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DIMAS | Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies

DIMAS was founded in 2022, following on from CITAS. CITAS was founded in 2017 as a platform for coordinating and developing collaborative area studies activities between institutions, projects and colleagues in Regensburg.

DIMAS is continuing this academic tradition with six permanent professorships, postdoctoral and doctoral positions, and an innovative teaching and research programme. Find out more about the concept and ideas shaping DIMAS here.

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News

Welcome Matthew Specter - Berkeley-Regensburg Visiting Professor

DIMAS together with its partners and friends at the ScienceCampus, Chair of European Studies and Institute of Political Science are delighted to welcome Matthew Specter, Senior Fellow at the Institute of European History at the University of California, Berkeley, to Regensburg from 17-21 June.

You are warmly invited to join his talk as part of the Colloquium organized by Prof. Liedtke at the Chair of European History. On 18 June at 16:15 in Room VG.024 (Vielberth Building) he will give a talk titled “Can IR Realism Be Provincialized? Reflections on a German, American, and Western Tradition in the Changing World Order”. Earlier on the same day, 18 June from 10:30 to 12:00, he will give a talk organized by Prof. Stephan Bierling, Professor of International Transatlantic Relations. Here Matthew Specter will discuss "Realism and Idealism in US Foreign Policy" in room VG1.37. While in Regensburg, he will also collaborate with Prof. Eva Odzuck, Chair of Political Philosophy and Theory, where he will drawn on his expertise on Habermas and German intellectual history in the 20th century in exchanges with students.

Find out more about Matthew Specter and his research here.

Colonialsm: Different Approaches and Different Areas

DIMAS Lecture Series Summer Semester 2024 | Wednesdays, 14:00 in H22 

Full programme and more details here | Talks are in English and German

Rike Krämer-Hoppe, Professor of Public Law and Transregional Norm Development at DIMAS and the Faculty of Law at UR, is organizing a lecture series (Ringvorlesung) this summer semester. Colonialism: Different Approaches and Different Areas will take place on Wednesdays at 14:00 in Lecture Theatre H22. 

The event is open to the public and all interested colleagues and students. Students wishing to receive credits sign up for the course via SPUR. 

Each week, a different researcher, including guest speakers, will give a talk addressing colonialism from across a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives. Speakers include experts in law, history, literary studies and media studies, with insights on India, French colonial territories, relations with indigenous populations in Canada and elsewhere.  

The Lecture Series is supported by the Hans-Vielberth University Foundation.

DIMAS Early Career Research Seminar | 12. Juni & 17. Juli, 12:15-13:30, SG.214

The programme for this summer semesters features on 12 June Sebastian Richter discussing “Another approach to area studies: introduction to phenomenology of cultural (digital) space“ and Dr. Mélanie Sadozaï addressing “The dialogue between Area Studies and International Relations Theory (state of the art)”.

On 17 July, Barbara Wimmer-Bulin, will speak on “Doing landscape, while exploring resources: a transcalarity and multiscalar fieldwork in the natural park „Parque natural da costa alentejano e da costa vicentina“, Portugal.“ There will also be an exploration of the German and European grant landscape for Early Career Researchers. Follow this link for more details including on how to access the readings.

DIMAS Courses in Summer Semester 2024

Find details of all the courses being offered by the six DIMAS Professors and the doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at DIMAS by following this link.

Fairville - für faire Städte: DIMAS-Project under supervision of UR-Professor Dr. Anna Steigemann received funding by Horizon Europe

Anna Steigemann, Professor of Sociological Dimensions of Space, at DIMAS is part of a consortium that has secured EU-Horizon funding for Fairville - Facing inequalities and democratic challenges through co-production in cities. The project intends to address embedded urban inequalities and the challenge this poses to democracy in large cities and urban regions. It will do so by intervening in low-income neighbourhoods that face a growing distance to the institutions and processes of representative democracy. Find out more about the project in the UR press release (in German) and on the Fairville website.

From CITAS to DIMAS - on the transition from a Center into a Department

In November, the newly elected board of DIMAS, Prof. Dr. Anna Steigemann and Prof. Dr. Rike Krämer-Hoppe, met with the President of the University of Regensburg, Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel, together with members of the CITAS Board and the manager of CITAS, and now DIMAS, to outline the transition from an area studies Center (CITAS) into a new Department (DIMAS) structure.

Find out more about this meeting and the work in area studies at UR in this report from the UR communication department (in German).

• Image caption: Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel, President of the UR (R) with members of the DIMAS and CITAS Boards and Manager: (L to R) Prof. Dr. Jochen Mecke, Prof. Dr. Anna Steigemann, Prof. Dr. Rike Krämer-Hoppe, Dr. Birgit Hebel-Bauridl und Dr. Paul Vickers. Photo: Margit Scheid/UR