Achim Rohde is a Middle East historian and a research associate at the Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, Germany. Rohde heads the department of memorial development at the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation (www.stiftung-ng.de). He is a project member of "Reimagining Jewish Life in the Modern Middle East, 1800-Present: Culture, Society, and History", located at Penn State University (https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/neh-grant-will-help-scholars-challenge-current-views-jews-middle-east/)
The Iraq War of 2003 has been described as a conflict over the meaning of Europe and between the ... more The Iraq War of 2003 has been described as a conflict over the meaning of Europe and between the conflicting goals of cementing the transatlantic relationship with the United States and advancing a more independent, “Carolingian” vision of the continent on the world stage. This article employs the analytical lens of foreign policy role conceptions, drawing from French and German policy literature, newly available archival evidence, and interviews with more than 20 diplomats, politicians, and civil servants active during the 2003 invasion. We argue that the war itself and the agency of Iraqis played a limited role in European powers’ jockeying for position, which was instead determined by these countries’ relationships with the US and the role of the United Nations. This was the case even for France and Germany, which had extensive interest in Iraq in the decades preceding the invasion. If the Iraq War was one over the meaning of Europe, the debate around and the execution of the invasion highlighted the continued importance of a US-led NATO for defining such meaning.
The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the b... more The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history "from the margins" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2023
The history of modern Iraq has been marked by violence, oppression, and foreign interventions to ... more The history of modern Iraq has been marked by violence, oppression, and foreign interventions to a degree that stands out even among other war-torn countries. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, many retrospectives were still dominated by a US-centric navel gazing of the chattering classes inside the beltway, but more Iraqi voices and alternative viewpoints were present in op-eds and articles than a decade earlier. In this spirit this roundtable section reflects on recent Iraqi history and contemporary developments with an eye toward memory politics in the context of transforming governance mechanisms and evolving civil society actors. It builds on a conference held at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg in March 2023 and portrays emerging avenues for research as well as new perspectives on long running debates.
Intersections. East European Journal for Society and Politics, 2022
This essay introduces the topic of 'gender studies in exile' and outlines the contributions to th... more This essay introduces the topic of 'gender studies in exile' and outlines the contributions to this special issue of 'Intersections. East European Journal for Society and Politics' (Intersections.EEJSP), a peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on social sciences (broadly understood) and promoting comparative thinking on Eastern and Central European societies in a global context. Founded by the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and published currently by Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest, Intersections.EEJSP provides an international forum for scholars coming from and/or working on the region.
In Form einer vorläufigen Bilanz behandelt dieser Beitrag die bisherige Entwicklung der Islamisch... more In Form einer vorläufigen Bilanz behandelt dieser Beitrag die bisherige Entwicklung der Islamisch-Theologischen Studien und ihr ambivalentes, vielfach verflochtenes Verhältnis zur etablierten Islamwissenschaft im Kontext eines historisch gewachsenen Feldes akademischer Wissensproduktion über nicht-christliche Religionen, in diesem Fall Islam und Judentum. Anders als die Islamisch-Theologischen Studien blicken die heutigen Jüdischen Studien in Deutschland auf eine längere (Vor-)Geschichte zurück, die bis ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert zurückreicht. Auch zwischen der Wissenschaft des Judentums und der etablierten Orientalistik existierten lange bedeutende Überschneidungen. Damit unterzieht dieser Beitrag die Frage der Vergleichbarkeit jüdischer und muslimischer Erfahrungen in Deutschland einer erneuten Prüfung im (wissenschafts-)geschichtlichen Kontext.
Jenseits der zweifellos bedeutenden Unterschiede hinsichtlich der historischen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen sind strukturelle wie inhaltliche Parallelen im Feld der Wissensproduktion über Judentum wie Islam in Deutschland über zwei Jahrhunderte hinweg zu konstatieren: Es ging und geht um Anpassung an eine aus protestantischen Erfahrungen erwachsene säkulare Matrix des modernen Wissenschaftssystems. Teile von Staat und Öffentlichkeit standen und stehen organisierter nicht-christlicher, bzw. nicht-protestantischer, Religiosität mit Misstrauen gegenüber und setzen Integration damals wie heute mit Anpassung an eine gelegentlich als ‚deutsche Leitkultur‘ titulierte Mehrheitsnorm gleich. Eine augenfällige Parallele zwischen dem 19. und dem 21. Jahrhundert besteht zudem in der Orientalisierung nicht-christlicher Minderheiten als Element in antisemitischen wie islamfeindlichen Diskursen.
This article examines for the first time the jihadist global hegemonic masculinity of Osama bin L... more This article examines for the first time the jihadist global hegemonic masculinity of Osama bin Laden. Based on Bin Laden's public statements translated into english, the authors examine how in the process of constructing a rationale for violent attacks primarily against the United states, he simultaneously and discursively formulates a jihadist global hegemonic masculinity. the research adds to the growing interest in discursive global hegemonic masculinities, as well as jihadist masculinities in the middle east, by scrutinizing how Bin Laden's jihadist global hegemonic masculinity is produced in and through his public statements. the authors close their discussion by demonstrating how Bin Laden's discursive practices are embedded in a clash of competing global hegemonic masculinities on the world stage.
inamo. Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten , 2018
Im April und Mai 2018 fanden zahlreiche Feierlichkeiten anlässlich des 70. Jahrestages der Gründu... more Im April und Mai 2018 fanden zahlreiche Feierlichkeiten anlässlich des 70. Jahrestages der Gründung des Staates Israel statt. In keiner Festrede zu solchen Anlässen darf der Verweis auf den Status Israels als Refugium und Schutzmacht von Jüdinnnen/Juden aus aller Welt fehlen. Das Gravitationszentrum der jüdischen Diaspora liegt heute in den USA, wo eine große und prosperierende jüdische Bevölkerung in das gesellschaftliche und politische Leben integriert ist und eine vielfältige jüdische Zivilgesellschaft ausgebildet hat. Das Verhältnis Israels zur jüdischen Diaspora war immer ambivalent – geprägt von Solidarität ebenso wie von der im Zionismus angelegten Ablehnung diasporischer Existenz als widernatürlichem Zustand. Für jüdische Gemeinden in aller Welt stellt Israel einen wichtigen Bezugspunkt dar, obgleich viele mit seiner Politik nicht einverstanden sind, insbesondere gegenüber PalästinenserInnen sowie gegenüber der etwa in den USA tonangebenden liberalen Strömung des Judentums, die von der in Israel vorherrschenden Orthodoxie abgelehnt wird.
Since its inception as a modern nation state, Iraq has experienced a variety of more or less auto... more Since its inception as a modern nation state, Iraq has experienced a variety of more or less autocratic rulers who impeded the evolution of democratic institutions. This article joins other works that aim at recovering a legacy of democratic traditions in Iraqi society and try to evaluate future perspectives for participatory and inclusive forms of government. It widens this search into seemingly improbable terrain by focussing on the Baʿthist era. Despite the large-scale destruction of relevant archives during and after the invasion of 2003, formerly inaccessible sources from within Saddam Hussein’s ruling apparatus, a growing number of autobiographical sources and testimonies have broadened the empirical base for the historiography of Baʿthist Iraq. This study contributes to that endeavour by offering a fresh reading into open sources that have long been used by scholars. It draws on Iraqi print media published during the late 1980s and during the embargo years. This study traces evidence for a more flexible handling of domestic dissent on the part of the regime than has been commonly acknowledged in existing scholarship on Ba'thist Iraq.
Orient. German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East, 2017
Now that the Islamic State (IS) has been dislodged from the city of Mosul, its most prestigious u... more Now that the Islamic State (IS) has been dislodged from the city of Mosul, its most prestigious urban stronghold in Iraq, the remaining Iraqi enclaves under IS control around the cities of Tal Afar (west of Mosul) and Hawija (near Kirkuk) and its Syrian strongholds in Raqqa and other areas along the Euphrates will foreseeably all soon be conquered by forces belonging to the anti-IS coalition. As IS is being downgraded into a regular insurgent organization without quasi-sovereign control over territory in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni Jihadist group will try to cling on to isolated outposts in the Anbar province like al-Qaem at the Iraqi-Syrian border, or retreat into hideouts in the deserts of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria and in the Hamrin mountains. However weakened, the organization will remain a significant threat in Iraq, Syria, and the wider region.
Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung 11: 1-17, 2017
Die Diskussion geht von der Frage aus, wie man Geschichte von
marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben... more Die Diskussion geht von der Frage aus, wie man Geschichte von marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben kann, ohne historische Ausgrenzungsprozesse erneut zu vollziehen. Vor dem Hintergrund einer Debatte um den Status jüdischer Geschichte geht es um das Verhältnis zwischen allgemeiner und spezifischer Geschichte, aber auch zwischen einzelnen spezifischen Geschichten, gerade am Beispiel von marginalisierten Gruppen.
Much has been written about gender-based violence against Iraqi women under the thirty-five-year ... more Much has been written about gender-based violence against Iraqi women under the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and since the fall of the regime in 2003. Although the mass recruitment of men as soldiers and fighters often temporarily expanded spaces for women’s participation in the Iraqi public sphere, militarism and militarist discourse before and since 2003 have reinforced gender polarity and heroic forms of masculinity, marginalizing and degrading the noncombat social positionalities of the majority of men and women. Nevertheless, organized violence against queer positionalities, or men perceived to violate sexual and gender norms, occurred only after 2003. This essay explores ruptures and continuities in organized violence against sex or gender nonconformity in recent Iraqi history.
Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung , 2016
Der Aufstieg der Dschihadisten-Miliz »Islamischer Staat« (IS) zum turnusmäßigen Feind der Menschh... more Der Aufstieg der Dschihadisten-Miliz »Islamischer Staat« (IS) zum turnusmäßigen Feind der Menschheit hat eine ebenso mächtige wie uneinige multinationale Militärallianz auf den Plan gerufen, deren Mitglieder im Begriff sind, den mittlerweile im fünften Jahr tobenden syrischen Bürgerkrieg weiter zu eskalieren und in dessen Fahrwasser auch den Irak erneut in den Abgrund zu reißen. Syrien wie Irak sind in vieler Hinsicht failed states. Insbesondere Syrien liegt weitgehend in Trümmern und ist zu einem Flickenteppich umkämpfter Enklaven zerfallen, die vom Assad-Regime, vom syrischen PKK-Ableger Partiya Yekitîya Demokrat (PYG), verschiedenen arabischen säkularen wie islamistischen Milizen sowie der u. a. aus al-Qaida hervorgegangenen Dschihadisten-Miliz des Islamischen Staates kontrolliert werden. Auch der Irak ist fragmentiert: in einen irakischen Rumpfstaat im Zentrum und im Süden des Landes unter nomineller Kontrolle der Zentralregierung in Bagdad, einen weitgehend autonomen kurdischen Proto-Staat in Nordirak sowie eine im Entstehen begriffene neue staatliche Struktur im Nordwesten Iraks und Teilen Syriens unter Kontrolle des IS.
inamo. Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten , 2015
Der Irak ist heute in vieler Hinsicht ein failed state. Die derzeit mit 37 Millionen bezifferte i... more Der Irak ist heute in vieler Hinsicht ein failed state. Die derzeit mit 37 Millionen bezifferte irakische Bevölkerung zeichnet sich durch eine große religiöse, kulturelle und ethnische Diversität aus. Gegenwärtige ethno-konfessionelle Spannungen blicken auf eine lange Vorgeschichte zurück. Dieser Umstand sowie die Gründungsgeschichte des irakischen Staates boten schon seit langem immer wieder Anlass, die angeblich mangelnde Authentizität der irakischen Nation und die Künstlichkeit des nach Ende des ersten Weltkrieges von britischen Kolonialherren geschaffenen Staates zu thematisieren. Doch so einfach ist es nicht.
Orient. German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East, 2014
The meteoric rise of ISIS as a new strategic player in Iraq (and Syria) has again highlighted the... more The meteoric rise of ISIS as a new strategic player in Iraq (and Syria) has again highlighted the country’s deepening fragmentation along sectarian lines. The diverse composition of Iraqi society has always been a source of concern for the country’s ruling elites who feared the centrifugal powers that could be unleashed if communal (religious, ethnic, or tribal) identities turned into sources of political mobilization. Evidence of such a process had been visible for the last few decades. But the situation deteriorated gravely since the invasion of 2003. Today, the country is on the verge of disintegrating into several constituent parts in what promises to become a long drawn bloody confrontation between various domestic and regional players, joined by an international anti-ISIS coalition of the willing under US tutelage. Iraq has become a staging ground for a war waged as part of the ongoing transformations of the MENA region triggered by the Arab Spring. Whether the current phase of the ‘war against terror’ will accomplish its stated objective of destroying ISIS and help save the Iraqi state, or whether it will turn out to be just a further stage in a catastrophic series of wars that have been ravaging the country for the last several decades, remains to be seen.
This article investigates Iraqi schooling during the 1990s under Ba’thist rule and after the regi... more This article investigates Iraqi schooling during the 1990s under Ba’thist rule and after the regime’s fall in 2003 and compares the treatment of Islam in the curriculum. I focus on the degree to which Iraqi textbooks under Saddam Hussein contained a Sunni bias and the changes introduced immediately after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq in 2003. To what degree did international actors effect curricular reforms during the years that followed the invasion? What educational policies did the Iraqi central government follow since then? I find that, as part of its religious policies during the 1990s, the regime symbolically acknowledged a Shi’i perspective in textbook narratives. However, emergency revisions carried out on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) by international agencies in 2003–4 strengthened the Sunni bias in Iraqi textbooks, rather than erased signs of sectarianism from the textbooks. Since the CPA was dissolved in 2004, the government has gradually introduced more references to the Shi’i tradition into textbook narratives.
Ausgehend von Edward Saids Behauptung einer strukturellen Verwandtschaft des von ihm porträtierte... more Ausgehend von Edward Saids Behauptung einer strukturellen Verwandtschaft des von ihm porträtierten Orientalismus mit dem westlichem Antisemitismus, betrachtet dieser Aufsatz die deutsch-jüdische Geschichte des späten 18. bis frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere die Debatten um die Emanzipation und Integration der jüdischen Bevölkerung in die deutsche Gesellschaft sowie die Entwicklung der beiderseitigen Selbst- und Fremdbilder. Ziel ist es, die Anwendbarkeit der Orientalismuskritik Edward Saids auf den von ihm vernachlässigten deutschen Kontext zu überprüfen. In Teilen ist dies gleichzeitig ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Orientalistik als akademische Disziplin, der historische Fallstudien diesbezüglich nicht ersetzen, sondern um eine kulturgeschichtliche Ebene ergänzen will.
Orient. German Journal for Politics and Economics of the Middle East, 2000
Ausgehend von einer Diskussion des Forschungsstandes und methodologischen Überlegungen wird in di... more Ausgehend von einer Diskussion des Forschungsstandes und methodologischen Überlegungen wird in diesem Aufsatz die Geschichte der Orientalistik an deutschen Universitäten in den Jahren 1933-45 am Beispiel der Hamburger Universität, insbesondere in den Bereichen Forschung und Lehre, nachgezeichnet sowie an ausgewählten Beispielen im gesellschaftlichen Kontext verortet.Gleichzeitig sollen die historischen Querverbindungen zwischen Orientalistik und Judaistik in Deutschland diskutiert werden, die bislang selten thematisiert wurden.
National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective: the Homophobic Argument. Edited by Achim Rohde, Christina von Braun and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (London/New York: Routledge, 2018), 1-15, 2018
National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective explores how modern identity politic... more National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective explores how modern identity politics around the world are gendered and sexualized in multiple ways. Constructions of the imagined collective "self " often contain references to a het-eronormative order, whereas relevant internal or external "others" are often felt to deviate from this order through their gendered or sexual practices. By contrast, some Western countries have witnessed the evolution of LGBTQI-friendly discourses by certain political actors in recent years, often in the context of the post-9/ 11 culture wars. This pathbreaking book focuses on perceptions of "self " and "other" in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from a gendered perspective. It deals with anti-LGBTQI as well as LGBTQI-friendly aspects of modern culture and politics in countries within these regions, focusing on the functions such discursive markers play in nationalist and racist imageries, in discourses legitimizing class differences from the nineteenth century to the present day, including globalized discourses in the context of 9/ 11 and its aftermath. It shows that discourses on sexuality and gendered performances in everyday life often undermine the stability of such binary constructions, as they point to the multiplicity, ambivalence and the indeterminate character of individual and collective identities under conditions of modernity. Addressing contemporary identity politics both in a wider historical context and within a transregional comparative framework thus helps to discern differences and similarities between different world regions and serves to dislocate essen-tialized notions of cultural differences based on gender and sex. This book will appeal to those with an interest in Political Sociology, Gender Studies, and Globalisation.
Its cold war legacy and the ascend of academic trends like global studies and global history notw... more Its cold war legacy and the ascend of academic trends like global studies and global history notwithstanding, the concept of area studies has witnessed a remarkable renaissance in Germany in recent years, as regionally focused institutes and centers have been formed in various universities and research institutes all over the country.
This issue of META aims at taking stock of these developments and contributes to this ongoing endeavor from a perspective of Middle East Studies. We thereby intend to contribute to the broader discussion regarding how and to what extent the institutionalization of knowledge production shapes its content. How do educational, economic and other policies on a global, regional, and local level shape the institutional body of knowledge production in this specific field of inquiry? What are the challenges for a critical area studies approach in the face of ongoing processes of globalization, and specifically with regard to Middle East Studies, the impact of the Arab uprisings of 2011 and subsequent developments?
The Politics of Education Reform in the Middle East. Self and Other in Textbooks and Curricula. Eds. Samira Alayan, Achim Rohde, and Sarhan Dhouib (Oxford/New York: Berghahn), 2012
A growing number of studies focusing on education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (ME... more A growing number of studies focusing on education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were published in Western academia during recent years, reflecting international agendas for educational development, or debates triggered by political developments since 9/11 concerning the values taught in schools in Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. By assembling a collection of case studies scrutinising recent education reforms and textbooks in selected Middle Eastern countries, specifically with regard to history and social sciences, the present book thus contributes to a body of research that is located in a highly politicised context.
The Iraq War of 2003 has been described as a conflict over the meaning of Europe and between the ... more The Iraq War of 2003 has been described as a conflict over the meaning of Europe and between the conflicting goals of cementing the transatlantic relationship with the United States and advancing a more independent, “Carolingian” vision of the continent on the world stage. This article employs the analytical lens of foreign policy role conceptions, drawing from French and German policy literature, newly available archival evidence, and interviews with more than 20 diplomats, politicians, and civil servants active during the 2003 invasion. We argue that the war itself and the agency of Iraqis played a limited role in European powers’ jockeying for position, which was instead determined by these countries’ relationships with the US and the role of the United Nations. This was the case even for France and Germany, which had extensive interest in Iraq in the decades preceding the invasion. If the Iraq War was one over the meaning of Europe, the debate around and the execution of the invasion highlighted the continued importance of a US-led NATO for defining such meaning.
The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the b... more The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history "from the margins" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2023
The history of modern Iraq has been marked by violence, oppression, and foreign interventions to ... more The history of modern Iraq has been marked by violence, oppression, and foreign interventions to a degree that stands out even among other war-torn countries. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, many retrospectives were still dominated by a US-centric navel gazing of the chattering classes inside the beltway, but more Iraqi voices and alternative viewpoints were present in op-eds and articles than a decade earlier. In this spirit this roundtable section reflects on recent Iraqi history and contemporary developments with an eye toward memory politics in the context of transforming governance mechanisms and evolving civil society actors. It builds on a conference held at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg in March 2023 and portrays emerging avenues for research as well as new perspectives on long running debates.
Intersections. East European Journal for Society and Politics, 2022
This essay introduces the topic of 'gender studies in exile' and outlines the contributions to th... more This essay introduces the topic of 'gender studies in exile' and outlines the contributions to this special issue of 'Intersections. East European Journal for Society and Politics' (Intersections.EEJSP), a peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on social sciences (broadly understood) and promoting comparative thinking on Eastern and Central European societies in a global context. Founded by the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and published currently by Centre for Social Sciences in Budapest, Intersections.EEJSP provides an international forum for scholars coming from and/or working on the region.
In Form einer vorläufigen Bilanz behandelt dieser Beitrag die bisherige Entwicklung der Islamisch... more In Form einer vorläufigen Bilanz behandelt dieser Beitrag die bisherige Entwicklung der Islamisch-Theologischen Studien und ihr ambivalentes, vielfach verflochtenes Verhältnis zur etablierten Islamwissenschaft im Kontext eines historisch gewachsenen Feldes akademischer Wissensproduktion über nicht-christliche Religionen, in diesem Fall Islam und Judentum. Anders als die Islamisch-Theologischen Studien blicken die heutigen Jüdischen Studien in Deutschland auf eine längere (Vor-)Geschichte zurück, die bis ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert zurückreicht. Auch zwischen der Wissenschaft des Judentums und der etablierten Orientalistik existierten lange bedeutende Überschneidungen. Damit unterzieht dieser Beitrag die Frage der Vergleichbarkeit jüdischer und muslimischer Erfahrungen in Deutschland einer erneuten Prüfung im (wissenschafts-)geschichtlichen Kontext.
Jenseits der zweifellos bedeutenden Unterschiede hinsichtlich der historischen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen sind strukturelle wie inhaltliche Parallelen im Feld der Wissensproduktion über Judentum wie Islam in Deutschland über zwei Jahrhunderte hinweg zu konstatieren: Es ging und geht um Anpassung an eine aus protestantischen Erfahrungen erwachsene säkulare Matrix des modernen Wissenschaftssystems. Teile von Staat und Öffentlichkeit standen und stehen organisierter nicht-christlicher, bzw. nicht-protestantischer, Religiosität mit Misstrauen gegenüber und setzen Integration damals wie heute mit Anpassung an eine gelegentlich als ‚deutsche Leitkultur‘ titulierte Mehrheitsnorm gleich. Eine augenfällige Parallele zwischen dem 19. und dem 21. Jahrhundert besteht zudem in der Orientalisierung nicht-christlicher Minderheiten als Element in antisemitischen wie islamfeindlichen Diskursen.
This article examines for the first time the jihadist global hegemonic masculinity of Osama bin L... more This article examines for the first time the jihadist global hegemonic masculinity of Osama bin Laden. Based on Bin Laden's public statements translated into english, the authors examine how in the process of constructing a rationale for violent attacks primarily against the United states, he simultaneously and discursively formulates a jihadist global hegemonic masculinity. the research adds to the growing interest in discursive global hegemonic masculinities, as well as jihadist masculinities in the middle east, by scrutinizing how Bin Laden's jihadist global hegemonic masculinity is produced in and through his public statements. the authors close their discussion by demonstrating how Bin Laden's discursive practices are embedded in a clash of competing global hegemonic masculinities on the world stage.
inamo. Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten , 2018
Im April und Mai 2018 fanden zahlreiche Feierlichkeiten anlässlich des 70. Jahrestages der Gründu... more Im April und Mai 2018 fanden zahlreiche Feierlichkeiten anlässlich des 70. Jahrestages der Gründung des Staates Israel statt. In keiner Festrede zu solchen Anlässen darf der Verweis auf den Status Israels als Refugium und Schutzmacht von Jüdinnnen/Juden aus aller Welt fehlen. Das Gravitationszentrum der jüdischen Diaspora liegt heute in den USA, wo eine große und prosperierende jüdische Bevölkerung in das gesellschaftliche und politische Leben integriert ist und eine vielfältige jüdische Zivilgesellschaft ausgebildet hat. Das Verhältnis Israels zur jüdischen Diaspora war immer ambivalent – geprägt von Solidarität ebenso wie von der im Zionismus angelegten Ablehnung diasporischer Existenz als widernatürlichem Zustand. Für jüdische Gemeinden in aller Welt stellt Israel einen wichtigen Bezugspunkt dar, obgleich viele mit seiner Politik nicht einverstanden sind, insbesondere gegenüber PalästinenserInnen sowie gegenüber der etwa in den USA tonangebenden liberalen Strömung des Judentums, die von der in Israel vorherrschenden Orthodoxie abgelehnt wird.
Since its inception as a modern nation state, Iraq has experienced a variety of more or less auto... more Since its inception as a modern nation state, Iraq has experienced a variety of more or less autocratic rulers who impeded the evolution of democratic institutions. This article joins other works that aim at recovering a legacy of democratic traditions in Iraqi society and try to evaluate future perspectives for participatory and inclusive forms of government. It widens this search into seemingly improbable terrain by focussing on the Baʿthist era. Despite the large-scale destruction of relevant archives during and after the invasion of 2003, formerly inaccessible sources from within Saddam Hussein’s ruling apparatus, a growing number of autobiographical sources and testimonies have broadened the empirical base for the historiography of Baʿthist Iraq. This study contributes to that endeavour by offering a fresh reading into open sources that have long been used by scholars. It draws on Iraqi print media published during the late 1980s and during the embargo years. This study traces evidence for a more flexible handling of domestic dissent on the part of the regime than has been commonly acknowledged in existing scholarship on Ba'thist Iraq.
Orient. German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East, 2017
Now that the Islamic State (IS) has been dislodged from the city of Mosul, its most prestigious u... more Now that the Islamic State (IS) has been dislodged from the city of Mosul, its most prestigious urban stronghold in Iraq, the remaining Iraqi enclaves under IS control around the cities of Tal Afar (west of Mosul) and Hawija (near Kirkuk) and its Syrian strongholds in Raqqa and other areas along the Euphrates will foreseeably all soon be conquered by forces belonging to the anti-IS coalition. As IS is being downgraded into a regular insurgent organization without quasi-sovereign control over territory in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni Jihadist group will try to cling on to isolated outposts in the Anbar province like al-Qaem at the Iraqi-Syrian border, or retreat into hideouts in the deserts of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria and in the Hamrin mountains. However weakened, the organization will remain a significant threat in Iraq, Syria, and the wider region.
Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung 11: 1-17, 2017
Die Diskussion geht von der Frage aus, wie man Geschichte von
marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben... more Die Diskussion geht von der Frage aus, wie man Geschichte von marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben kann, ohne historische Ausgrenzungsprozesse erneut zu vollziehen. Vor dem Hintergrund einer Debatte um den Status jüdischer Geschichte geht es um das Verhältnis zwischen allgemeiner und spezifischer Geschichte, aber auch zwischen einzelnen spezifischen Geschichten, gerade am Beispiel von marginalisierten Gruppen.
Much has been written about gender-based violence against Iraqi women under the thirty-five-year ... more Much has been written about gender-based violence against Iraqi women under the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and since the fall of the regime in 2003. Although the mass recruitment of men as soldiers and fighters often temporarily expanded spaces for women’s participation in the Iraqi public sphere, militarism and militarist discourse before and since 2003 have reinforced gender polarity and heroic forms of masculinity, marginalizing and degrading the noncombat social positionalities of the majority of men and women. Nevertheless, organized violence against queer positionalities, or men perceived to violate sexual and gender norms, occurred only after 2003. This essay explores ruptures and continuities in organized violence against sex or gender nonconformity in recent Iraqi history.
Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung , 2016
Der Aufstieg der Dschihadisten-Miliz »Islamischer Staat« (IS) zum turnusmäßigen Feind der Menschh... more Der Aufstieg der Dschihadisten-Miliz »Islamischer Staat« (IS) zum turnusmäßigen Feind der Menschheit hat eine ebenso mächtige wie uneinige multinationale Militärallianz auf den Plan gerufen, deren Mitglieder im Begriff sind, den mittlerweile im fünften Jahr tobenden syrischen Bürgerkrieg weiter zu eskalieren und in dessen Fahrwasser auch den Irak erneut in den Abgrund zu reißen. Syrien wie Irak sind in vieler Hinsicht failed states. Insbesondere Syrien liegt weitgehend in Trümmern und ist zu einem Flickenteppich umkämpfter Enklaven zerfallen, die vom Assad-Regime, vom syrischen PKK-Ableger Partiya Yekitîya Demokrat (PYG), verschiedenen arabischen säkularen wie islamistischen Milizen sowie der u. a. aus al-Qaida hervorgegangenen Dschihadisten-Miliz des Islamischen Staates kontrolliert werden. Auch der Irak ist fragmentiert: in einen irakischen Rumpfstaat im Zentrum und im Süden des Landes unter nomineller Kontrolle der Zentralregierung in Bagdad, einen weitgehend autonomen kurdischen Proto-Staat in Nordirak sowie eine im Entstehen begriffene neue staatliche Struktur im Nordwesten Iraks und Teilen Syriens unter Kontrolle des IS.
inamo. Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten , 2015
Der Irak ist heute in vieler Hinsicht ein failed state. Die derzeit mit 37 Millionen bezifferte i... more Der Irak ist heute in vieler Hinsicht ein failed state. Die derzeit mit 37 Millionen bezifferte irakische Bevölkerung zeichnet sich durch eine große religiöse, kulturelle und ethnische Diversität aus. Gegenwärtige ethno-konfessionelle Spannungen blicken auf eine lange Vorgeschichte zurück. Dieser Umstand sowie die Gründungsgeschichte des irakischen Staates boten schon seit langem immer wieder Anlass, die angeblich mangelnde Authentizität der irakischen Nation und die Künstlichkeit des nach Ende des ersten Weltkrieges von britischen Kolonialherren geschaffenen Staates zu thematisieren. Doch so einfach ist es nicht.
Orient. German Journal for Politics, Economics and Culture of the Middle East, 2014
The meteoric rise of ISIS as a new strategic player in Iraq (and Syria) has again highlighted the... more The meteoric rise of ISIS as a new strategic player in Iraq (and Syria) has again highlighted the country’s deepening fragmentation along sectarian lines. The diverse composition of Iraqi society has always been a source of concern for the country’s ruling elites who feared the centrifugal powers that could be unleashed if communal (religious, ethnic, or tribal) identities turned into sources of political mobilization. Evidence of such a process had been visible for the last few decades. But the situation deteriorated gravely since the invasion of 2003. Today, the country is on the verge of disintegrating into several constituent parts in what promises to become a long drawn bloody confrontation between various domestic and regional players, joined by an international anti-ISIS coalition of the willing under US tutelage. Iraq has become a staging ground for a war waged as part of the ongoing transformations of the MENA region triggered by the Arab Spring. Whether the current phase of the ‘war against terror’ will accomplish its stated objective of destroying ISIS and help save the Iraqi state, or whether it will turn out to be just a further stage in a catastrophic series of wars that have been ravaging the country for the last several decades, remains to be seen.
This article investigates Iraqi schooling during the 1990s under Ba’thist rule and after the regi... more This article investigates Iraqi schooling during the 1990s under Ba’thist rule and after the regime’s fall in 2003 and compares the treatment of Islam in the curriculum. I focus on the degree to which Iraqi textbooks under Saddam Hussein contained a Sunni bias and the changes introduced immediately after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq in 2003. To what degree did international actors effect curricular reforms during the years that followed the invasion? What educational policies did the Iraqi central government follow since then? I find that, as part of its religious policies during the 1990s, the regime symbolically acknowledged a Shi’i perspective in textbook narratives. However, emergency revisions carried out on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) by international agencies in 2003–4 strengthened the Sunni bias in Iraqi textbooks, rather than erased signs of sectarianism from the textbooks. Since the CPA was dissolved in 2004, the government has gradually introduced more references to the Shi’i tradition into textbook narratives.
Ausgehend von Edward Saids Behauptung einer strukturellen Verwandtschaft des von ihm porträtierte... more Ausgehend von Edward Saids Behauptung einer strukturellen Verwandtschaft des von ihm porträtierten Orientalismus mit dem westlichem Antisemitismus, betrachtet dieser Aufsatz die deutsch-jüdische Geschichte des späten 18. bis frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere die Debatten um die Emanzipation und Integration der jüdischen Bevölkerung in die deutsche Gesellschaft sowie die Entwicklung der beiderseitigen Selbst- und Fremdbilder. Ziel ist es, die Anwendbarkeit der Orientalismuskritik Edward Saids auf den von ihm vernachlässigten deutschen Kontext zu überprüfen. In Teilen ist dies gleichzeitig ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Orientalistik als akademische Disziplin, der historische Fallstudien diesbezüglich nicht ersetzen, sondern um eine kulturgeschichtliche Ebene ergänzen will.
Orient. German Journal for Politics and Economics of the Middle East, 2000
Ausgehend von einer Diskussion des Forschungsstandes und methodologischen Überlegungen wird in di... more Ausgehend von einer Diskussion des Forschungsstandes und methodologischen Überlegungen wird in diesem Aufsatz die Geschichte der Orientalistik an deutschen Universitäten in den Jahren 1933-45 am Beispiel der Hamburger Universität, insbesondere in den Bereichen Forschung und Lehre, nachgezeichnet sowie an ausgewählten Beispielen im gesellschaftlichen Kontext verortet.Gleichzeitig sollen die historischen Querverbindungen zwischen Orientalistik und Judaistik in Deutschland diskutiert werden, die bislang selten thematisiert wurden.
National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective: the Homophobic Argument. Edited by Achim Rohde, Christina von Braun and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (London/New York: Routledge, 2018), 1-15, 2018
National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective explores how modern identity politic... more National Politics and Sexuality in Transregional Perspective explores how modern identity politics around the world are gendered and sexualized in multiple ways. Constructions of the imagined collective "self " often contain references to a het-eronormative order, whereas relevant internal or external "others" are often felt to deviate from this order through their gendered or sexual practices. By contrast, some Western countries have witnessed the evolution of LGBTQI-friendly discourses by certain political actors in recent years, often in the context of the post-9/ 11 culture wars. This pathbreaking book focuses on perceptions of "self " and "other" in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from a gendered perspective. It deals with anti-LGBTQI as well as LGBTQI-friendly aspects of modern culture and politics in countries within these regions, focusing on the functions such discursive markers play in nationalist and racist imageries, in discourses legitimizing class differences from the nineteenth century to the present day, including globalized discourses in the context of 9/ 11 and its aftermath. It shows that discourses on sexuality and gendered performances in everyday life often undermine the stability of such binary constructions, as they point to the multiplicity, ambivalence and the indeterminate character of individual and collective identities under conditions of modernity. Addressing contemporary identity politics both in a wider historical context and within a transregional comparative framework thus helps to discern differences and similarities between different world regions and serves to dislocate essen-tialized notions of cultural differences based on gender and sex. This book will appeal to those with an interest in Political Sociology, Gender Studies, and Globalisation.
Its cold war legacy and the ascend of academic trends like global studies and global history notw... more Its cold war legacy and the ascend of academic trends like global studies and global history notwithstanding, the concept of area studies has witnessed a remarkable renaissance in Germany in recent years, as regionally focused institutes and centers have been formed in various universities and research institutes all over the country.
This issue of META aims at taking stock of these developments and contributes to this ongoing endeavor from a perspective of Middle East Studies. We thereby intend to contribute to the broader discussion regarding how and to what extent the institutionalization of knowledge production shapes its content. How do educational, economic and other policies on a global, regional, and local level shape the institutional body of knowledge production in this specific field of inquiry? What are the challenges for a critical area studies approach in the face of ongoing processes of globalization, and specifically with regard to Middle East Studies, the impact of the Arab uprisings of 2011 and subsequent developments?
The Politics of Education Reform in the Middle East. Self and Other in Textbooks and Curricula. Eds. Samira Alayan, Achim Rohde, and Sarhan Dhouib (Oxford/New York: Berghahn), 2012
A growing number of studies focusing on education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (ME... more A growing number of studies focusing on education systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were published in Western academia during recent years, reflecting international agendas for educational development, or debates triggered by political developments since 9/11 concerning the values taught in schools in Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. By assembling a collection of case studies scrutinising recent education reforms and textbooks in selected Middle Eastern countries, specifically with regard to history and social sciences, the present book thus contributes to a body of research that is located in a highly politicised context.
Scholarship on Iraq under the Ba’th regime has traditionally focused on the rule of Saddam Hussei... more Scholarship on Iraq under the Ba’th regime has traditionally focused on the rule of Saddam Hussein and his narrow inner circle. The centrality of the former president in Iraqi politics until spring 2003 and the tyranny of his regime were evident, and available sources concerning developments inside Iraqi society during that period were scarce. This book explores whether traditional paradigms of totalitarian rule can be applied to Ba’thist Iraq, closely examining state-society relations and uncovering the nature of the regime and how Iraqis lived with it. The study creates a conceptual framework for understanding the inner dynamics of a dictatorship that encompasses a variety of disciplines - comparative historiography, political science, literary and art criticism, and gender studies. Drawing on a comparative reading of the historiography of other regimes commonly perceived as totalitarian dictatorships, particularly Nazi Germany, the author looks beyond the spheres of state politics, economy and jurisdiction to also include the so called ‘soft issues’ of social norms, cultural and ideological production. By interpreting recent Iraqi history along such lines, the author demonstrates how cross-regional comparative perspectives and an interdisciplinary approach can contribute to the study of Iraq.
Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives From 1920 to the Present (Eds. Amatzia Baram, Achim Rohde, Ronen Zeidel (New York: Palgrave Macmilan, 2010), 2010
A fresh look at Iraqi history through the twentieth century until today, this book identifies con... more A fresh look at Iraqi history through the twentieth century until today, this book identifies continuities and breaks in the Iraqi experience. It combines chapters that provide each an expansive bird's-eye view of a key issue spanning a century with chapters that focus on more specific case studies that have been largely overlooked so far but such that are of great significance for Iraq's present and future. Some of the events and developments discussed were enforced from the outside and some grew out of particular and historically changing configurations within Iraqi society, but all are highly relevant to the understanding of contemporary Iraq. Written by leading scholars in the field, the chapters focus on such topics as the changing features of the of Iraqi identity, the rise of Iraqi nationalism alongside competing identities, ethnic and sectarian communalism, the role of women, Iraq's military history, the Iraqi economy, state building after the 2003 invasion, and a comparative discussion of the British and U.S. colonial adventures and the implications of those developments for the future of the country. The volume raises some pertinent questions on the way Iraqi history and present are interpreted and adds knowledge to the existing scholarship.
Handbook Near and Middle Eastern States. Geography - History - Culture - Politics - Economy, 2022
This handbook presents precise yet accessible up-to-date information about the geography, history... more This handbook presents precise yet accessible up-to-date information about the geography, history, culture, politics, and economy of 26 Near and Middle East states, ranging from Morocco to Pakistan, from Turkey to South Sudan. The targeted readership consists primarily of scholars, students, teachers, journalists, and other mediators of political education as well as anyone interested in politics. It is a basic work that contributes to comparative assessments of this hugely important and diverse region.
in: Constructing and Subverting Sexual Norms: Power and Desire in Arab and Islamic Societies, eds. Aymon Kreil, Lucia Sorbera, Serena Tolino (New York: IB Tauris, 2020), 2020
Cultural and artistic production in authoritarian systems has long caught the attention of schola... more Cultural and artistic production in authoritarian systems has long caught the attention of scholars, in works that have addressed the dissemination of official ideology, the degree of political control over a society attained by a given regime or the perseverance of autonomous spaces and dissident voices within authoritarian polities. Building on a growing body of scholarship on modern and contemporary Iraqi fiction, particularly on literature written by women, this essay focuses on the work of the renowned Iraqi feminist novelist and journalist, Luṭfiyya al-Dulaymī (b. 1943). In the context of this volume, the chapter singles out the aspect of sexual and gender norms as negotiated through one of al-Dulaymī’s wartime novels and its reception by Ba‘thist literary critics. It points to spaces of contestation within Ba‘thist Iraq, specifically in the sphere of cultural and artistic production, that are often unaccounted for in conventional political history narratives.
Israel-Studien Geschichte – Methoden – Paradigmen. Herausgegeben von Michael Brenner, Johannes Becke und Daniel Mahla (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2020), 89-101, 2020
Dieses Kapitel behandelt die im deutschen Sprachraum gegenwärtig im
Entstehen befindlichen Israe... more Dieses Kapitel behandelt die im deutschen Sprachraum gegenwärtig im Entstehen befindlichen Israel-Studien aus der Sicht einer Nachbardisziplin: den Nah- und Mitteloststudien und der Islamwissenschaft. Es verweist auf historische Schnittmengen zwischen jüdischen Studien und Islamwissenschaft/Arabistik in der deutschsprachigen Orientalistik des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts und plädiert für eine zeitgemäße regionalwissenschaftliche Reaktivierung dieser Verbindungen, um die deutschsprachigen Nah- und Mitteloststudien an einen internationalen Trend anzuschließen und gleichzeitig eine Narbe eine Narbe zu heilen, die das Nazi-Regime in diesem Feld der akademischen Wissensproduktion zurückgelassen hat.
Intersections Between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in the 21st Century, 2019
This book discusses the multiple intersections between Jewish studies and Israel studies in the t... more This book discusses the multiple intersections between Jewish studies and Israel studies in the twenty-first century. With contributions from an international array of scholars, the volume offers a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion of the current state of scholarship with an outlook toward future areas of research and cross-pollination.
THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF STATE-SPONSORED HISTORY AFTER 1945 Edited by Berber Bevernage and Nico Wouters, 2018
This chapter discusses the evolution of Israeli and Palestinian education systems and relevant de... more This chapter discusses the evolution of Israeli and Palestinian education systems and relevant developments on both sides in recent years concerning the teaching of history. Unsurprisingly in the context of this ongoing bitter conflict, we encounter two mutually exclusive nationalist historical narratives taught in Israeli and Palestinian schools alike. In the existing political stalemate, the fragmentation of the OPT (Westbank, Gaza, East-Jerusalem) and the weakening of the Palestinian administration (PNA), combined with a steady erosion of democratic standards within Israel, reform initiatives in the realm of education aimed at undercutting the existing conflict dynamic remain marginalized and often meet outright rejection.
Hamburger Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte, 2018
Bei dieser Quelle handelt es sich um einen Auszug aus dem Vorwort der Hamburger Koranausgabe von ... more Bei dieser Quelle handelt es sich um einen Auszug aus dem Vorwort der Hamburger Koranausgabe von 1694, herausgegeben von Abraham Hinckelmann. Seinen Platz in den Geschichtsbüchern erlangte Hinckelmann, weil er die erste gedruckte arabische Ausgabe des Korans in Europa publizierte, die der Nachwelt erhalten blieb. Dies geschah direkt nach dem Ende der zweiten Belagerung Wiens durch die Osmanen (1683) und der Habsburgischen Gegenoffensive (1686), im Zuge derer auch wertvolle schriftliche osmanische Quellen als Kriegsbeute nach Europa gelangten – ein wichtiger Impuls, der die Entwicklung der Orientalistik auch in den deutschsprachigen Ländern begünstigte. Hinckelmanns Koranausgabe war ein Meilenstein in dieser Hinsicht. In einem 80-seitigen Vorwort begründet Hinckelmann nicht nur seine in der damaligen Zeit durchaus umstrittene Initiative, den Koran in seiner Originalsprache zu publizieren, sondern bietet auch eine vom umfangreichen Wissen des Autors zeugende Darstellung der „arabischen Studien“, die aus wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Perspektive wertvoll ist. Zugleich stellt er den im späten 17. Jahrhundert noch weitgehend unangetasteten Sonderstatus des Hebräischen als lingua sacra in Frage und nennt stattdessen das Arabische als die der göttlichen Ursprache am nächsten kommende und damit auch für das Verständnis der Bibel relevante Sprache. Die hier einsetzende Entsakralisierung und symbolische Degradierung der hebräischen Sprache signalisiert das nahende Ende der Beschäftigung mit jüdischer Theologie oder dem Talmud sowie das abnehmende Interesse an einem persönlichen Austausch mit jüdischen Gelehrten (wenn auch zu Missionszwecken) seitens „aufgeklärter“ christlich geprägter Hebraisten des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts.
Hamburger Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte , 2017
Bei dieser Quelle handelt es sich um das Vorwort zum Vorlesungsverzeichnis des akademischen Gymna... more Bei dieser Quelle handelt es sich um das Vorwort zum Vorlesungsverzeichnis des akademischen Gymnasiums in Hamburg (1613–1883) der Jahre 1810 / 11, das auch einen Rückblick auf die vorangegangenen beiden Jahre enthält. Das akademische Gymnasium war ein Vorläufer der späteren Hamburger Universität. Verfasst wurde das Vorwort vom damaligen Rektor und Reformer des akademischen Gymnasiums, Johann Gottfried Gurlitt, der von 1802 bis 1827 auch Inhaber der dortigen Professur für orientalische Sprachen war. In dem Vorwort diskutiert Gurlitt die von ihm anvisierten strukturellen wie inhaltlichen Reformen des Gymnasiums und holt gleichzeitig zu einer leidenschaftlichen Verteidigung des von ihm vertretenen Faches aus. In seinen Aussagen zum Studium der hebräischen Sprache kommen Veränderungen in der christlichen Sicht auf das Judentum im Zuge der Aufklärung zum Ausdruck, welche eine allenfalls ambivalente Haltung zur bürgerlichen Gleichberechtigung der jüdischen Bevölkerung auch unter vergleichsweise wohlmeinenden Intellektuellen nahelegen.
'Guests and Aliens': Re-Configuring New Mobilities in the Eastern Mediterranean After 2011 - with a special focus on Syrian refugees, eds. Elif Aksaz et Jean-Francois Pérouse, Les Dossiers de l'IFEA, 2016
In the wake of the Arab Spring revolutions, the Middle East and North Africa are undergoing a pro... more In the wake of the Arab Spring revolutions, the Middle East and North Africa are undergoing a profound process of political and social transformations, the results of which are yet unclear. Several reasons have been noted for the less than encouraging results so far of the Arab Spring. Some pointed to failed nation building processes in countries created in a top-down manner by colonial powers and postcolonial state-building elites, and the divisive effects of decades of oppressive rule. After the removal of anciens régimes, in this line of thought, some long repressed tensions and unresolved conflicts surfaced in these societies. Others have highlighted processes of state erosion and state failure as crucial for the politicization of ethnic and sectarian identities and the rise of actors like IS.
I would like to add a further factor to this list and argue that the destructive mode of the regional reconfiguration currently underway is at least to some degree an effect of neoliberal reforms introduced to varying degrees in most MENA countries for the last few decades.
Orientalism, Gender and the Jews. Literary and Artistic Transformations of European National Identity Discourses, eds. Ulrike Brunotte, Anna-Dorothea Ludewig, Axel Stähler (Berlin: de Gruyter), 2015
Jews have long been associated in European thought with Islam and the Orient. This chapter looks ... more Jews have long been associated in European thought with Islam and the Orient. This chapter looks at the evolution of this trope and the corresponding social practices in the context of German-Jewish history until the early 20th century. The Jewish engagements with Orientalist tropes discussed in this chapter point to the in-between position of emancipated German Jews as both insiders and outsiders, colonizers and colonized at the same time, whose own self-perceptions were shaped in multiple ways by the Orientalist worldviews that characterised European societies in general. At the same time, this chapter addresses the history of Oriental Studies in Germany and its relation to Jewish Studies in the context of the debate on Edward Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’, confirming Said’s original thesis concerning the comparability of anti-Semitism and Orientalism in ways perceived neither by himself nor by those of his critics who pointed to German Orientalist scholarship as an argument against him.
Gefallenengedenken im globalen Vergleich. Nationale Tradition, politische Legitimation und Individualisierung der Erinnerung, Hrsg. von Manfred Hettling, Jörg Esterkamp (München: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2013), 2013
Dieser Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung einer staatlich gelenkten und geförderten Erinnerungskult... more Dieser Beitrag zeichnet die Entwicklung einer staatlich gelenkten und geförderten Erinnerungskultur in Irak mit Blick auf die Kriege und gewaltsamen Konflikte des Landes seit der Revolution des Jahres 1958 und bis in Zeit nach der US-Invasion im Jahr 2003 und dem Sturz Saddam Husseins nach. Der Beitrag thematisiert moderne Monumentalarchitektur und andere auf Erinnern und Gedenken ausgerichtete Aktivitäten, darunter auch religiöse Traditionen des Totengedenkens, in ihrem militär- und kulturhistorischen Kontext. Es wird deutlich, dass sich nach 2003 noch kein neuer Diskurs über die jüngere gewaltvolle Vergangenheit des Landes herausgebildet hat, welcher einen Prozess der nationalen Versöhnung zwischen den unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Akteuren und den Wiederaufbau des Landes unterstützen könnte.
Das Akademische Gymnasium. Bildung und Wissenschaft in Hamburg 1613 bis 1883 (Hamburger Beiträge zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Bd. 23), Hg. von Dirk Brietzke, Franklin Kopitzsch und Rainer Nicolaysen (Berlin/Hamburg: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2013), 195-212, 2013
Die Beschäftigung mit dem ‚Orient‘ blickt in den deutschsprachigen Ländern auf eine reiche Tradit... more Die Beschäftigung mit dem ‚Orient‘ blickt in den deutschsprachigen Ländern auf eine reiche Tradition zurück, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Strängen zusammensetzt. Während sich seit dem 18. Jahrhundert das Interesse an fernöstlichen Sprachen und Kulturen, damals v. a. Sanskrit, im Kontext der Altertumskunde entwickelte, entstand zuvor bereits jener Teilbereich der Orientalistik, der sich mit semitischen Sprachen und Kulturen befasst, aus der christlichen und insbesondere der protestantischen Theologie. Diese Genealogie lässt sich im Hamburger Kontext besonders gut illustrieren, denn die Ursprünge der Hamburger Orientalistik reichen bis zur Gründung des Akademischen Gymnasiums im frühen 17. Jahrhundert zurück. Unter den ursprünglich vier, später sechs am Gymnasium eingerichteten Professuren war stets auch die Orientalistik vertreten. Darunter war vor allem die christlich geprägte Hebraistik zu verstehen, aber auch Vorformen der vergleichenden semitischen Philologie und Islamwissenschaft. Bis ins 18. und 19. Jahrhundert galt die Beschäftigung mit ‘morgenländischen Sprachen‘ als eine Hilfswissenschaft der christlichen Theologie, und zahlreiche bedeutende Orientalisten bis ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein waren von Haus aus protestantische Theologen. Im Folgenden wird die Frühgeschichte der Hamburger Orientalistik im Rahmen des Akademischen Gymnasiums dargestellt und in ihrem gesellschaftlichen Kontext diskutiert. Dabei werden auch Kontinuitäten und Brüche im Übergang zum Kolonialinstitut und der Hamburger Universität in den Blick genommen, mit Blick auf die Hebraistik / Judaistik.
History Education and Post-Conflict Reconciliation: Reconsidering Joint Textbook Projects. Eds. Karina Korostelina and Simone Lässig (London/New York: Routledge), 177-191, 2013
This study discusses the case of a joint Palestinian-Israeli textbook project initiated by a bi-n... more This study discusses the case of a joint Palestinian-Israeli textbook project initiated by a bi-national NGO called PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) that seeks to transcend the curricular limitations prescribed by the two Ministries of Education by developing a textbook which covers the history of the conflict from both an Israeli and a Palestinian perspective. The textbook has been implemented in experimental teaching units in Israeli and in Palestinian schools and informal settings in 2007 and 2008 as part of an EU funded project to evaluate the potential of this approach for contributing to a better understanding between both sides. The account is based on existing scholarship, on data gathered during the evaluation period and on personal observations by the author gathered over a period of three years in the framework of a cooperative project conducted by PRIME and the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research.
Conflicting Narratives: War, Trauma and Memory in Iraqi Culture, eds. Stephan Milich, Friederike Pannewick, and Leslie Tramontini (Wiesbaden: Reichert), 109-124 , 2012
In 20th-century Iraq state-sponsored commemorative projects and state-sponsored narratives regard... more In 20th-century Iraq state-sponsored commemorative projects and state-sponsored narratives regarding the country’s wars, sought to use the memory of wars and violent conflicts as a tool for building and molding national identity. This article portrays the evolution of a state-sponsored Iraqi culture of remembrance concerning the country’s wars and violent conflicts since the revolution of 1958 and until today, thus covering the various post-monarchy regimes and the era of the Baathist regime, as well as contemporary efforts to reconstruct an Iraqi cultural memory after the invasion of 2003. Due to its exceptional longevity, the Baathist regime had the most formative impact on the evolution of state-sponsored culture and arts in Iraq in the 20th century.
The Politics of Education Reform in the Middle East. Self and Other in Textbooks and Curricula, eds. Samira Alayan, Achim Rohde, and Sarhan Dhouib (Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books), 2012
This study discusses the case of a joint Palestinian-Israeli textbook project initiated by a bi-n... more This study discusses the case of a joint Palestinian-Israeli textbook project initiated by a bi-national NGO called PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) that seeks to transcend the curricular limitations prescribed by the two Ministries of Education by developing a textbook which covers the history of the conflict from both an Israeli and a Palestinian perspective. The textbook has been implemented in experimental teaching units in Israeli and in Palestinian schools and informal settings in 2007 and 2008 as part of an EU funded project to evaluate the potential of this approach for contributing to a better understanding between both sides. The account is based on existing scholarship, on data gathered during the evaluation period and on personal observations by the author gathered over a period of three years in the framework of a cooperation between PRIME and the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research.
Gender and Violence in the Middle East, eds. Moha Ennaji and Fatima Sadiqi (London/New York: Routledge), 2011
This book explores the relationship between Islamism, secularism and violence against women in th... more This book explores the relationship between Islamism, secularism and violence against women in the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on case studies from across the region, the authors examine the historical, cultural, religious, social, legal and political factors affecting this key issue.
Chapters by established scholars from within and outside the region highlight: - the interconnections of violence and various sources of power in the Middle East: the state, society, and the family, - conceptions of violence as family and social practice and dominant discourse, - the role of violence as pattern for social structuring in the nation state.
By centring the chapters around these key areas, the volume provides an innovative theoretical and systematic research model for gender and violence in the Middle East and North Africa. Dealing with issues that are not easily accessible in the West, this book underlines the importance of understanding realities and problems relevant to Muslim and Arab societies and discusses possible ways of promoting reforms in the MENA region. As such it will be of great interest to students and scholars of gender studies, sociology, political science and criminal justice.
Iraq Between Occupations: Perspectives From 1920 to the Present, eds. Amatzia Baram, Achim Rohde, Ronen Zeidel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 129-142, 2010
Now that Saddam Husayn’s rule over Iraq has ended, there is time
to revisit the dominant scholar... more Now that Saddam Husayn’s rule over Iraq has ended, there is time to revisit the dominant scholarly paradigms for interpreting this particular period within the broader history of Iraq in the twentieth century. How do we make sense of the Ba’thist era? Was this calamity the result of structural deficiencies at the root of the Iraqi nation-building project, or were state and society merely highjacked by a gang of ruthless criminals driven by a totalitarian ideology? What made the regime last so long, and how did it function? Coming to terms with the history of a dictatorship also entails a comparative look at similar regimes and at the ways in which these have been conceptualized by scholars. To a degree, this serves to deprovincialize research on Iraq, and insert it into a wider comparative framework of research on authoritarian or dictatorial systems in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East, ed. Pinar Ilkkaracan (Aldershot: Ashgate), 2008
Exploring the contemporary dynamics of sexuality in the Middle East, this volume offers an in-dep... more Exploring the contemporary dynamics of sexuality in the Middle East, this volume offers an in-depth and unique insight into this much contested and debated issue. It focuses on the role of sexuality in political and social struggles and the politicization of sexuality and gender in the region. Contributors illustrate the complexity of discourses, debates and issues, focusing in particular on the situation in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey, and explain how they cannot be reduced to a single underlying factor such as religion, or a simple binary opposition between the religious right and feminists. Contributors include renowned academicians, researchers, psychologists, historians, human rights and women's rights advocates and political scientists, from different countries and backgrounds, offering a balanced and contemporary perspective on this important issue, as well as highlighting the implication of these debates in larger socio-political contexts.
Vom Kolonialinstitut zum Asien-Afrika-Institut – 100 Jahre Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften in Hamburg (Gossenberg: Ostasienverlag), 128-149, 2008
Das Seminar für Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients wurde im Jahr 1908 als erste Einrichtu... more Das Seminar für Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients wurde im Jahr 1908 als erste Einrichtung im Rahmen des Hamburgischen Kolonialinstituts gegründet und stellt somit gleichzeitig eine Keimzelle der 1919 gegründeten Universität Hamburg dar. Unter diesem Dach waren die später eigenständigen Fächer Islamwissenschaft/Semitistik, Turkologie und Iranistik sowie teilweise die Judaistik zusammengefasst. Bis 1970 war das Seminar Teil der Philosophischen Fakultät, danach war es im Fachbereich Orientalistik angesiedelt, bis es als Abteilung in das 2002 gegründete Asien-Afrika-Institut integriert wurde. In der Ahnengalerie der Inhaber des Hamburger Lehrstuhls für Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients und anderer MitarbeiterInnen des Seminars befinden sich eine Reihe bedeutender Forscherpersönlichkeiten, welche die Islamwissenschaft in Deutschland und darüber hinaus maßgeblich geprägt haben. Das Wachstum und die institutionelle Ausdifferenzierung der Disziplin im Laufe der Jahrzehnte führten zur Einrichtung einer Reihe weiterer und ebenso profilierter Lehrstühle und Professuren unter dem Dach des Seminars. Der folgende Beitrag skizziert die wechselhafte Geschichte der Islamwissenschaft in Hamburg bis zur Gründung des Asien-Afrika-Instituts. Über eine rein wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Perspektive hinaus wird die Disziplin dabei im gesellschaftlichen und politischen Kontext ihrer Zeit dargestellt.
This book addresses the history of Baʿthist Iraq through a literary studies lens. It uses literat... more This book addresses the history of Baʿthist Iraq through a literary studies lens. It uses literature as “social texts” and focuses on women and femininity as a trope in Iraqi literary narratives as well as on literature written by Iraqi women of different political hues. The juxtaposition of regime-inspired literary narratives and literary works of female authors that diverted from officially sanctioned discourse helps to develop a more nuanced understanding of cultural production in Baʿthist Iraq. At the same time, the author wants to provide an account of the “forgotten history” of ideological penetration of the Iraqi novel (1), which according to her needs to be recognized as an integral dimension of the Iraqi literary tradition.
Rezension zu: Atshan, Sa′ed; Galor, Katharina: The Moral Triangle. Germans, Israelis, Palestinian... more Rezension zu: Atshan, Sa′ed; Galor, Katharina: The Moral Triangle. Germans, Israelis, Palestinians. Durham 2020. ISBN 978-1-4780-0837-8 / Atshan, Sa’ed; Galor, Katharina: Israelis, Palästinenser und Deutsche in Berlin. Geschichten einer komplexen Beziehung. Berlin 2021. ISBN 978-3-11-073439-3, In: H-Soz-Kult, 21.09.2021, <www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-50411>.
The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 came after decades of Baath dictatorship, seve... more The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 came after decades of Baath dictatorship, several wars, and the humanitarian toll of the most extensive sanctions regime since World War II. It coalesced into a hybrid political system with sectarian undertones, civil war, and the rise and then fall of the Islamic State. This bleak picture poses challenges to the politics of memory, toreconstruction, and to reconciliation, but it also simultaneously overlooks the creative approaches of Iraqi society to reimagining itself, building a public sphere, and claiming public spaces. The aftermath of 2003 opened up new spaces for civil society and cultural expression, firmer constitutional roots for Kurdish autonomy, and a revaluation of sectarian divides – as well as of social and gender roles too.
Against this backdrop, the conference sheds new light on the main factors shaping Iraqi politics and society since the US invasion of 2003. It takes stock of the scholarship on Iraq’s modern history, post-2003 transformations, and current developments, with a special focus on questions of governance, institutions, protest movements, and the politics of memory.
Given the formative and long-lasting influence of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian rule, the conference lays particular emphasis on historiographic research with Iraqi sources, such as newly available archival evidence and their use in recent scholarship, ego documents, and oral histories – as well as literary sources as an alternative form of historical archive. We also focus on emerging cultures of remembrance in contemporary Iraq as well as on Iraqi diasporic communities, including by taking comparative regional perspectives: To what degree does Iraq form part of a wider regional trend of renegotiating narratives of national belonging, both on the level of state-sponsored discourses and on that of civil society activism too? The temporal focus is on the Baathist period as well as on the broader context of Iraqi history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the question of path dependencies after 2003.
Conveners: Nadje el-Ali (Brown University), Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS), Dina Khoury (George Washington University), Achim Rohde (Universität Hamburg), Eckart Woertz (GIGA / Universität Hamburg)
Ten years ago, popular uprisings challenged authoritarian systems across the Middle East and Nor... more Ten years ago, popular uprisings challenged authoritarian systems across the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 and their aftermath, together with the Green Movement in Iran (2009) and the Gezi-protests in Turkey (2013), appeared to form part of a regional protest cycle. A decade later, these uprisings seem to have hardly left any traces, and their memory is eclipsed by other events.
Over the course of this semester, we will look back at the events of the Arab Spring in its broader regional and international context. What were the root causes for the uprisings? What were the results? Why did they largely fail? To what degree are current protest movements in countries of the Middle East and North Africa related to the Arab uprisings of 2011?
The lecture series is jointly organized by the University of Hamburg, the Leibniz-Institute for Global and Regional Studies (GIGA), Heinrich-Böll-Foundation Hamburg and Academy in Exile.
Coordination:
Friederike Wirtz, Heinrich Böll Foundation / Dr. André Bank, GIGA / Dr. Achim Rohde, Academy in Exile, Freie Universität Berlin / Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz, Global History, University of Hamburg and GIGA
Depuis les événements de 2011, les processus de transformation dans les états du Maghreb ne se ma... more Depuis les événements de 2011, les processus de transformation dans les états du Maghreb ne se manifestent pas uniquement au niveau politique, économique ou militaire. Ces processus profonds, contradictoires et non linéaires se manifestent dans tous les domaines, y compris au niveau de l’historiographie, des récits historiques et de la culture de la mémoire. Il y a de moins en moins d‘acteurs hégémoniques au Maghreb pouvant imposer et défendre une identité nationale homogène et un discours historique qui caractériserait les régimes postcoloniaux dans les pays arabes depuis des décennies. En conséquence, la société tunisienne et les autres sociétés du Maghreb font face aujourd‘hui une diversifcation des récits historiques reflétant la pluralité des acteurs sociaux jouant un rôle dans la vie publique et politique. Dans quelle mesure cette visibilité de la diversité socioculturelle et politique illustre-t-elle une transition démocratique en Tunisie ou dans d‘autres pays du Maghreb ?
Lors de notre conférence, ces aspects seront discutés dans le contexte du travail de mémoire, des conflits et de la marginalisation. Basée sur une vision plus différenciée du passé et remettant en question les récits offciels dictés par les États, la conférence a pour objectif de contribuer à la compréhension et la diffusion d‘une histoire „par le bas“.
Final conference of "Research Network Reconfigurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation P... more Final conference of "Research Network Reconfigurations: History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Africa", Phillips-Universität Marburg, 16-18 November 2018. The joint project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Edcation and Research from 2013 until 2019.
Recent years have seen a growing interest in Jews from Arab or Muslim majority countries of the M... more Recent years have seen a growing interest in Jews from Arab or Muslim majority countries of the Middle East and North Africa across a variety of time periods. Scholars working at Western or Israeli universities often focus on aspects of Jewish communal and political life in Muslim majority countries prior to their exodus in the aftermath of the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948, or on their absorption into the margins of Israeli society in subsequent decades and the increasing role of Mizrahi Jews in contemporary Israeli politics and culture. But there is also a growing trend in research that reaches beyond nationalist or communalist narratives to conceptualize Jewish communities in Middle Eastern countries as parts of local societies and evolving nation states. Moreover, a tradition of Jewish Studies exists in various Arab and Muslim majority countries that is largely separated from Western scholarship. Some North African and Middle Eastern countries, like Tunisia and Iraq, have seen a renewed interest in the Jewish heritage of the country, and Jewish contributions to national history.
Bringing together established and younger scholars from different continents and academic disciplines, the conference discusses questions of culture, identity and memory of Jewish life in Arab and Muslim majority countries, self-identification and belonging, as well as prospects for ethno-religious diversity and intercommunal relations in the MENA region.
The research units “Re-Configurations. History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the M... more The research units “Re-Configurations. History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes in the Middle East and North Africa” and “Figures of Thought | Turning Points. Cultural Practices and Social Change in the Arab World”, based at Philipps University Marburg’s Center for Near and Middle East Studies, in cooperation with Université de la Manouba (UMA), l’Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC), both based in Tunis, and Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME), a research program at the Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien, invite scholars from the fields of sociology, human geography, history, cultural studies, literature, media and art, social anthropology, economics, political science, and educational studies to apply for an international Summer Academy that will be convened from 28 August to 04 September 2016 in Tunis on the theme
RECONFIGURING THE (NON-)POLITICAL. PERFORMING AND NARRATING CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
The conference Trans-L-Encounters aims to take a closer look at the transregional and translocal-... more The conference Trans-L-Encounters aims to take a closer look at the transregional and translocal-abbreviated here as 'trans-l'-developments in Asia and the MENA region, specifically focusing on the interrelated phenomena of religious education and Islamic popular culture. Interaction in both sectors is growing due to technological progress, which facilitates mobility and communication. Partly reflecting the appeal of the epistemological project of an Islamiza-tion of knowledge, attendance of institutions of religious education (including higher education) in Asia has greatly increased in recent years. Traditional and reformist concepts of Islamic education co-exist, intermingle and from time to time clash on the local level. Local pious traditions are challenged by transregional modern religious movements. These various trends have also triggered civil society activism. The relationship between (religious) education and (popular) culture is an immediate one, translating religious knowledge into an Islamicized lifestyle, including the production and usage of faith-based clothing, attire, music, online activism and consumer practices. While some of these phenomena have been examined in single case studies and intra-regional comparative works, our approach extends the view and takes the transnational flow of religiously-inspired identity formations into closer consideration.
This workshop focuses on perceptions of Self and Other in Western and Eastern Europe, North Ameri... more This workshop focuses on perceptions of Self and Other in Western and Eastern Europe, North America and the MENA-region (Middle East and North Africa) from a gendered perspective, including the historical and contemporary intersections between anti-Semitic / philo-semitic, Orientalist / Occidentalist, and homophobic / LGBTIQ-friendly discourses and practices in countries of the regions mentioned. We focus on the functions such discursive markers play in nationalist and racist imageries, in discourses legitimizing class differences all along the 19th century until today, including globalized discourses in the context of 9/11 and its aftermath as well as the Arab Spring and similar developments in other MENA countries.
With this conference, the Georg-Eckert-Institute pursues a dual path strategy: While we explicitl... more With this conference, the Georg-Eckert-Institute pursues a dual path strategy: While we explicitly wish to work with both sides simultaneously, we are aware of the varying conditions under which the education systems on both sides operate, and of their specific problems and needs. We are convinced that the ongoing conflict is among the most crucial factors that influence education both in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, albeit in different ways.
The conference will last 2 full working days, with one day dedicated to education in Israel, and one to education in Palestine. The conference language will be English. We wish to stress that this conference is not aimed at forcing Israelis and Palestinians to engage in common work against their own will, in order to please Europeans. Rather, we would like to focus on the differences and similarities that structure the educational process on both sides, in order to be able to develop pragmatic strategies for effectively engaging with partners in the region in a way that suits the realities on the ground.
The upheavals of 2011 and subsequent developments in the MENA region have had substantial effects... more The upheavals of 2011 and subsequent developments in the MENA region have had substantial effects on universities and research centers within Arab world and in other neighboring countries where similar developments are taking shape (security issues, stricter political control/lesser levels of political control and repression, changing levels of funding, changing focus of donors etc.). META had the opportunity to talk with Sari Hanafi about the repercussions of these developments for scholarly work within the MENA region.Sari Hanafi is currently a Professor of Sociology and chair of the department of sociology, anthropology and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is also the editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology (Arabic). He is the Vice President of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and Vice President of the board of the Arab Council of Social Science. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on the political and econ...
This report is based on a project conducted by the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textb... more This report is based on a project conducted by the Georg-Eckert-Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) between 2006 and 2009, focusing on textbook revision and educational reforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The project was funded by the German Foreign Office.
For this purpose, a network of scholars, experts and representatives of several Ministries of Education (MOE) from both regions was built who took stock of and exchange views on the various education systems. Particular emphasis was to be placed on recent educational reform policies in countries of the MENA region and on the curricula and textbooks of the humanities and social studies disciplines (history, geography, civics) that are considered crucial for the development of pupils’ identities and worldviews.
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Papers by Achim Rohde
https://intersections.tk.hu/index.php/intersections/issue/view/33
Jenseits der zweifellos bedeutenden Unterschiede hinsichtlich der historischen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen sind strukturelle wie inhaltliche Parallelen im Feld der Wissensproduktion über Judentum wie Islam in Deutschland über zwei Jahrhunderte hinweg zu konstatieren: Es ging und geht um Anpassung an eine aus protestantischen Erfahrungen erwachsene säkulare Matrix des modernen Wissenschaftssystems. Teile von Staat und Öffentlichkeit standen und stehen organisierter nicht-christlicher, bzw. nicht-protestantischer, Religiosität mit Misstrauen gegenüber und setzen Integration damals wie heute mit Anpassung an eine gelegentlich als ‚deutsche Leitkultur‘ titulierte Mehrheitsnorm gleich. Eine augenfällige Parallele zwischen dem 19. und dem 21. Jahrhundert besteht zudem in der Orientalisierung nicht-christlicher Minderheiten als Element in antisemitischen wie islamfeindlichen Diskursen.
marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben kann, ohne historische
Ausgrenzungsprozesse erneut zu vollziehen. Vor dem Hintergrund einer
Debatte um den Status jüdischer Geschichte geht es um das Verhältnis
zwischen allgemeiner und spezifischer Geschichte, aber auch zwischen
einzelnen spezifischen Geschichten, gerade am Beispiel von marginalisierten Gruppen.
vieler Hinsicht failed states. Insbesondere Syrien liegt weitgehend in Trümmern und ist zu einem Flickenteppich umkämpfter Enklaven zerfallen, die vom Assad-Regime, vom syrischen PKK-Ableger Partiya Yekitîya Demokrat (PYG), verschiedenen arabischen säkularen wie islamistischen Milizen sowie der u. a. aus al-Qaida hervorgegangenen Dschihadisten-Miliz des Islamischen Staates kontrolliert werden. Auch
der Irak ist fragmentiert: in einen irakischen Rumpfstaat im Zentrum und im Süden des Landes unter nomineller Kontrolle der Zentralregierung in Bagdad, einen weitgehend autonomen kurdischen Proto-Staat in Nordirak sowie eine im Entstehen begriffene neue staatliche Struktur im Nordwesten Iraks und Teilen Syriens unter Kontrolle des IS.
Books and Edited Works by Achim Rohde
This issue of META aims at taking stock of these developments and contributes to this ongoing endeavor from a perspective of Middle East Studies. We thereby intend to contribute to the broader discussion regarding how and to what extent the institutionalization of knowledge production shapes its content. How do educational, economic and other policies on a global, regional, and local level shape the institutional body of knowledge production in this specific field of inquiry? What are the challenges for a critical area studies approach in the face of ongoing processes of globalization, and specifically with regard to Middle East Studies, the impact of the Arab uprisings of 2011 and subsequent developments?
https://intersections.tk.hu/index.php/intersections/issue/view/33
Jenseits der zweifellos bedeutenden Unterschiede hinsichtlich der historischen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen sind strukturelle wie inhaltliche Parallelen im Feld der Wissensproduktion über Judentum wie Islam in Deutschland über zwei Jahrhunderte hinweg zu konstatieren: Es ging und geht um Anpassung an eine aus protestantischen Erfahrungen erwachsene säkulare Matrix des modernen Wissenschaftssystems. Teile von Staat und Öffentlichkeit standen und stehen organisierter nicht-christlicher, bzw. nicht-protestantischer, Religiosität mit Misstrauen gegenüber und setzen Integration damals wie heute mit Anpassung an eine gelegentlich als ‚deutsche Leitkultur‘ titulierte Mehrheitsnorm gleich. Eine augenfällige Parallele zwischen dem 19. und dem 21. Jahrhundert besteht zudem in der Orientalisierung nicht-christlicher Minderheiten als Element in antisemitischen wie islamfeindlichen Diskursen.
marginalisierten Gruppen schreiben kann, ohne historische
Ausgrenzungsprozesse erneut zu vollziehen. Vor dem Hintergrund einer
Debatte um den Status jüdischer Geschichte geht es um das Verhältnis
zwischen allgemeiner und spezifischer Geschichte, aber auch zwischen
einzelnen spezifischen Geschichten, gerade am Beispiel von marginalisierten Gruppen.
vieler Hinsicht failed states. Insbesondere Syrien liegt weitgehend in Trümmern und ist zu einem Flickenteppich umkämpfter Enklaven zerfallen, die vom Assad-Regime, vom syrischen PKK-Ableger Partiya Yekitîya Demokrat (PYG), verschiedenen arabischen säkularen wie islamistischen Milizen sowie der u. a. aus al-Qaida hervorgegangenen Dschihadisten-Miliz des Islamischen Staates kontrolliert werden. Auch
der Irak ist fragmentiert: in einen irakischen Rumpfstaat im Zentrum und im Süden des Landes unter nomineller Kontrolle der Zentralregierung in Bagdad, einen weitgehend autonomen kurdischen Proto-Staat in Nordirak sowie eine im Entstehen begriffene neue staatliche Struktur im Nordwesten Iraks und Teilen Syriens unter Kontrolle des IS.
This issue of META aims at taking stock of these developments and contributes to this ongoing endeavor from a perspective of Middle East Studies. We thereby intend to contribute to the broader discussion regarding how and to what extent the institutionalization of knowledge production shapes its content. How do educational, economic and other policies on a global, regional, and local level shape the institutional body of knowledge production in this specific field of inquiry? What are the challenges for a critical area studies approach in the face of ongoing processes of globalization, and specifically with regard to Middle East Studies, the impact of the Arab uprisings of 2011 and subsequent developments?
Entstehen befindlichen Israel-Studien aus der Sicht einer Nachbardisziplin: den Nah- und Mitteloststudien und der Islamwissenschaft. Es verweist auf historische Schnittmengen zwischen jüdischen Studien und Islamwissenschaft/Arabistik in der deutschsprachigen Orientalistik des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts und plädiert für eine zeitgemäße regionalwissenschaftliche Reaktivierung dieser Verbindungen, um die deutschsprachigen Nah- und Mitteloststudien an einen internationalen Trend anzuschließen und gleichzeitig eine Narbe eine Narbe zu heilen, die das Nazi-Regime in diesem Feld der akademischen Wissensproduktion zurückgelassen hat.
I would like to add a further factor to this list and argue that the destructive mode of the regional reconfiguration currently underway is at least to some degree an effect of neoliberal reforms introduced to varying degrees in most MENA countries for the last few decades.
Chapters by established scholars from within and outside the region highlight:
- the interconnections of violence and various sources of power in the Middle East: the state, society, and the family,
- conceptions of violence as family and social practice and dominant discourse,
- the role of violence as pattern for social structuring in the nation state.
By centring the chapters around these key areas, the volume provides an innovative theoretical and systematic research model for gender and violence in the Middle East and North Africa. Dealing with issues that are not easily accessible in the West, this book underlines the importance of understanding realities and problems relevant to Muslim and Arab societies and discusses possible ways of promoting reforms in the MENA region. As such it will be of great interest to students and scholars of gender studies, sociology, political science and criminal justice.
to revisit the dominant scholarly paradigms for interpreting this particular period within the broader history of Iraq in the twentieth century. How do we make sense of the Ba’thist era? Was this calamity the result of structural deficiencies at the root of the Iraqi nation-building project, or were state and society merely highjacked by a gang of ruthless criminals driven by a totalitarian ideology? What made the regime last so long, and how did it function? Coming to terms with the history of a dictatorship also entails a comparative look at similar regimes and at the ways in
which these have been conceptualized by scholars. To a degree, this serves to deprovincialize research on Iraq, and insert it into a wider comparative framework of research on authoritarian or dictatorial systems in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Against this backdrop, the conference sheds new light on the main factors shaping Iraqi politics and society since the US invasion of 2003. It takes stock of the scholarship on Iraq’s modern history, post-2003 transformations, and current developments, with a special focus on questions of governance, institutions, protest movements, and the politics of memory.
Given the formative and long-lasting influence of Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian rule, the conference lays particular emphasis on historiographic research with Iraqi sources, such as newly available archival evidence and their use in recent scholarship, ego documents, and oral histories – as well as literary sources as an alternative form of historical archive. We also focus on emerging cultures of remembrance in contemporary Iraq as well as on Iraqi diasporic communities, including by taking comparative regional perspectives: To what degree does Iraq form part of a wider regional trend of renegotiating narratives of national belonging, both on the level of state-sponsored discourses and on that of civil society activism too? The temporal focus is on the Baathist period as well as on the broader context of Iraqi history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the question of path dependencies after 2003.
Conveners: Nadje el-Ali (Brown University), Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS), Dina Khoury (George Washington University), Achim Rohde (Universität Hamburg), Eckart Woertz (GIGA / Universität Hamburg)
Over the course of this semester, we will look back at the events of the Arab Spring in its broader regional and international context. What were the root causes for the uprisings? What were the results? Why did they largely fail? To what degree are current protest movements in countries of the Middle East and North Africa related to the Arab uprisings of 2011?
The lecture series is jointly organized by the University of Hamburg, the Leibniz-Institute for Global and Regional Studies (GIGA), Heinrich-Böll-Foundation Hamburg and Academy in Exile.
Summer Semester 2021, Thursdays, 18.15 - 19.45 Uhr, Zoom
Link: https://www.zfw.uni-hamburg.de/oeffentliche-vortraege/programm-sose/09-arabischer-fruehling-10-jahre-naher-osten-nord-afrika-protestzyklen.html
Please register by sending an email to anmeldung@boell-hamburg.de
Coordination:
Friederike Wirtz, Heinrich Böll Foundation / Dr. André Bank, GIGA / Dr. Achim Rohde, Academy in Exile, Freie Universität Berlin / Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz, Global History, University of Hamburg and GIGA
tous les domaines, y compris au niveau de l’historiographie, des récits historiques et de la culture de la mémoire. Il y a de moins en moins d‘acteurs hégémoniques au Maghreb pouvant imposer et défendre une identité nationale homogène et un discours
historique qui caractériserait les régimes postcoloniaux dans les pays arabes depuis des décennies. En conséquence, la société tunisienne et les autres sociétés du Maghreb font face aujourd‘hui une diversifcation des récits historiques reflétant la pluralité des acteurs sociaux jouant un rôle dans la vie publique et politique. Dans quelle mesure cette visibilité de la diversité socioculturelle et politique illustre-t-elle une transition démocratique en Tunisie ou dans d‘autres pays du Maghreb ?
Lors de notre conférence, ces aspects seront discutés dans le contexte du travail de mémoire, des conflits et de la marginalisation. Basée sur une vision plus différenciée du passé et remettant en question les récits offciels dictés par les États, la conférence
a pour objectif de contribuer à la compréhension et la diffusion d‘une histoire „par le bas“.
Bringing together established and younger scholars from different continents and academic disciplines, the conference discusses questions of culture, identity and memory of Jewish life in Arab and Muslim majority countries, self-identification and belonging, as well as prospects for ethno-religious diversity and intercommunal relations in the MENA region.
RECONFIGURING THE (NON-)POLITICAL. PERFORMING AND NARRATING CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
For detailed information, see: https://academies.hypotheses.org/category/reconfiguring-the-non-political
The conference will last 2 full working days, with one day dedicated to
education in Israel, and one to education in Palestine. The conference language will be English. We wish to stress that this conference is not aimed at forcing Israelis and Palestinians to engage in common work against their own will, in order to please Europeans. Rather, we would like to focus on the differences and similarities that structure the educational process on both sides, in order to be able to develop pragmatic strategies for effectively engaging with partners in the region in a way that suits the realities on the ground.
For this purpose, a network of scholars, experts and representatives of several Ministries of Education (MOE) from both regions was built who took stock of and exchange views on the various education systems. Particular emphasis was to be placed on recent educational reform policies in countries of the MENA region and on the curricula and textbooks of the humanities and social studies disciplines (history, geography, civics) that are considered crucial for the development of pupils’ identities and worldviews.
https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2019-06/israel-boykott-bds-antisemitismus-meinungsfreiheit-bundesregierung