Germany and Europe in the World: Insider and Outsider Perspectives

9th Interdisciplinary Conference of the DAAD-funded Centres for German and European Studies

We are delighted to announce the scholarly networking conference “Germany and Europe in the World: Insider and Outsider Perspectives,” which will take place from 12th to 15th December 2022 in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.

CIERA invites Master’s students, PhD students and senior academics from its network to apply.

Introduction

One hundred years after the First World War ended, Europe remains a continent deeply insecure of its past, present, and future role in the world. Many Germans see their country at the centre of this insecurity, which seems at odds with positive views across the world that posit Germany as a beacon of liberalism, as a haven of economic stability, and as a model of a country that overall has come to terms with its past. To address this contradiction, the 2022 Conference of the DAAD-funded Centres of German and European Studies seeks to shed light on Germany’s and Europe’s relationship with the wider world.

Knowledge and narratives on Germany and Europe are no longer a European monopoly, but are increasingly also produced elsewhere. New forms of mobility between Europe and other parts of the world as well as new academic funding initiatives have led to a much greater diversity of narratives on Germany and Europe than has ever existed. New forms of communication further diversify such narratives, which are produced by a growing number of different actors, groups and movements, who voice their opinions both from within and outside of Europe. Outsider voices that were once marginalised have begun to establish themselves at the centre of discourse on Germany and Europe.

The conference “Germany and Europe in the World: Insider and Outsider Perspectives” invites submissions that examine how ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, in the broadest sense, view the relationship and networks between Germany, Europe, and the wider world. With this genuinely interdisciplinary conference, we seek to bring different scholarly approaches and traditions into a common frame and thus shed new light on perceptions, representations, networks, and relationships of Germany and Europe in the world.

Key questions

Europe’s place in the world is changing at a fast pace. How do people inside and outside of Europe keep up with this? How do these developments change ‘insider’ views on what it means to be ‘German’ or ‘European’? What scope do Germans and Europeans have to address today’s global challenges, and how far are such efforts accepted or contested in other parts of the world? The conference seeks to bring such views into a common frame with views from geographical ‘outsiders’. Numerous different groups across the world discuss, study, and interpret Europe, ranging from the DAAD’s German and European Studies Centres to migrants, artists, students, entrepreneurs, policymakers, various transnational networks, etc. How do these perspectives of ‘outsiders’ on Europe as the ‘other’ interact with ‘insider’ perspectives? And what influence do these interactions have on the construction and relation between supposed centres and supposed peripheries?

However, ‘outsiders’ can also be located in Germany and Europe. Many groups that were historically marginalised for, for instance, their gender, race, origin, or religion, are reshaping notions of what constitutes German- or Europeanness today. Who are the ‘outsiders’, and how do they interact with ‘insiders’? How can people excluded from such normative debates move to the centre of discourse? What approaches used in the study of other geographical and social contexts can we use to study this interplay?

Not least, bringing these and other perspectives into a common frame allows us to uncover what different people understand as German or European. Is it necessary to de-centre German and European Studies? And if so, how can this be done? Multi-directional mobility flows into and out of Europe, as well as the deconstruction of notions of monolithic German or European identities, have challenged the legitimacy of existing Euro-centric master narratives. How can we make sense of the multiplicity of different, co-existing, and often competing views on Germany and Europe and of their global relations? How have global communication revolutions (social media, streaming, etc.) created, innovated, and reshaped narratives of Germany and Europe across the world?

Target group

The conference is dedicated to Master’s students, PhD students and senior academics from all fields of social science and humanities active in the field of German and European Studies, especially at Centres for German and European Studies currently or formerly funded by the DAAD.
We invite submissions from history, history of art, political science and International Relations, literature, cultural and memory studies, law, sociology, economics, education and geography, but also from other disciplines concerned with the study of Germany and Europe.

Proposals carried over from the previous call

Proposals for presentations/workshops/roundtables that do not address the conference theme directly but are part of German and European studies more broadly may be submitted as well. This applies particularly to proposals initially submitted for the 2020 conference, which had to be cancelled in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Modalities – Submission of proposals

We welcome proposals for panels/workshops/roundtables of groups of scholars and individual presentations to be selected by the conference’s Advisory Board, which is made up of selected Centre directors and academics at Centres representing the worldwide centres network.
We aim for a conference programme that genuinely reflects the scholarly work currently undertaken at the DAAD Centres worldwide.
Please note that there is no requirement to submit completed presentations ahead of the conference. However, if you would like to pre-circulate a paper among members of your panel, you are welcome to do so in agreement with your panel moderator/chair.

A. Panels/Workshops/Roundtables etc.

Proposals for panels/workshops/roundtables of groups of scholars should provide the
following information:
a. The panel’s/workshop’s/roundtable’s title
b. A description of the planned format of approx. 50 words
c. An abstract of the panel‘s/workshop‘s/roundtable‘s etc. theme of approx. 150 words
d. Name, academic title and institutional affiliation(s) of each participant (i. a. including the Centre for German and European Studies)
e. Titles of the participant’s contributions plus abstracts for each contribution of a maximum of 300 words each plus max. 5 bibliographical references each
f. Name of the moderator/chair
g. Name of the coordinator including contact details
Formats in which two or more Centres for German and European Studies and/or academics of various disciplines cooperate are especially welcome!

B. Individual Presentations

The interdisciplinary panels will be made up of two to three presentations from academics
with different disciplinary backgrounds. All panels will be moderated by experienced
members of the DAAD Centres network.
Proposals for individual presentations should provide the following information:
a. Name, academic title and institutional affiliation(s) (including the Centre for German and European Studies)
b. Title of the presentation
c. Abstract of the presentation of a maximum of 500 words
d. A short academic CV including a maximum of 5 bibliographical references
e. At the actual panels, we kindly ask panellists to present a ten-minute summary i.a. using 3 to 4 PowerPoint slides. The DAAD kindly asks successful applicants to submit their finished presentations at least 3 weeks prior to the conference.

Deadline for submission of proposals

The deadline for submissions will be Thursday, 17th February 2022.
Submissions should be e-mailed to the DAAD in one PDF file: zenko@daad.de and to Nathalie Faure (nathalie.faure@sorbonne-universite.fr)

The DAAD will notify you most likely by end of May 2022 whether the Academic Advisory Council has selected your proposal for the conference.

Conference language

The DAAD Centers’ Conference 2022 will take a bilingual approach. English and German are the conference languages; single panels/workshops/roundtables etc. will be entirely in English or German. A good, at least passive, knowledge of the respective other language is required. The DAAD actively supports multilingualism and the use of German as an academic language.

Financial support

Upon request, the DAAD is happy to offer applicants whose proposal has been accepted financial support in the form of conference grants, subject to the availability of funds. Conference grants include participation in the conference, travel, accommodation and board (breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks. i. a. evening receptions) for the duration of the conference. Further details will be provided after the conference proposals have been selected.

Contact

Nathalie Faure
01 53 10 57 33
Nathalie.faure@sorbonne-universite.fr