’ finances, as well as government policies directed at these areas. Her research includes examining how social poverty shapes people’s wellbeing and decisions; understanding the lives of prime-age men who are out of the labor force; studying the role of on-again/off-again relationships in the lives of parents and their children; and longitudinally following how poor mothers of babies experience a program that provides them with monthly unconditional cash gifts.
Perspectives: LECTURE
»‘Academic Humanitarianism’ as Emergent Dispositive: A Critical Appraisal of Europe’s Scholar Protection Programmes, 2016-2024«
13 November 2025, 5 p.m. - International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Academic communities worldwide are going through dire times, experiencing severe threats to civic and human rights and their ability to engage in critical research and teaching. At the same time, the last decade has seen concerted efforts on the part of universities, civil society organisations, public and private institutions to mobilise resources for the protection and support of displaced scholars.
Through our research, we aim to gain a better theoretical understanding of how the logic of ‘humanitarian reason’ gets mapped onto the academic field. Drawing on Foucault’s work, we develop a dispositive analysis of the complex formation that Yarar/Karakaşoğlu have termed ‘academic humanitarianism’.
Our study is based on extensive empirical research dedicated to the analysis of the discursive, material and knowledge practices articulating this newly emerging dispositive. Particular attention is paid to the frames that policy actors mobilise to navigate the tensions around conflicting rationales for ‘scholar rescue’ programmes. Moreover, we critically discuss the role that the creation of categories such as the ‘at-risk scholar’ plays in academic humanitarian interventions and processes of knowledge production. The EU SAFE fellowship programme serves as a case study to examine the range of technologies employed to regulate access to support mechanisms, the pastoral power embodied in hosting/mentoring relations, and the cooperation-competition nexus governing the relationships between network actors such as universities, NGOs, and exiled scholars, but also as a departure point for thinking potential lines of empowerment and re-subjectification.
Esra Erdem
Esra Erdem is Professor of Social Economics at Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin. She served as Principal Investigator (PI) on the BMBF-funded research project Sage-SAGE! (2021-2024), investigating institutional development strategies and career opportunities for exiled scholars at Universities of Applied Sciences.
Publications in the field of Critical University Studies include “Emergent Repertoires of Resistance and Commoning in Higher Education” (South Atlantic Quarterly, 2019, co-authored); “Free universities as academic commons" (in: The Handbook of Diverse Economies, 2020); “Exiled scholars at Universities of Applied Sciences: New Opportunities and Structural Challenges for an Engaged Academy” (in: SAGE-Hochschulen im Strukturwandel, 2025, co-authored).
Homepage:
https://www.ash-berlin.eu/hochschule/lehrende/professor-innen/prof-dr-esra-erdem/
Zafer Yılmaz
Zafer Yılmaz is Associate Professor at Ankara University and a research fellow at Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin. His work critically examines the global rise of authoritarianism, the deepening crisis of democracy, and the far-right's growing hegemony. He has published widely on populism, authoritarian rule, and the authoritarian restructuring of the Turkish state in both academic journals and collective volumes. Among his books are The Spirit of New Turkey: Resentment, Domination and Destitution, Erdogan’s Presidential Regime: From Exceptional Republic to Parcelled State, and The Gloom of the Right: Authoritarian Leaders and the Stolen Rebellion (in Turkish), which interrogate the social, affective, and institutional dynamics of authoritarianism in Turkey and beyond.
SALON: LECTURE
Ahmet Yikik & Aylin Walder
»Elif Shafak. A Sociological Exploration of Gender and Migration.«
2 July 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
The work of Elif Shafak, a British author of Turkish descent, delves deeply into migration and gender issues. In this presentation, I will shed light on so-called "deviant" individuals and social groups through Elif Shafak's narrative landscape. I will discuss how Shafak’s fiction contributes to expanding the concept of being "human" by addressing issues of gender and migration. In essence, I aim to lay the groundwork for re-imagining social concepts through literary works.
Ahmet Yıkık
Ahmet Yıkık obtained both his master’s degree (2013) and his PhD (2019) from the University of Cyprus, Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor. Yıkık is the author of two books: *Voices from the Periphery – Written Works from Cyprus* (Kesit Publications, Istanbul, 2022, in Turkish) and *First Serialized Novel in Turkish Cypriot Literature: A Glance* (Günce Publications, Ankara, 2021, in Turkish). In addition, he continues to contribute to Cypriot literature through criticism and translation. His research interests include immigration, social mobility, identity, gender, and prejudice.
In Cooperation with the Institute for International Criminal Law
SPECIAL Event
Caroline Bettinger-Lopez
»Law Clinics, Universities, and Liberal Thought - Finding Clarity in a Time of Chaos and Cacophony«
16 June 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
We are living through a time of far-reaching legal, political, and social upheaval that is challenging both the integrity and staying power of the international rules-based order and democracy itself. In the United States, and increasingly in other democratic nations, a concerted and relentless onslaught of orders, policies, and laws at all levels of government threaten communities, institutions, and individuals, shrinking so-called “safe spaces” and creating unprecedented and unanticipated fault lines. This conversation will explore how law clinics (both faculty and students), universities, and our broader communities can serve as defenders of justice and sustain our work and purpose during this critical time, and amid the chaos.
Caroline Bettinger-Lopez is Professor of Law, Faculty Chair of the Human Rights Program, and Director of the Human Rights Clinic at University of Miami School of Law Former Senior Advisor on Gender & Equality, U.S. Department of Justice and The White House, Gender Policy Council Caroline Bettinger-López is a Professor of Law, Faculty Chair of the Human Rights Program, and Director of the Human Rights Clinic at University of Miami School of Law, which she founded in 2010.
From 2021-2024, she served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House Gender Policy Council. From 2015-2017, she served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women and Senior Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden.
Professor Bettinger-López focuses on gender-based violence, racial justice, and immigrants’ rights in domestic and international forums. She previously taught at University of Chicago School of Law and Columbia Law School, and worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and as a federal law clerk. She is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and a recipient of a Roddenberry Fellowship and a TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund grant.
SALON: DISCUSSION
Julie Smith & Birgit Bujard
»The Changing International Order and the Renewed Momentum to Unite Europe«
17 June 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Global and regional events over the past three years have conspired to bring Europeans closer together. Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine since 2022 has led to European solidarity with its democratic neighbour, including allowing Ukraine to begin the road to European Union membership. Meanwhile, two European states, Sweden and Finland, finally dropped their neutrality and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 has caused chaos in the financial markets and a possible trade war, again leading to strong European responses. The US President’s ambivalence about NATO has further provoked European reactions. Defence cooperation, including with the United Kingdom, is firmly on the agenda.
This lecture will argue that decisions in Washington and Moscow have acted as catalysts for closer cooperation among European countries, precisely the opposite of the disruption they sought to achieve.
Julie Smith
Professor Julie Smith (Baroness Smith of Newnham) is Professor of European Politics at Cambridge University, Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge and a member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. Julie’s research interests centre on the history and politics of the European Union, democracy in Europe and the UK’s relations with the EU, with particular interests in defence. Her publications include The Palgrave Handbook of the 2024 European Parliament Elections, co-editor and contributor (Palgrave, forthcoming 2025), a Special Issue of German Politics on German-Turkish-EU relations (forthcoming 2025), The UK’s Journeys into and out of the EU – Destinations Unknown (Routledge, 2017) and The Palgrave Handbook of European Referendums (editor and contributor Palgrave, 2021).
SALON: LECTURE
Mohammed Errbii & Luisa María Jaimes Nino
»The Fascinating World of Ants: The Little Things That Run Our Planet«
6 June 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
With over 15,000 extant species and at least 150 million years of evolutionary history, ants are among the most successful multicellular lineages on our planet. Today, their total biomass exceeds that of all mammals combined, making them one of the dominant organisms in terrestrial ecosystems.
Together with a colleague from Mainz University, we will share our fascination with ants. In an informal setting, we will present some of the most remarkable studies on ants, showcasing how their adaptive innovations and functional diversity have been key to their success. Additionally, we will share insights from our own research on Cardiocondyla obscurior, an emerging model organism for studying social evolution, genome evolution, aging, and developmental processes.
Mohammed Errbii
Mohammed “Simo” Errbii is a biologist from Morocco specializing in evolutionary genomics. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Münster, Germany, where he investigated genome dynamics and evolution in insects. His research focuses on how genetic diversity is generated and its impact on organisms, using population and comparative genomics approaches, with a special focus on ants. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cologne, investigating genome dynamics in asexual organisms to better understand the evolutionary significance of sexual reproduction.
In Cooperation with AmerikaHaus NRW
SPECIAL Event
Kimberly Wehle & Kirk Junker
»What is a Constitutional Crisis?«
22 May 2025 - 6.30 p.m., Hörsaal XII (UoC Main Building, Albertus-Magnus-Platz)
The lecture and discussion will be in spoken English.
The return of Donald Trump to the White House has reignited debates over the balance of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches,
and raised pressing questions about the strength and resilience of American democratic institutions in a time of political transformation. As the current
administration moves swiftly to implement its agenda, reshape the federal bureaucracy, and challenge long-standing interpretations of executive
authority, legal scholars and observers are grappling with urgent questions: Where are the boundaries of presidential power? What role must the other
branches play in maintaining constitutional equilibrium? When do institutional tensions signal a true constitutional crisis—and what exactly
defines such a crisis in a system built to endure conflict and disagreement? These are no longer theoretical concerns—they are the defining constitutional challenges of 2025.
This joint event with AmerikaHaus NRW will explore what it means to face a constitutional crisis today, unpacking the shifting dynamics between the branches of government, the evolving role of the courts, and the broader implications for civil liberties and the future of American democracy.
Join us for a vital conversation about the U.S. Constitution with:
Prof. Dr. Kimberly Wehle, University of Baltimore
Kimberly Wehle is an expert in constitutional law and the separation of powers, with particular emphasis on presidential power and administrative agencies. She is a tenured law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she teaches Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Administrative law, and Federal Courts. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands where she is also the inaugural Resident Thinker at The John Adams Institute. Further, Wehle is also a legal contributor for ABC News and regularly writes for Politico, The Atlantic, and The Bulwark. Winner of the University of Maryland System Board of Regents Award for excellence in scholarship. Wehle also writes and comments on the Supreme Court, election law and voting rights. She was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Washington D.C. office and Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation. She is the author of several books, including How to Read The Constitution—and Why, and How to Think Like a Lawyer— and Why and Pardon Power: How the Pardon System
Works—and Why.
Prof. Dr. Kirk Junker, University of Cologne
Kirk Junker, a native of Pittsburgh, studied law in both Germany and the United States, receiving his law degree from Duquesne University. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and was a public environmental law prosecutor for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources for ten years before obtaining his PhD in ancient rhetoric. Professor Dr. Junker is author or co-author of 9 books, including the Introduction to US Legal Culture, available in English, German and Italian, 49 book chapters, and 56 articles on environmental law, comparative and international law and ethics. He is a frequent guest on German, Swiss and Luxembourg media. Professor Junker has held professorships on faculties of law in the United States and Germany, in communication in Dublin (Ireland) and Belfast (Northern Ireland), and in natural science in the UK. For the last 15 years, Prof. Junker has held the Chair in US Law at the University of Cologne. He is currently also the Vice Rector for Sustainability at the University of Cologne.
Perspectives: LECTURE
Housamedden Darwish
»The Concept of Heritage in Contemporary Arab Thought«
19 May 2025 - 4 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Heritage occupies a central place in contemporary Arab culture and Arab thought. To explore this, I will address the conceptual significance of heritage, its meanings, and its entanglement with other key ideas, such as tradition, the past, authenticity, modernity and renaissance. In doing so, I will also reflect on how Arab intellectuals have approached heritage as both a cultural foundation and a contested problem. By examining the engagement of Arab thought with heritage over time, the shift from revivalist to critical and then to synthesis-oriented perspectives is highlighted. This evolving debate is further situated within the broader intellectual and political challenges in the Arab world. To illustrate these approaches, the works of Hussein Muruwa, Tayeb Tizini, Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, Muhammad Arkoun, Abdullah Laroui, Hassan Hanafi, Muhammad Abed al-Jabri, and Radwan al-Sayyid are underlined as representative models of distinct approaches to heritage in contemporary Arab discourse.
Housamedden Darwish is a writer, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Cologne. He earned his PhD in Philosophy with a specialization in Hermeneutics from the University of Bordeaux 3, awarded summa cum laude with distinction. His work engages with philosophy, Arab thought, Islamic studies, and cultural studies. He has authored nine books in Arabic and three in French and published widely in peer-reviewed journals and in translation in both Arabic and English.
SALON: LECTURE
Rotem Gross
»Antibiotics and Bacteria: A Battle for Survival«
21 May 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Antibiotics have transformed medicine by turning deadly infections into treatable conditions, saving countless lives.
In this discussion, we will explore what antibiotics are, how they specifically target and disrupt bacterial cells, and the biological mechanisms that make them effective. However, bacteria have evolved techniques to neutralize antibiotics, including modifying their processes to prevent drug action and producing neutralizing enzymes. We will examine how bacteria acquire resistance features through random mutations and gene sharing across species. Understanding the function of antibiotics and bacterial resistance is essential for addressing the challenge of antibiotic resistance.
This talk will provide an overview of this complex struggle and its implications for human health.
SALON: DISCUSSION
Anan Alsheikh Haidar & Claus Kreß & Isabel Schayani
»Syria in Transition: Insights and Challenges«
29 April 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
Following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the new interim government is presented with a unique opportunity to establish good governance. However, ensuring security, stabilizing and revitalizing the economy, and building political cohesion pose enormous challenges. How the interim government copes with these challenges will be decisive for its legitimacy.
Transitional justice is another key challenge, and this includes confronting past mass atrocities and gross human rights violations by ensuring accountability and by working towards reconciliation. Without an inclusive, meaningful transition, Syria risks falling back into a circle of violence and injustice.
‘Syria in Transition’ is meant to provide insights into and to discuss the current situation in Syria, the challenges it faces, and the prospects for a sustainable and peaceful future.
This SALON event is organized in cooperation with the Institute for International Peace and Security Law and the Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law (CHL).
This SALON event is fully booked. Please follow us on Instagram to stay tuned on last minute vacancies.
Anan Alsheikh Haidar is a Research Fellow at the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. Previously, she served as a Phillipp Schwartz Fellow at the institute from July 2016 to December 2018. Dr. Haidar holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Reading where she also completed her Master of Laws (L.L.M) in Advanced Legal Studies, as a Chevening Scholar. Her legal education began at the University of Damascus, Syria, where she obtained Diploma in Law. Throughout her academic career, she focused on international criminal law and international human rights law.
Dr. Haidar is a member of the Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law.
Claus Kreß
Claus Kreß has been Professor of Criminal Law and International Law at the University of Cologne since 2004. He holds the Chair of German and International Criminal Law and is Director of the Institute for International Peace and Security Law. Professor Kreß is also a founding member of the Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law (CHL).
Isabel Schayani
Isabel Schayani is a journalist and broadcaster specializing in political and social issues. Since 2016, she has been responsible for the WDRforyou project, which is designed for refugees and is presented in four languages. Isabel Schayani is known for her precise analysis and committed reporting, especially on migration, integration and international crises. She has received several awards for her journalistic work, including the Grimme Prize.
In cooperation with: ZADIK (Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung)
Special Event in collaboration with ZADIK: Art and Cultural Goods in Circulation
10-11 March, International House (Kringsweg 6)
Business records of auction houses are rarely accessible to the public but offer unique research data - especially for private sales, where they often represent the only sources for changes of ownership. This symposium focuses on the Hauswedell & Nolte archive, the first German auction house archive made publicly accessible. The event, and especially the podium discussion at the evening of 10 March, is open to the public.
SALON: HUMBOLDT LECTURE
Mulu Hundera
»Family Support in Female Entrepreneurship: Perspectives from a Developing Country«
29 January 2025 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English and translated into German sign language. Supported by the "Gebärdensprach- und Schriftdolmetschen" fund.
Dr. Mulu Berhanu Hundera, a scholar from Ethiopia focusing on entrepreneurship, strategic management, and gender studies. Currently a visiting postdoctoral scholar, her research focuses on female entrepreneurship in developing countries. Her expertise spans both academic research and practical fieldwork, having worked extensively at Haramaya University in Ethiopia and the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.
In her talk, Mulu Hundera will let us gain insight into her study on the circumstances in which family support acts as both an enabler and a constraint on the success of female-led businesses in Ethiopia.
Her research enriches the knowledge on female entrepreneurship by reconciling research on family support and gender. It also extends the understanding of paradoxical relationships in entrepreneurship. The study emphasizes the importance of policy interventions to address traditional gender roles and optimizing family support.
We are looking forward to hearing more about the “family support paradox” and invite you to join us.
Cologne International Forum: Perspectives
Herausforderungen für die Demokratie in der postmigrantischen Gesellschaft
Die Ringvorlesung des Instituts für Sprachen und Kulturen der islamischen geprägten Welt (ISKIW) und des Instituts für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (ISS) der Universität zu Köln befasst sich mit Herausforderungen für die Demokratie in der postmigrantischen Gesellschaft angesichts der aktuellen politischen Entwicklungen. Dazu gehören Verletzungen von Menschenrechten und Ideologien der Ungleichheit, Autoritarismus in seinen verschiedenen Formen, Antisemitismus und antimuslimischer Rassismus.
Wir freuen uns die Januar-Veranstaltungen als Kooperationspartner am Cologne International Forum begrüßen zu dürfen.
Die Veranstaltungen im Januar finden im International House, Kringsweg 6 statt.
Eine Anmeldung ist erforderlich.
13.01.2025, 16:00-17:30 Uhr (hybrid)
Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (Humboldt University Berlin):
Wie fühlt es sich an, als Gefahr wahrgenommen zu werden? Selbstbilder, Emotionen und Umgangsweisen mit dem „Bedrohungsszenario“ im antimuslimischen Rassismus
20.01.2025, 16:00-17:30 Uhr (NUR ONLINE)
Prof. Dr. Naika Foroutan (DeZIM, Berlin):
„Importierter Antisemitismus“? Herausforderungen für die postmigrantische Gesellschaft
27.01.2025, 16:00-17:30 Uhr (hybrid)
Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie (em./KWI Essen):
Erweiterte Demokratie: Für ein Parlament der Dinge
In cooperation with: Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH)
A Covenant for the Earth: An Introduction to Islam and Ecology
3 December 2024 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth, presents an Islamic outlook on the environment in a bid to strengthen local, regional, and international actions that combat climate change and other threats to the planet.
After Imam Saffet Abid Catovic’s presentation, who was part of the Scholars Team in the writing of Al-Mizan, we will follow up with a panel response by
Dr. Katajun Amirpur (Islamic Studies, UoC)
Dr. Laurel Kearns (Ecology, Society, and Religion, Drew University)
Dr. Carrie Dohe (MESH, UoC)
Final Conference of the International Research Cluster
Conflict-Induced Displacement and Socio-Economic Resilience: Learning from Neglected Conflicts in Cameroon and Myanmar
The currently estimated 281 million migrants worldwide constitute 3.6% of the global population (IOM 2022). Of these migrants, 89.5 million have been forcibly displaced (IOM 2022). This figure is larger than the domestic population of all but 16 countries in the world. Despite this overwhelming number of displaced persons, political and humanitarian measures to address forced migration are often ad-hoc and largely neglect the socio-economic aspects of this displacement. To better manage forced migration, it is important to understand migrants’ socio-economic situations, including their legal and economic integration in the host region as well as their economic contributions in the conflict zone. Research-based analyses and policy recommendations for developing resilient economic and livelihood systems will be an important academic contribution to handling conflict-induced migration and facilitating the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Directorship of the International Research Cluster for researchers at the University of Cologne is one of the funding opportunities of the Cologne International Forum. It enables the realization of up to 5 internationalization projects for comprehensive international, possibly also interdisciplinary networking within the framework of a central research focus. In 2023/24 Prof. Dr. Michaela Pelican has been Director of the cluster, which will now hold its concluding conference.
SALON: LESUNG UND GESPRÄCH
Charlotte Wiedemann
»Israel, Palästina, Deutschland: Traumata und Humanität«
26 November 2024 - 18 Uhr, International House (Kringsweg 6)
Der Veranstaltungsort ist rollstuhlgerecht. Der Vortrag findet in deutscher Lautsprache statt und wird in die Deutsche Gebärdensprache übersetzt. Unterstützt durch den Fond "Gebärdensprach- und Schriftdolmetschen".
Was bedeutet historische Verantwortung?
Gibt es Alternativen zur „Staatsraison“?
Welche Rolle spielt die Anerkennung von Holocaust und Nakba in der Vision „A Land for All“?
Die Autorin Charlotte Wiedemann spricht mit Stephan Milich über ihre Erfahrungen in Israel und im Westjordanland und liest aus ihrem Buch „Den Schmerz der Anderen begreifen. Holocaust und Weltgedächtnis“.
SALON: CONVERSATION
Tahereh Aboofazeli, Arjang Omrani, Simone Pfeifer, Kris Rutten, Nanette Snoep, and Masoumeh Zolfaghari
»Weaving Memories - Doing Research with and for the People«
25 November 2024 - 6 p.m., International House (Kringsweg 6)
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the lecture will be held in spoken English.
In this public event we present and discuss the joint exhibition by artist-weavers and researchers from Iran and Germany, “WE ARE NOT CARPETS – I Tell You My Story.” The collaborative exhibition is shown at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum and presents newly created, unique personal carpets and their stories, which are experienced in a poetic and cinematic way. The carpets are the result of the collaborative research project “Weaving Memories,” which provides weavers from the North Khorasan region in Iran with a platform to tell their stories by transforming their craft into a medium of storytelling and as works of art.
With Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law (CHL)
SALON: PODIUMSDISKUSSION
»Wissenschaftskommunikation oder politischer Aktivismus?
Public Outreach in der historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung«
22 November 2024 - 18 Uhr, International House (Kringsweg 6)
Der Veranstaltungsort ist rollstuhlgerecht und der Vortrag findet in deutscher Lautsprache statt.
- Prof. Dr. Eckart Conze, Universität Marburg
- Dr. Franziska Davies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- Prof. Dr. Felix Lange, Universität zu Köln
- Prof. Dr. Tatjana Tönsmeyer, Universität Wuppertal
- Dr. Arvid Schors, Universität zu Köln (Moderation)
Das Verhältnis von akademischer Geschichtswissenschaft und breiterer Öffentlichkeit ist seit jeher von gewissen Spannungen geprägt. Während Historiker*innen ihre Forschungsergebnisse gewöhnlich in Büchern festhalten, ist in der Medienöffentlichkeit die pointierte Stellungnahme gefragt. Die moderierte Podiumsdiskussion zwischen vier Wissenschaftler*innen, die regelmäßig Medienanfragen zu für die historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung relevanten Themen erhalten, zielt darauf ab, die Außenwirkung dieser Forschung kritisch zu debattieren.
Dabei soll grundsätzlich die Frage erörtert werden, in welchem Verhältnis Wissenschaftskommunikation einerseits und politische Positionierungen andererseits zueinanderstehen und wo die Grenzen zwischen diesen Sphären verlaufen – insbesondere bei den häufig mit hohem Polarisierungspotenzial einhergehenden Themen der Historischen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung.
SALON: LECTURE
Natasha A. Kelly
»Black Studies – Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft«
30 October 2024 - 18 Uhr
Der Veranstaltungsort ist rollstuhlgerecht. Der Vortrag findet in deutscher Lautsprache statt und wird in die Deutsche Gebärdensprache übersetzt. Unterstützt durch den Fond "Gebärdensprach- und Schriftdolmetschen".
Theorien, Konzepte und Methoden der Black Studies, wie Diversity, Intersectionality oder Critical Race Theory, haben bereits Einzug in deutsche Universitäten gehalten, dennoch steht die Institutionalisierung dieses akademischen Feldes noch aus. In ihrem Vortrag wird Prof. Dr. Natasha A. Kelly einen tiefen Einblick in die Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft der Black Studies geben und die damit verbundenen Herausforderungen, Konflikte und Potenziale beleuchten. Von der Analyse der afrikanischen Diaspora bis zur Untersuchung von strukturellem und institutionellem Rassismus – dieser Vortrag bietet eine umfassende Einführung in ein wichtiges und dynamisches Feld der Wissensproduktion aus afrozentrischer Perspektive.
Natasha A. Kelly ist seit dem Wintersemester 2023 Gastprofessorin für Kulturwissenschaften im Studium Generale der Universität der Künste Berlin. Sie ist Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin und Soziologin, Autorin und Herausgeberin, Kuratorin und multimediale Künstlerin mit den Themenschwerpunkten Schwarze deutsche Geschichte, Schwarzer Feminismus und Afrofuturismus.
Concluding Event on 19 October 2024 – MESH, EUniWell, Bridges und Titel Autumn Academy for Planetary Wellbeing
Pop-Up Exhibition: Multispecies Storytelling
Pop-Up Exhibition on Multispecies Storytelling feat. participant projects at the University of Cologne, International House
The exhibition displayed the collective multimodal results of one week of intense multidisciplinary collaboration and exchange of our Autumn Academy participants on the topics of Multispecies Conviviality and Planetary (More-than-human) Wellbeing.
Further information:
mesh.uni-koeln.de/events
mesh.uni-koeln.de/events/meshworks
Lecture Series in German
Ringvorlesung: Rassismuskritik
The diversity of our (international) scholars enriches the research at the University of Cologne significantly. To achieve an atmosphere in which this diversity is fully appreciated and supported, we need continued discussions on discrimination and structural racism. The Cologne International Forum therefore supports the lecture series Rassismuskritik organized by the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Islamic World.
Montags 16-17 Uhr, Hörsaal 121 (Gronewaldstr. 2)
Wir beschäftigen uns in dieser Ringvorlesung mit Rassismus in all seinen Variationen und Spielarten: Antisemitismus, anti-muslimischem Rassismus, anti-schwarzem Rassismus, Antiziganismus etc., strukturellem sowie institutionellem. Zu diesen Themen werden Angehörige der UzK, aber auch Gastdozierende von anderen Universitäten und Institutionen sprechen, um möglichst viele Aspekte abzudecken. So wird auch die Geschichte des Kolonialismus eine große Rolle spielen, des christlichen wie des islamischen. Eingehen wollen wir zudem auf Strategien gegen die heutigen, speziell in Deutschland vorhandenen Formen des Rassismus - und uns immer wieder diskutierten Fragen stellen, wie: Gibt es Rassismus gegen Weiße? Oder: Dürfen Nicht-Betroffene über Rassismus forschen/sprechen?
Aufgrund der hohen Nachfrage, kann die Teilnahme nicht garantiert werden. Wir bitten Studierende darum, sich ausschließlich über KLIPS anzumelden. Alle anderen melden sich bitte hier an.
LECTURE
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi
»The Power of Words - The Writer's Association in Iranian Politics«
5 July, 2024 — 6 p.m.
In his talk, Siavush Randjbar-Daemi explores the Kanun-e Nevisandegan-e Iran, a key writer‘s association, and its role in Iranian politics from 1968 to the 1979 revolution. It highlights how the association became the main non-
violent dissident group during a time of heavy political re-pression, uniting major intellectual figures who had been divided by political conflicts. As part of his upcoming study, Randjbar-Daemi presents a new perspective on the Iranian revolution beyond the usual focus on religious leaders.
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews. His core research interests lie in the evolution of the state in modern and contemporary Iran, and the contribution to the public sphere, particularly in periods of relative pluralism, such as the early 1950s or 1979-1981, of a variety of actors, from crowds formed by subaltern parts of society to socio-political elites.
LECTURE
Mert Kocak
»Constructing the Deserving Refugee: EU Financial Aid to Turkey and Refugee Governance «
27 June, 2024 — 6 p.m.
During his multi-sited fieldwork with LGBTI+ asylum seekers and refugees, and the local and transnational organizations in Turkey, Mert Kocak made a consistently recurring observation: asylum seekers and refugees gain access to certain rights not because they are entitled to them under national and international laws, but because bureaucratic bodies deem them deserving of these rights.
In this talk, we will seek to answer the following questions: What constitutes the discourse of deserving asylum seekers and refugees? What local and transnational actors play a role in constructing this discourse? How does the 2016 EU-Turkey Agreement influence it? And finally, how does deservingness affect the daily lives of refugees and asylum seekers?
LECTURE
Nira Liberman
»Can Poor Access to Internal States Explain Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies?«
13 June, 2024 — 6 p.m.
Some people easily know what they feel, what they like and what they want. Others, however, find it difficult to access such internal states. Together with Nira Libermann we will look at obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as an example of this difficulty. Instead of reflecting on their inner emotions, people with OCD rely on external signs that are easier to recognize, such as strict rules or repetitive behaviorisms. Studies have shown that people with OCD often misinterpret signals from their bodies, struggle to understand their emotions, and have a distorted sense of control over their actions. This approach helps us to discuss and understand why people with OCD often have compulsive habits, persistent worries, and doubts.
FILM SCREENING
Dan Smyer Yü & Franz Krause & Kate Rigby:
»Human Kinship with Nature in the Tibetan Plateau«
Rescheduled to May 14, 2024 — 6 p.m.
Ensouling the Mountain, directed by Dan Smyer Yü, chronicles a pilgrimage to Mt. Amne Machen (Amne Machin) in Qinghai Province, China, a sacred site for Tibetan communities. The film explores how the mountain embodies concepts of home, belonging, and the harmonization of nature. Pilgrims reflect on the significance of Amne Machen as a repository of collective memories, discussing themes of place-making and spirituality.
Dan Smyer Yü, an environmental anthropologist and scholar of religion and ecology, presents powerful insights into the cultural consciousness surrounding the mountain. His work delves into the intersection of landscape, memory, and sustainability, offering a profound understanding of humanity's relationship with the environment.
LECTURE
Simon Becker & Su Myat Thwe & Javier Revilla Diez:
»Insights into Myanmar’s Conflict-Induced Displacement and Livelihoods Situations of Post-Coup Displaced Communities in Mae Sot«
23 April, 2024 — 6 p.m.
Since the 1948 declaration of independence, Myanmar has grappled with civil unrest, notably seen in the 2017 Rohingya exodus. The situation worsened after the 2021 coup, leading to increased violence and human rights violations, displacing approximately 2.4 million people by February 19, 2024.
This lecture will cover the current political climate in Myanmar, challenges faced by displaced individuals in Mae Sot, and their integration into the Thai labor market amidst demographic and economic constraints.
Presenters Su Myat Thwe and Simon Becker, members of the International Research Cluster “Conflict-Induced Displacement and Socio-Economic Resilience”, will share findings from their MA theses conducted at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and the University of Cologne. The presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A session.
Lecture Series
We are looking forward to supporting the second part of Professor Katajun Amirpur’s lecture series ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ that will continue to shed light on the situation in Iran.
Knowing more about the political, historical, and cultural background of Iran and of course the current situation, will be crucial for academic collaborations – If they are to become possible on a larger scale.
The lectures will take place at the university or online and are open to the public. They will be held mostly in German.
LECTURE
Katajun Amirpur:
Women, Life, Freedom. What’s This All About?
23 January, 2024 at 6 p.m.
At our last SALON event for the winter semester of 2023/24, Prof. Katajun Amirpur will enrich our series with an insight into the struggle of the Iranian society. Prof. Amirpur will present her book “Iran without Islam – The Uprising against the theocracy” published in march 2023.
Women burn their hijabs, Mullahs have their turbans torn off their heads. Katajun Amirpur places the uprising against the theocracy, which has been underway since September 2022, into the context of a development that has so far barely been noticed by the West: not only the Iranian society is increasingly turning away from Islam, but also the regime itself. National greatness even publicly takes precedence over the Quran. It is not the Mullahs who rule, but the police and military forces. This stirring book allows us to see Iran with different eyes.
Katajun Amirpur has been Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Cologne since 2018. She previously taught at the Universities of Hamburg and Zurich. Her research focuses on Shiite Islam, Iranian intellectual history, reform thinking in Islam and the theory and practice of gender movements.
LECTURE
Alice A. Salamena & Stephan Michael Schröder:
Fan Mail to Danish Film Stars in the 1910s
December 6, 2023 at 6 p.m.
During the 1910s, the film fan came into being. But all we know about the establishment and formation of early film fan practices we know from heavily biased third-party accounts such as press articles, portrayals in literature and film or later memoirs of film stars. However, several newly discovered collections of fan mail to Danish film stars, totalling up to about 2,900 letters, not only makes it possible for the first time ever on a worldwide scale to reconstruct the agency and practices of early film fans and their sociological, cultural, gender and age diversity. At the same time, the difference to the media representation of ›the‹ fan and his/her fandom provides insights into the functionalization of the discourse on fans and fandom in the respective cultural, social and media-historical context.
LECTURE
Meltem Gürle: Resistance, Repetition, Retreat: Turkey and the Bildungsroman
We are happy to announce that Meltem Gürle will talk to us about the Turkish Bildungsroman on November 24, 2023 at 6 p.m.
Meltem Gürle is a comparative literature scholar whose focus is on the genre of the Bildungsroman, with a particular interest in the relationship of post-1950 twentieth-century Turkish literature to the modernist masterpieces of the West in the volatile context of recent Turkish political history. She was a Fritz Thyssen-Fellow at the University of Cologne until September and is presently working on her book, The Turkish Bildungsroman, in which she considers the Turkish influence on the development of the genre.
In this talk we look closely at the dialectical process involved in the formation of subjectivity within the Turkish Bildungsroman. The focus of this analysis centers on themes of stagnation, stasis, and trauma, which diverges notably from the conventional interpretation of the Bildungsroman genre as a narrative of reconciliation. Instead of focusing on the reconciliation of the individual with the society—the ultimate goal of the conventional Bildungsroman— our approach shifts its focus to the challenges encountered in the journey, which eventually evolve into patterns of resistance, repetition, and retreat.
Abstract
In light of Rebecca Comay's theoretical framework that reads the Hegelian concept of Bildung from the perspective of trauma studies, in this talk we look closely at the dialectical process involved in the formation of subjectivity within the Turkish Bildungsroman.
The focus of this analysis centers on themes of stagnation, stasis, and trauma, which diverges notably from the conventional interpretation of the Bildungsroman genre as a narrative of reconciliation.
Instead of focusing on the reconciliation of the individual with the society—the ultimate goal of the conventional Bildungsroman— our approach shifts its focus to the challenges encountered in the journey, which eventually evolve into patterns of resistance, repetition, and retreat. Consequently, we find ourselves tracing a movement signifying an act of forgetting rather than remembering, concealing rather than revealing, and repressing rather than liberating.
However, this movement, which characterizes the Turkish Bildungsroman, often portraying a state of confinement, restraint, and stagnation, paradoxically also possesses a driving force—a momentum that challenges the established order. The result is a curious amalgamation of conservatism and revolution, an ambiguous coexistence of withdrawal and progress, which unveils fresh possibilities for transformation.
Meltem Gürle - Short Biography
With advanced degrees in both philosophy and literature, Meltem Gürle is a comparative literature scholar whose focus is on the genre of the Bildungsroman, with a particular interest in the relationship of post-1950 twentieth-century Turkish literature to the modernist masterpieces of the West in the volatile context of recent Turkish political history. Her research areas also include nineteenth century German philosophy, theories of the novel, and the work of James Joyce. She taught as lecturer in Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) and as guest professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Trinity College Dublin in 2018, and a Fritz Thyssen Stiftung fellow at the University of Cologne between 2018-2023. She is presently working on her book, The Turkish Bildungsroman, in which she considers the Turkish influence on the development of the genre.
Cologne International Forum: SALON
CONCERT
Gagaku - Traditional Japanese Music
Kölner Gagaku Ensemble — Monday, 6 November 2023, 6.30 p.m.
Gagaku, which means "elegant music" in Japanese, has been practiced since the 7th century, especially in the imperial court and in religious contexts. Originally, the music goes back to the ceremonial music of China and Korea. Japanese gagaku was designated an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2009. The highly traditional Japanese music has been "transplanted" to Cologne and cultivated in an experimental way since 2000 by the Cologne Gagaku Ensemble, which is the only gagaku group in Europe.
Since the beginning, the Cologne Gagaku Ensemble has been dedicated to perform traditional music and to contribute to the promotion of cultural understanding between Japan and Germany. The Tenri Japanisch-Deutsche Kulturwerkstatt e.V. Köln, a non-profit cultural association, has not only provided rehearsal space since 2006, but also all instruments of the ensemble. The director of the ensemble, Dr. Yoshiro Shimizu, is also a representative of Tenri University, a partner university of the University of Cologne.
The gagaku concert takes place on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the city partnerships between Kyoto and Cologne.
We are looking forward to experiencing an important piece of Japanese culture within the SALON series of the Cologne International Forum.
The Atoms of Epicurus
In the framework of the Cologne International Forum tandem collaboration between Federico Giulio Corsi (Università La Sapienza, Roma) und Jürgen Hammerstaedt (Universität zu Köln) three public events will be held at the International House on 26-27 September. Please have a look at the poster for further information.
The Ice Cream Sellers by Sohel Rahmen
Film Screening - June 29, 6 p.m.
Kick-off Event of the Cologne International Forum Salon Series
The film The Ice Cream Sellers (2021, 75mn) is a human story of the Rohingya people - 'the most persecuted minority in the world. The film invites the audience to become a part of the journey of two young siblings Ayas (10) and Asia (8) across the refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, just as the director himself was invited and received intimate access to their journey of life. The director takes the audience around the incredibly hot, dusty camp that stretches as far as the eye can see. The film portrays a story of tragedy and loss, courage, and suffering in the attempt by the two siblings to earn enough money to bribe officials for the release of their father from prison in Myanmar. The Ice Cream Sellers is a timely, relevant, and significant film, especially as it gives an insightful context to the Rohingya refugee community and their lives in Bangladesh, five years on from the onslaught of violence they experienced in August 2017.
Cologne International Forum Opening:
»Classics Now: The Importance of Studying Antiquity in Our Present Age of Crisis«
Guest lecture by Jackie Murray (Professor of Classical Philology, University of Kentucky, SUNY Buffalo, Fellow of the American Academy, Berlin)