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Cologne International Forum

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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 Islamicate 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?

Registrierung erforderlich!
Aufgrund der hohen Nachfrage, kann die Teilnahme nicht garantiert werden. Wir bitten Studierende darum, sich ausschließlich über KLIPS anzumelden.

Cologne International Forum: SALON

The SALON is an event format at the Cologne International Forum. It is designed as a get-together event on international research topics, bringing together international and local researchers, students and interested members of the general public.

The SALON takes place at the International House of the University of Cologne, in formats ranging from lectures to book presentations or film screenings

Take a look at our program for the summer semester 2024!

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.

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FILM SCREENING
Dan Smyer Yü & Franz Krause & Kate Rigby:
»Human Kinship with Nature in the Tibetean Plateau«

15 May, 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.

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University of Cologne International Events Calendar

More UoC International events 

 

 
Past Events

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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.

Schedule and information 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. 

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LECTURE
Alice A. Salamena & Stephan Michael Schröder:
Fan Mail to Danish Film Stars in the 1910s

December 6, 2023 at 6 p.m.

Fan letter, white handwriting on purple ground with a twig with yellow leaves above the text. The text in German: Olaf Fönss, dem unvergleichlichen Darsteller des „Homunculus“ herzlichen Dank für die Autogramme. Von allen Filmgrößen, die ich je gesehen, hat noch keine durch ein so vollkommenes Erfassen seiner Rolle auf mich gewirkt wie Olaf Fönss. (Many thanks to Olaf Fönss, the incomparable actor of "Homunculus", for the autographs. Of all the movie stars I have ever seen, none has ever impressed me with such a perfect grasp of his role as Olaf Fönss.)

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.

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Cologne International Forum: SALON

CONCERT
Gagaku - Traditional Japanese Music 

Kölner Gagaku Ensemble — Monday, 6 November 2023, 6.30 p.m.

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

Registration and further information on the event

 

Photo: Annette Hornischer

CIF 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)

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