Global and Area Studies
With a Special Emphasis on the Discussion of Spatial Formats and Orders under the Global Condition
Overview
Central to the research field of global and area studies is the analysis of the production of space. Under the global condition, different spaces and scales of action – political, social, economic, and cultural – as well as cross-cultural interactions are reconfigured again and again. These processes of de- and reterritorialization – including also the emergence of non-territorial spatial formats – are essential for the various projects of globalization undertaken by state and non-state as well as economic and cultural actors. This research seminar will introduce the relevance of the “spatial turn” in the social sciences and humanities for the understanding of globalization and familiarize with approaches in studying changing spaces and complex spatializations. At the same time, the research seminar serves, to a certain degree, as an introduction to the core concepts of interdisciplinary work at the Leipzig Graduate School Global and Area Studies.
To this end, we firstly look at the conditions out of which global and area studies recently emerged and how they are currently being conceptualized. Secondly, we turn to the central research categories around which Leipzig graduate education is built. Thirdly, we will focus on where, by whom, and how spatial formats and orders under the global condition are created and/or transformed. Finally, we will take a look at how scholars from different disciplines within the fields respond to the spatial turn.
For further question and in case you are interested in attending, please contact Dr. Katja Naumann or Dr. Steffi Marung.