CrossArea 23

On 16-17 November 2023, the University of Regensburg will host the 2023 CrossArea conference. The annual event provides a forum to showcase the innovative research in area studies and global studies in particular locations in Germany, reflecting the goals of the association. The hosts at UR is the Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS), an initiative that saw six new professorships established at the University of Regensburg through the Bavarian High-Tech Agenda. The event is likewise hosted by the Leibniz ScienceCampus Europe and America. This joint programme of UR and the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) reflects efforts to encourage collaboration between the long-standing expertise on the Eastern and Southeastern Europe with research on other world regions that also enjoys a strong track record in Regensburg.

The area studies research agenda in Regensburg has coalesced around several concepts that will form the core of discussions at the CrossArea conference: transregionalism; interdisciplinarity; multiscalarity and polycentricity. The economic, environmental, political, social and military turbulence and indeed violence that has become all too evident in the past two decades have questioned assumptions about worldwide convergence through globalization or the universal acceptance of the “rules-based international order.” What is emerging instead is a polycentric condition, one in which multiple actors stake claims to authority. This condition is defined on the one hand by authoritarian regimes’ aspirations for a “multipolar” world, but also by networked protest movements eager to learn from one another's strategies for contesting new forms of tyranny. To do justice to these changes, area studies combines expertise on particular regions and places with multidisciplinary knowledge. It emphasizes working with institutions in the regions we study in order as we seek to develop knowledge about those regions, and suggest solutions for key problems affecting them. The environmental, economic, legal, political and social challenges of today are interconnected, hence our emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach. And because the phenomena we study may take different forms at, for instance, the level of the nation-state as opposed to the local level, we embrace a multiscalar approach attentive to these differences.

To address the challenges of doing area studies in the polycentric condition, the conference offers multiple formats for discussion and exchange. Members of DIMAS and associated projects will outline their ongoing research, showing how cross-disciplinary and cross-regional collaboration can further knowledge production. The value of apparently “small” disciplines is emphasized in particular in Regensburg.

On the second day, early career researchers will present their work that engages with some of the key challenges facing the world, including the climate crisis; decolonization; migration and integration demographic shifts;  and ensuring greater political agency for regions beyond the prevalent global powers. Further panels will explore how digitization and the reconfiguration of disciplines are changing area studies methodologies; as well as the future of archives and knowledge infrastructures for several regional studies fields.

Demonstrating the commitment in Regensburg to producing knowledge in collaboration with artists and people on the ground at the sites of local and global change, the conference is accompanied by a photography exhibition by the artist and ethnographer Barbara Wimmer-Bulin. In São Teotónio never sleeps, she examines the interactions of globality and locality, as well as the environment, industry, tourism and migration, at the edge of Europe—Portugal—to address central questions of our age.

The conference is open to anyone interested in learning more about area studies in Regensburg, Germany and beyond. Participants are requested to register via the conference website by 5 November 2023. For more information, please contact Prof. Dr Timothy Nunan (DIMAS) and Dr Paul Vickers (Leibniz ScienceCampus) at dimas.office@ur.de or +49 941 943 5964.

Partners:

Universität Regensburg
Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies
Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS) at UR
Leibniz ScienceCampus Europe and America in the Modern World
Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg
CrossArea e.V.
NFDI4Memory, Universität Leipzig
Recent Globe, Universität Leipzig
Internationales Festival Fotografischer Bilder