Urp P Booklet 2014

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe
University Research Priority Program (URPP)

Asia and Europe
Exchanges and Encounters
Contents
Editorial3
Research Field 1: Concepts and
Taxonomies4
Research Field 2: Entangled Histories
Research Field 3: Norms and

Social Order(s)
12
Research Projects and

Annual Conferences
16
Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program

Asia and Europe
18
Participating Professors and

Departments20
Organizational Structure
21
Research Partners
22
Seal Stone
23
The annual publication Asia & Europe Bulletin

offers detailed information concerning the
research and teaching activities at the URPP Asia
and Europe. It appears once a year at the
beginning of the spring semester.
Asia & Europe Bulletin 1/2012
Published by
Photo Credits
University of Zurich
University Research Priority Program (URPP)
Asia and Europe
Wiesenstrasse 7/9
CH-8008 Zurich
p. 4: The Trustees of the Chester Beatty

Library, Dublin
Editors
p. 8 and 9: Children of Srikandi Collective
p. 6 left: Facsimile Edition from the Institute for

the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, Frankfurt
1985
Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang

Behr, PD Dr. Simone Mller, lic.phil. Roman Benz
p. 10 left: Historical and Ethnological Museum

of St. Gallen, Switzerland
English Language Editor
p. 12: Julia Leser / radioactivists.org
Phillip Lasater, M.Div.

Order at
admin@asienundeuropa.uzh.ch
Second Edition
URPP Asia and Europe 2014
p. 10 right: Norman Backhaus

p. 13: Research Field 3, URPP Asia and Europe
p. 14 left: Association Dmocratique des
Femmes du Maroc (ADFM)
p. 14 right: Eliza Isabaeva
All other photos: Roman Benz
Editorial
Dear colleagues and interested readers,

The presence of Asia as a major political, cultural, and
economic player is one of the most important parameters
for understanding the contemporary world and acting
in it. This situation has repercussions for the selfperception and position of Europe not only with respect
to current processes of globalization, but also in view of
its large spectrum of past encounters with Asia. All of
this calls for a research initiative that focuses on the
complexities of the relationships between Asia and
Europe in the past and present alike and that counters
still widespread monolithic representations. To deal
with the diverse histories and encounters between
Asians and Europeans means being faced with a huge
spectrum of languages and literatures, religious and
philosophical traditions, social formations, political
structures, and geographical settings. It also implies
studying multilateral interrelationships between dif
ferent regions in Europe and Asia as well as situations of
disentanglement and withdrawal.
The University Research Priority Program (URPP)
Asia and Europe was established in 2006 in order to
address these complex and demanding research tasks
by bringing together the expertise on Asia and Europe
of scholars across faculties and disciplines at the
University of Zurich and by offering funding for doctoral
and post-doctoral research projects. Since 2009, we have
also offered a doctoral program. Our interdisciplinary
research program combines methods and theoretical
approaches employed in cultural studies, philology and
linguistics as well as in the social sciences. This program
allows us to address the multi-faceted structure of our
research agenda, enhancing and refining the scope of
discourse. Understanding others approaches is a
demanding but truly enriching endeavor, which we
manage to sustain at various levels of collaboration. In
addition to their working on the individual doctoral and
postdoctoral research projects, senior and junior scholars
explore specific topics in the context of three
interdisciplinary research fields: Concepts and Tax
onomies, Entangled Histories, and Norms and
Order(s). Workshops and conferences as well as
international cooperation with distinguished scholars
and research institutions play a central role in discussing
and enhancing research activities among the different
research fields. Our annual international conferences

are dedicated to themes and issues of mutual concern
across the research fields, such as Traveling Norms and
the Politics of Contention, Concepts of Religion be
tween Asian and Europe, or Varieties of Modernity?
Possibilities and Limitations of a Research Perspective
on Asia and Europe. Reports and discussions of these
events are published in our annual Bulletin.
These activities would not have been possible without
the generous grants of the University of Zurich through
out all three phases of the program, the financial support
by the Gebert Rf Stiftung during the first phase (2006
2009) and the funding of several doctoral research
projects by the Humer-Foundation for Academic Talent.
On behalf of the members of the URPP, I would like to
express our sincere thanks for this support. Asia and
Europe has now entered its third phase (20132017),
and this booklet provides information on our inter
disciplinary research activities. Our hope is that it en
courages further research initiatives and cooperation in
what will continue to be an important field of research
in the postcolonial, globalized world.
Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar
Academic Director
Mughal emperor Akbar in the midst of a theological

debate with Jesuit missionaries in his Ibadat Khana,
or House of Worship.
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
Research Field 1: Concepts and Taxonomies
Research field coordinators: Prof. Dr. Christoph

Uehlinger and Dr. Ralph Weber
Descriptive and explanatory adequacy when concep
tualizing and studying phenomena such as identity
constructions, exchanges, encounters, etc. between
various cultural spaces in Europe and in Asia can only
be achieved on the basis of precise terminology. One of
the URPPs major goals is therefore to contribute to the
understanding of fundamental concepts, to the articu
lation of their translational equivalents or correlates,
and to their use as heuristic instruments. At the same
time, we are interested in how these concepts became
historically effective, both normatively and institution
ally, in terms of taxonomies of knowledge and how their
taxonomic status influenced their meaning.
Through coordinated research efforts, we concentrate
on the conceptual fields demarcated as philosophy,
religion, and law and order. We systematically
explore the terms that define such conceptual fields,
including related terms of a different taxonomic status
and possible definienda (such as the concepts of con
vincing and persuasion). Special emphasis is given
to concepts that operate across several of the abovementioned fields, such as aesthetics and body or,
alternatively, to strategic concepts that qualify these
fields as overlapping, discrete or mutually exclusive
domains. Methodological and theoretical self-reflection
accompanies this research, which requires attention to
the concepts of concept, taxonomy, and knowl
edge as used in and between Asia and Europe.
Philosophy
This subgroup is dedicated to the study of the question:
What is philosophy?, which has formerly been
discussed mainly within the framework of the European
tradition. We seek to extend this scholarly discussion to
traditions in the Arabic-Islamic world, India, China, and
Japan and to investigate the taxonomic functions of
different words for philosophy. The focus is on the
diverse intellectual traditions, their self-conceptions,
their terminology (both from an internal and an external
point of view), their historical development, and their
place in cultural, social, and institutional contexts. The
goal is twofold: On the one hand, we attempt to identify
these traditions and to describe their relationship to each
Participants of the workshop The Chinese Communist Party and the Politiciza
tion of Traditions (June 68, 2013) in the Lichthof of the University of Zurich.
other and with regard to the underlying concepts of

philosophy, including the respective normative impli
cations. On the other hand, we attempt to reflect on the
general concept of philosophy itself and on the conditions
under which it might engender innovative research.
Religion
The concept of religion, which was etymologically and
semantically controversial already in Roman antiquity,
has experienced various careers in the course of history.
In European discussions, there is a distinctive tension
between positive auto-referential understandings (vera
religio vs. idolatria, or religion vs. magic) and a neutral
classificatory understanding (religion, religions). The
successive broadening of the concept is, of course,
intimately related to European colonial and intellectual
history. Each of these elements has contributed to the
emergence of the new academic field of religious studies.
It is by no means clear whether the conceptualization
of a specific area of social communication as religion
is a characteristic only of the European history of ideas,
as is often claimed by those who are suspicious of the
concepts application. Similar terminological differen
tiations may be observed in Asian societies. This point
calls for clarification of possible correlations between
conceptual taxonomies, on the one hand, and between
socio-cultural and institutional variability, on the other.
Within the framework of the URPP, we focus on
European and Asian taxonomies and semantics and
study them in a comparative and diachronic historical
An excerpt from the Compendium of Sciences by Ibn Farighun (10th c. AD) that
describes philosophy and its different parts
An excerpt from Mou Zongsans Fourteen Lectures on the Convergence of

Chinese and Western Philosophy, 1990, p. 42
perspective. Special attention is given to questions of the

mutual intertwining of different religious traditions and
their conceptual systems, relating this research focus to
the URPPs Research Field 2 Entangled Histories.
research and to critically pursue the possibilities of

enlarging, specifying or merely complicating the
employed concept by means of Asian languages and
texts. This subgroup seeks to gain insights into the
relation of concept and language and into the historicity
of concepts by engaging in a constructive dialogue
between philosophical conceptual analysis and various
Asian languages. With regard to research pragmatics,
the choice of concepts conducive to comparative research
may be examined. Might it be promising to supplement
the frequent studies on concepts such as philosophy,
religion, nature, or the self with studies on con
cepts that are taxonomically on a different level, such as
washing, disciple, or text? What promise would
such a taxonomical shift in perspective hold? Moreover,
the concept of comparison must be examined, and the
activity and possibilities of comparing must be subjected
to various perspectives. What about concepts akin to
that of comparison such as analogy and similarity?
What can be learned, for example, from the texts of the
Nyya-school in India for a philosophy of comparison?
Does the comparison in the Mengzi (6A:2) between hu
man nature and a water swirl amount to an example or
an analogy employed for rhetorical or pragmatic ends
or is it an expression of more deeply rooted correlative
thinking?
This group is closely linked to the other subgroups of
Research Field 1. Instead of focusing on one specific
concept, it seeks to investigate not only the methods,
epistemology and prospects, but also the limits of
comparative conceptual research.
Law and Order

Law (i.e. ius and lex in the Latin tradition) as a regulatory
social system exists in some form in nearly all cultures in
Asia and Europe. From a historical perspective, law is not
only effective in socio-political realms of culturesas
more modern views might suggest. On the contrary, it is
usually understood in general to be much more com
prehensive and applicable to phenomena in the cosmos
or in nature, etc., developing, for example, into the
concept of laws of nature. Regarding the latter, we have
tested the claim that early conceptualizations in ancient
Mesopotamia followed a common model of thought used
to define correlations in divination (astrological and other
omina) and in casuistic law. Reconstructing the history of
the concepts of law and order in their multiple frameworks
of reference sheds light on their current usages and
implicit dimensions of meaning, and leads to a more
profound understanding of their di
verse roles in the
fields of law, culture, and natural science.
Comparative Conceptual Research
Researching concepts between Asia and Europe raises a
series of questions of both of a philosophical and a
research-pragmatic kind. For one thing, the concept of
concept must be investigated to recognize preunderstandings at work in comparative conceptual
Selected Publications
Academic Guests
R.Gassmann, E.Lange, A.Malinar, U.Rudolph,

R.Steineck, R.Weber (eds.), What is Philo
sophy? Themes and Issues in China, India, the
Islamic World, and Japan, 2 Vols., Boston and
Leiden: Brill, forthcoming
Junichi Isomae, Location of Reason: Subjec

tivity in Postmodernism and Postcolonialism
(research seminar), January 56, 2012
T.It, S.Mller, R.Rehm (eds.), Wort-BildAssimi

lationen: Japan und die Moderne /
Word-Image-Assimilations: Japan and Mo
dernity, Berlin: Gebrder Mann Verlag,
forthcoming (Zoom: Perspektiven der Mo
derne, 4)
A.Malinar, K.Jacobsen, H.Basu, V.Narayanan
(eds.), Brills Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vols.
16, Leiden: Brill, 20092014 (Handbook of
Oriental Studies: Section 2: South Asia,
22/16)
S.Mller, Das zerissene Bewusstsein: Wie
derholung und Differenz im japanischen
Intellektuellen
diskurs (chishikijin ron) der
Zwischen- und Nachkriegszeit, Berlin: De
Gruyter, forthcoming (Welten Ostasiens
Worlds of East Asia Mondes de lExtrmeOrient)
U.Rudolph, R.Wrsch (ed.), Grundriss der
Geschichte der Philosophie: Philosophie in
der islamischen Welt. Band 1: 8.10. Jahrhun
dert, Basel: Schwabe, 2012
K.Schmid, C.Uehlinger (eds.), Laws in Heaven,
Laws of Nature, Fribourg: Academic Press and
Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014
(Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis), in press
R.Seidel, Kant in Teheran: Anfnge, Anstze
und Kontexte der Kantrezeption in Iran,
Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014 (Welten des Islams
Worlds of Islam Mondes de lIslam, 5)
R.Steineck, E.Lange, P.Kaufmann, Begriff
und Bild der modernen japanischen Philo
sophie, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: FrommannHolzboog, 2014
R.Steineck, Kritik der symbolischen Formen I:
Symbolische Form und Funktion, StuttgartBad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2014
(Philosophie interkulturell, 2)
C.Uehlinger (ed.), Concepts of Religion be
tween Asia and Europe, forthcoming
David Mervart, A Sketch Map of a Eurasian

Republic of Letters: Interrogating the Global
Bid of Intellectual and Conceptual Histories
(research seminar), September 1823, 2014
Academic Events
International Symposium, Philosophical
Readings of Ancient Texts between Asia and
Europe: Chances and Problems, Zurich, De
cember 1718, 2009
Public Lecture Series, Researching Philosophy
in Asian Contexts, Spring 2010, with Dimitri
Gutas (Yale University), Arindam Chakrabarti
(University of Hawaii), Roger T. Ames (Uni
versity of Hawaii), and John C. Maraldo
(University of North Florida)
Workshop with Tu Weiming (Harvard
University / Beijing University),
[The Cultural
and Political Implications of the Learning of
Heart-and-Mind: A Discussion of Tu Weimings
Thought], Beijing July 16, 2010, in cooperation
with the Institute for the Promotion of
Chinese Language and Culture and the
International Center for Chinese and Com
parative Philosophy, Renmin University of
China
Workshop with Roger T. Ames (University of
Hawaii),
[Author Meets Critics: A Workshop on Roger
Amess Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary],
Beijing, July 19, 2011, in cooperation with the
Department of Philosophy, Renmin Univer
sity of China
International Symposium, Laws of Heaven
Laws of Nature: The Legal Interpretation of
Cosmic Phenomena in the Ancient World,
Zurich, September 56, 2011, in cooperation
with Schweizerische Gesellschaft fr orien
talische Altertumswissenschaft
Workshop, Sor-hoon Tans Confucian Democ
racy: Author Meets Critics, Beijing, July 6,
2012, in cooperation with the Department of
Philosophy, Renmin University of China
Public Lecture Series, Concepts of Religion in

the Modern Age, autumn 2011, with Christine
Axt-Piscalar (Universitt Gttingen), Patrick
Franke (Universitt Bamberg), Junichi
Isomae (Kyoto/Zurich), Yang Mayfair Meihui
(UC Santa Barbara), and Richard King (Uni
versity of Glasgow)
Workshop, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Basel,
March 8, 2013, in cooperation with the Centre
for African Studies, University of Basel
Workshop, The Chinese Communist Party
and the Politicization of Traditions, June 68,
2013
International Conference, Masters of Dis
guise? Conceptions and Misconceptions of
Rhetoric in Chinese Antiquity, Einsiedeln,
September 46, 2013
Public Lecture Series, Positionen aktueller
Mohammed-Forschung, autumn 2013, with
Fred M. Donner (University of Chicago),
Claude Gilliot (University of Aix-en-Pro
vence), Mouhanad Khorchide (WWU Mns
ter), Tilman Nagel (University of Gttingen)
(in co-operation with research field 2)
Public Lecture Series, Cultural Materiality:
Concepts at stake in Comparative Manuscript
Studies, spring 2014, with Michael Friedrich
(University of Hamburg), Andreas Kaplony
(LMU Munich), Jens Krijgsman (University of
Oxford), Matthias L. Richter (University of
Colorado at Boulder), Michael Segal (HU
Jerusalem), Esther-Miriam Wagner (Univer
sity of Cambridge), Paul Nicholas Vogt
(University of Heidelberg)
International Conference, The Gongsunlongzi
and Other Neglected Texts: Aligning Philo
sophical and Philological Perspectives,
August 2729, 2014, in cooperation with the
Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies
Chinese Studies, University of Zurich
Workshop, Concepts of Concept: Perspectives
across Languages and Disciplines, September
1011, 2014
Research field coordinators: Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne

Thomsen and Prof. Dr. Sven Trakulhun
Processes of cultural exchange and the construction of
cultural boundaries are both shaped by agents and
embedded in particular temporal and spatial contexts.
The notion of entanglement helps us critically to
reflect on national, cultural, territorial, and epochal
boundaries that are at play in encounters between Asia
and Europe. In studying not only constellations and
dynamics of entanglement, but also disentanglement
between interacting groups and individuals, we focus
on networks, space and place, representations in
literature, art and media, and the transfer of knowledge.
Networks
Both individual and collective agency in transcultural
constellations are often embedded in and channeled by
networks that are shaped by institutional structures,
professional tasks, and interpersonal relationships.
Networks not only shape the way in which groups and
individuals interact across cultural, political or language
borders, but are also the results of such interactions. The
research group investigates the emergence of networks
in Eurasian history as well as the role of individual
actors and of professional and institutional parameters.
The focus is on the biographies and travel routes of
ambassadors, translators or missionaries, contact zones,
Eurasian trade and the emergence and structure of
transnational organizations.
Places and Transitions
Space, scale and social practice are essential concepts for
the research projects in this group. Spaces are appro
priated, overcome, andmost importantlyendowed
with meaning. Although scales become increasingly
entangled, through processes of globalization they
remain important ordering principles in everyday life as
well as in research. Social practices shape spaces, places,
and localities, which conversely are reference points for
yet further practices. The everyday actions of Asians
and Europeans are what make geography. This research
group investigates, on the one hand, the way that
landscapes, nature, and the environment are evaluated
and, on the other hand, the social practices related to the
evaluations. It focused on processes of dis/appropriation
Crew members of the documentary Children of Srikandi (created as part of a

PhD project at the URPP Asia and Europe) filming in the streets of Yogyakarta.
of spaces, which are closely related to creating or nego

tiating social and political borders.
Spatial (i.e. migration, tourism) and social mobility
are important factors in overcoming or redrawing
borders and entail the creation of new landscapes, such
as nature parks. For instance, one result of migration
is the emergence of multi-locality. People have to
consider multiple places for their daily life and practices.
All of these issues are connected to processes of glob
alization and, in particular, its increasing speed and
frequency of transportation and communication. The
entanglement of the global and the local leads to new
forms of social and spatial structuration (i.e. glocali
zation).
Narratives, Media and Aesthetics
The research group analyses processes of cultural
exchange as represented in literature, film, art, theatre,
and mass media. The focus is on cultural concepts and
theoretical discourses that inform cross-cultural
interactions between Asian and European artists and
intellectuals. How are these interactions expressed and
translated in different media and in which particular
social environments? How are self-perceptions and selfrepresentations transformed and recreated in these
processes? The spectrum of transformations extends
from acculturation to hybridization and syncretism and
to (self)-exoticization and stereotypes. Often narratives
and constructions of gender and the body are at the
center of these transformations.
10
Portrait of a French woman wearing a kimono (attributed to Auguste Blondel,

17991872) Historical and Ethnological Museum of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Mobile street vendors such as this snack seller in Bangkok are able quickly to
transport their business to their customers.
Our investigations entail exploring the circulation of

theoretical positions and aesthetic theories, such as, for
instance, with respect to landscape painting, the
gothic or women literature. This also calls for ex
ploring Asian-European entanglements with respect to
even more general and theoretically multi-faceted
notions like postmodernism. This means reassessing
the idea that cultural exchange is generally based on
hegemonic relationships and unidirectional influences
by focusing instead on the mutual adaptation of modes
of representation as well as on the resistance against
such intertwinement.
parallel developments in histories of knowledge is

concerned with the circulation of material objects and
substances (mercury, for instance), the techniques of
processing them, and the cultural practices related to
them (for example, cook-shops), as well as with knowl
edge systems that are translated, adapted or rejected.
This kind of study requires dealing with multiple
languages in texts and communication techniques and
in the transformation of material cultures in colonial
and postcolonial contexts alike.
History of Knowledge and Cultures of Knowledge

This research group explores the entanglement of
cultures of knowledge by employing the term history
of knowledge, which allows us to broaden the long
established, Europe-centered, history of science to nonEuropean cultures of knowledge. This move results in
rethinking the conventional comparative approaches
that still have as their point of departure European
historical developments for which Asian examples
supply confirmation. The study of encounters and of
M.Flitsch, A.Kaplony (eds.), Entangled By
Multiple Tongues: The Role of Diaspora in the
Transfer of Culture, Asiatische Studien /
tudes Asiatiques, 65(3), 2011
M.Reichel, H.B.Thomsen (eds.) Kirschblte
& Edelweiss: Der Import des Exotischen,
Baden: Hier + Jetzt, 2014
A.Riemenschnitter, D.L.Madsen (eds.) Dias
poric Histories: Archives of Chinese Trans
nationalism, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univer
sity Press, 2009.
S.Trakulhun, H.Trper (eds.), Biography
Afield in Asia and Europe, Asiatische Studien
/ tudes Asiatiques, 67(4), 2013
B.R.Upreti, U.Mller-Bker (eds.), Liveli
hoods Insecurity and Social Conflict in Nepal,
Kathmandu: NCCR North-South / Heidel
Press, 2010
M.Vitale, Eparchie und Koinon in Kleinasien
von der ausgehenden Republik bis ins 3. Jh. n.
Chr., Bonn: Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, 2012
(Asia Minor Studien, 67)
A.Zangger, Koloniale Schweiz: Ein Stck
Globalgeschichte zwischen Europa und Sd
ostasien (18601930), Bielefeld: Transcript
Verlag, 2011 (18002000: Kulturgeschichten
der Moderne, 8)
Academic Guest
David Howell, Contested Histories of Nine
teenth-Century Japan (research seminar),
December 1620, 2013
Academic Events
Public Lecture Series, Mirrored Histories
Constructions of the Past between Asia and
Europe, Spring 2009, with Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University,
New York), Jrgen Osterhammel (University
of Konstanz), Sven Trakulhun (University of
Zurich), Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of
Chicago), and Kapil Raj (cole des Hautes
tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Workshop, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region and the Chinese State: Multiscalar
Dimensions and Legal Pluralism, June 1213,
2009, in cooperation with the Department
of Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian
Studies
International Conference, Body at Work,
June 2627, 2009, in cooperation with the
Ethnographic Museum of the University of
Zurich
International Workshop, Recalling Historical
Legacies: Ethnography and Ethnology in
China, 19501980, September 13, 2010, in
cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum

of the University of Zurich
International Workshop, Entangled By
Multiple Tongues: The Role of Diaspora in the
Transfer of Culture, Zurich, June 34, 2010
International Conference, Transcultural
Bodies Transboundary Biographies: Border
Crossings in Asia and Europe, New Delhi,
February 2124, 2010, in cooperation with
the Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in
a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in
Cultural Flows, University of Heidelberg,
and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for
the Arts in New Delhi
Public Lecture Series, Euro-Asian Knowledge
scapes. Concepts and Models of Technological
and Scientific Knowledge Transfer, Spring
2011, with Dagmar Schfer (Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science, Berlin),
Dhruv Raina (University of Heidelberg),
Guido Sprenger (University of Heidelberg)
and Pamela Smith (Columbia University,
New York), in cooperation with the research
group Concepts and Modalities: Practical
Knowledge Transmission at the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science
International Workshop, Contact Zones in
Asia and Europe, Zurich, June 1415, 2011
Conference, Global Circulations of Modern
Historical Teleologies Colonial and Post
colonial Perspectives, Budapest, September
89, 2011, in cooperation with the Research
Project Europe 18151914, University of
Helsinki
Exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of
the University of Zurich, Many Layered Bor
neo The Swiss Geologist Wolfgang Leupold
in the Dutch East Indies 19211927: Objects,
Photographs and Documents, March 25
November 27, 2011
International Conference, Yangzhou A
Place in Literature, September 13, 2011, in
cooperation with the Department of Chinese
Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
International Workshop, Ghosts in Asian
Cinemas, Zurich, November 46, 2011, in
cooperation with the Department of Chinese
Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
Graduate Student Workshop, Asian Post
modernities and their Legacies, March 3031,
Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian
Studies
Public Panel Discussion, Maoismen Ideal,
Utopie, Gewalt, Verzerrung, May 11, 2012, in
cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum
Workshop, Mao Mao-Bibel Mao-Fieber:
Maoismen in China und Europa, May 11, 2012,
in cooperation with the Ethnographic
Museum of the University of Zurich
Workshop, Immigrants and Citizens in the

Global City, Mai 21, 2012, with Saskia Sassen
(Columbia University, New York)
International Workshop, Tertium datur: Das
Dritte in der Geschichte, 14501850, June 21
23, 2012, in cooperation with the Department
of History, University of Zurich
International Conference, Transcultural Per
spectives on Late Medieval and Early Modern
Slavery in the Mediterranean, September
1215, 2012, organized by the Department of
History, University of Zurich, in cooperation
with the Free University of Berlin, the URPP
Asia and Europe, and the Swiss Asia Society
Workshop, Biography Afield in Asia and
Europe, September 2021, 2012, in co
operation with the Department of History,
Workshop, Protests, the Media and the Circu
lation of Norms: Arab Spring and Fukushima,
October 26, 2012
Workshop, Mercury in Medicine: Fluid Econo
mies of Knowledge and Trade, February 21
22, 2013
Exhibition, Constructing Qing Imperial Land
scapes: Exhibition of the Yangshi Lei
Architecturial Archives, May 10 June 10,
2013, in cooperation with the History of the
Modern World, ETH Zurich, and the School of
Architecture, Tianjin University
International Symposium, Entangled Land
scapes: Re-thinking the Landscape Exchange
between China and Europe in the 16th18th
Centuries, May 1012, 2013, in cooperation
with the Institute of Art History, Section for
East Asian Art, and the Institute of Asian and
Oriental Studies Chinese Studies, Univer
sity of Zurich.
Conference, The Gender of Authority: Celi
bate and Childless Men in Power: Ruling
Bishops and Ruling Eunuchs, 4001800,
August 2830, 2013, in cooperation with the
Department of History, University of Zurich
Workshop, Sense of Place, Sense of Taste,
Sense of Skill: Hawkers and Cookshops in
Public Spaces of Asian Cities, October 1012,
Geography and the Ethnographic Museum
Conference, 23rd European Conference on
South Asian Studies (ECSAS), July 2326, 2014,
in cooperation with the Department of
Geography and the Institute of Asian and
Oriental Studies Indian Studies of the
Exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of
the University of Zurich, Tokens of the Path
Japanese Devotional and Pilgrimage Images:
The Wilfried Spinner Collection (18541918),
November 28, 2014 May 17, 2015
11
Anti-nuclear protest in Shinjuku,

Tokyo, June 11, 2011
Julia Leser / radioactivists.org
12
Research Field 3: Norms and Social Order(s)
Research Coordination: Prof. Dr. David Chiavacci and

Dr. Yasmine Berriane
On a transnational level, norms and orders offer a basis
on which to communicate about reciprocal contacts and
interactions and to regulate them on levels ranging from
local to global networks of relations. At the same time,
norms and orders are shaped by specific, underlying
cultural concepts as well as by asymmetrical power
relations on local and global scales. Thus, Research
Field3 studies the frameworks of normative beliefs and
ordering systems that are established on various levels
and that support the exchange of ideas, goods, and
persons, along with the global interdependence of
developments and interactions. These investigations
take place in two subgroups representing the main foci
of Research Field 3.
Transnationalization of Norms and Orders
The first subgroup focuses on transnationalization
processes of norms and orders that influence, among
other things, forms of normative regulation and justi
fication. At the same time, these processes are judged
along those selfsame lines, turning into subjects of
political debate and conflict in which a multitude of
stakeholders contribute to shaping and implementing
normative concepts and regulatory mechanisms on
levels both below and above the nation state. Against
the background of past and current interactions and
upheavals in Asian-European relations, this subgroup
focuses on new possible courses of action and oppor
tunities as well as on conflict lines and fragmentations as
they shape and are shaped by normative concepts and
regulatory mechanisms.
So far, several studies of various regional contexts
have investigated these issues within the Research Field.
For example, one project analyzed the potential of the
Commonwealth of Independent States to develop into
an effective multi-level system of regional governance,
while others studied legal, cultural and religious influ
ences on the continuation of the death penalty in
Palestinian territories or investigated the relation of
religion and the modern state near the turn of the 20th
century in Japanese and Islamic contexts. Yet other
studies investigated whether domestic policies and con
ditions in India are consistent with normative stances on
13
Discussion at the Annual Conference of the URPP Asia and Europe Traveling
Norms and the Politics of Contention (October 2426, 2013)
energy poverty in international negotiations or scru

tinized debates on state as opposed to private ownership
of banks through analyzing Chinas and Switzerlands
market economies.
Translocal Circulation of Norms and Ideas
The second subgroup explores the translocal circulation
of norms and ideas from the perspective of the spaces,
praxis, and forms of political protest in Asia and
Europefactors that enable or otherwise bear relevance
to norms and ideas. The discussion centers on the
political arenas, mechanisms and processes of conflict
through which norms and orders are negotiated as
political disputes and gain statuses of (il)legitimacy and
(un)reliability in local or global contexts. We analyze
both semantic shifts emerging from these conflicts and
the forms and technologies of circulation through which
various ideas, norms, and orders from numerous
contexts undergo debate.
Accordingly, a study of the multi-layered controversy
surrounding the construction of a hydroelectric plant in
Nepal contributed to the ongoing scientific discussions
on development and modernity; another study
conducted in post-tsunami Sri Lanka analyzed
humanitarian aid from the perspective of the everyday
practices and dilemmas faced by aid workers and
agencies. Analyzing similarities and differences between
mass mobilization and the related actions and responses
of elite figures in Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand,
14
Members of the Soulaliyate movement protesting for equal rights for men
and women in Rabat, Morocco
A part of a squatter settlement in the outskirts of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
another project further challenged the democratization

literatures narrow focus on the political elite.
pluralization of medical norms and practices in

postcolonial India; state sponsored colonization schemes
in Sri Lanka; the transformation of protest and citizenship
in the context of land privatizations in Morocco; the
anti-nuclear movement and its media coverage after the
Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan; current debates
on gender equality and their impact on the Tunisian
Nahda Movement; and the reformulation in Egypt of
the national consensus around security issues after 2011.
Achievements so Far
Since 2006, the work of these two groups has led to
several publications, workshops and conferences, such
as the 2013 URPP annual conference organized by
Research Field 3 with the theme Traveling Norms and
the Politics of Contention. This international event
gathered URPP researchers and internationally recog
nized specialists working on three empirical spaces of
contentious politics: the Arab Spring, anti-nuclear move
ments, and protests against special economic zones. The
speakers and participants looked into the actors,
mechanisms and processes through which different
norms and ideas (e.g. citizenship, equality, security,
human rights, etc.) are negotiated in spaces of contentious
politics. They discussed how norms and ideas travel
from and to different contexts and analyzed both what
happens to them when they travel and how they gain or
fail to gain legitimacy and credibility in specific settings.
Projects Ahead
The current and prospective projects of Research Field 3
will be set at the intersection of the two previous thematic
foci: Transnationalization of Norms and Orders and
Social Protest and Political Conflict in Transnational
Contexts. This time, they will focus specifically on
social movements, processes of territorialization, norms
of the body, and social change. Thus, we will explore the
C.Chammartin, State-owned Banks: A Com
parative Analysis of State-owned Banks in
China and in Switzerland, Zrich: Schulthess,
2010 (Zrcher Studien zum Privatrecht, 223)
B.Dennerlein, E.Frietsch, T.Steffen (eds.),
Verschleierter Orient Entschleierter Ok
zident? (Un)Sichtbarkeit in Politik, Recht,
Kunst und Kultur seit dem 19. Jahrhundert,
Paderborn: Fink, 2012
B.Korf, T.Raeymaekers (eds.), Violence on
the Margins: States, Conflict, and Borderlands,
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
D.Linggi, Vertrauen in China: Ein kritischer
Bei
trag zur kulturvergleichenden Sozial
for
schung, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2011
D.Lddeckens, C.Uehlinger, R.Walthert (eds.),
Die Sichtbarkeit religiser Identitt: Reprsen
tation Differenz Konflikt, Zrich: Pano, 2013
(CULTuREL, 4)
E.Manea, The Arab State and Womens
Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance,
Oxford: Routledge, 2011 (Routledge Studies
in Middle Eastern Politics)
S.Randeria (ed.), Border Crossings: Grenz
verschiebungen und Grenzberschreitungen
in einer globalisierten Welt, Zrich: vdf
Hochschulverlag, 2013 (Zrcher Hochschul
forum, 42)
Academic Guest
Jakob De Roover, Concept Mapping (Work
shop), November 1 & 21, 2011
Academic Events
Public Lecture Series, Border Crossings,
Spring 2007, with Johannes Jtting (OECD
Development Centre, Paris), Judith Schlehe
(Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg im
Breisgau), Johann Arnason (University of
Latrobe, Australia), Werner Menski (School
of Oriental and African Studies, London),
Sadiq Jalal al-Azm (University of Damascus,
Syria), and others, in cooperation with
Kommission Interdisziplinre Veranstaltun
gen (KIV) of the University of Zurich
Public Lecture Series, Governance and
Development, Autumn 2009, with Arjun
Singh Bedi (Institute of Social Studies, The
Hague), Helen Siu (Yale University), and
Ummu Salma Bava (Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi)
Public Panel Discussion, After the Ban on

Minarets: Open Society and Islam, November
17, 2010, with Giuliano Amato (Luiss
University, Rome, former Italian prime
minister), Katajun Amirpur (University of
Zurich), Nilfer Gle (cole des hautes
tudes en sciences sociales, Paris), Reinhard
Schulze (Universitt Bern), Rosemarie Zapfl
(Prsidentin alliance F Bund Schweizeri
scher Frauenorganisationen, former mem
ber of the Swiss National Council and the
Council of Europe), in cooperation with
Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations, Rome
Public Lecture Series, Farewell to Seculari
zation?, Autumn 2010, with Otto Kallscheuer
(Universit degli Studi di Sassari), Wang Hui
(Tsinghua University, Beijing), and Amnon
Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben Gurion University of the
Negev)
International Conference, Veiled Orient
Unveiled Occident? Stagings in Politics, Law,
Art, and Culture since the 19th Century, June
35, 2010, in cooperation with the Gender
Studies of the University of Zurich
Public Panel Discussion, Revolution in the
Arab World?, March 28, 2011, with Reinhard
Schulze (University of Bern), Sarah Farag
(University of Zurich), Isabelle Werenfels
(German Institute for International and
Security Affairs, Berlin), Bettina Dennerlein
(University of Zurich)
Workshop with Rajeef Bhargava (Centre for
the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi),
Travelling Values: Secularism in India, April
18, 2011
Workshop, Media and Politics in Asia and
Europe, with a public panel discussion on
Democracy and New Media, April 19, 2011, in
cooperation with the Institute of Mass
Communication and Media Research (IPMZ)
of the University of Zurich and the Centre for
Culture Media and Governance (CCMG)
Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi
International Conference, Islamic Thinking
in Honor of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, June 27
28, 2011, in cooperation with the Institute for
Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen
Public Lecture Series, Circulating Norms
Human Rights, Spring 2012, with Susanne
Baer (Humboldt University of Berlin), Nikita
Dhawan (University of Frankfurt), and Deniz
Kandyioti (School of African and Oriental
Studies, London)
Public Panel Discussion, Ein Jahr nach
Fukushima Die Debatte zu Atomenergie in
Asien und Europa, March 13, 2012, with David
Chiavacci (University of Zurich), Simona
Grano (University of Zurich), Patrick Kupper
(ETH Zrich), and Fabian Schfer (University
of Zurich)
Conference, Entdifferenzierungen? Religion

und Medizin, May 1112, 2012, in cooperation
with the Department for the Study of
Religions, University of Zurich
Workshop, Protests, the Media and the
Circulation of Norms: Arab Spring and
Fukushima, October 26, 2012
Graduate Students Workshop, Political Pro
tests, Social (Non-) Movements and the Role
of Digital Media, April 2425, 2013
Workshop, Intersectionality Revisited, May 5,
2013, in cooperation with the Institute of
Asian and Oriental Studies Gender Studies
and the Ethnographic Museum of the
Film Screening, Iran and the Green Revolu
tion, October 24, 2013, with Katajun Amirpur
(University of Hamburg) and Ali Samadi
Ahadi (filmmaker)
Symposium, Sterbehilfe und Suizidbeihilfe:
Japan, Deutschland und die Schweiz in
vergleichender Perspektive, November 28,
2013, in cooperation with the Faculty of Law,
the Center for Medicine Ethics Law
Helvetiae, and the Institute of Asian and
Oriental Studies Japanese Studies
Workshop, Gendering Citizenship, September
10, 2014, with Suad Joseph (University of
California, Davis), in cooperation with the
Gender Studies of the University of Zurich,
and the Swiss Society for Gender Studies
(SGGF/SSEG)
Workshop, Social Movements in Theory and
Practice: Concepts and Experiences from
Different Regional Contexts, October 2425,
2014, in cooperation with the Center for
African Studies, University of Basel
Doctoral Workshop, Civil Society in Japan,
November 25, 2014, with Robert Pekkanen
(University of Washington, Seattle), in
cooperation with the Institute of Asian and
Oriental Studies Japanese Studies, Univer
sity of Zurich
15
Research Projects and Annual Conferences
Research Projects
Research Field 1: Concepts and Taxonomies
Monika Amsler (Religious Studies), Concepts
of Sickness, Prevention and Health in the
Babylonian Talmud, PhD Project
evket Ate (Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies), Philosophy in the Turkish Republic:
Processes of Philosophical Reception in the
Context of Cultural Transformation, PhD
Project
16
Elisa Ganser (Indian Studies), The Place of Art

in Indian Religious Thought: On the
Soteriological Value of Acting, Singing and
Dancing in Abhinavaguptas Work and
Beyond, Postdoc Project
Philipp Hetmanczyk (Religious Studies),
Economic Classification and the Formation of
Modern Concepts of Religion: The Example of
Burial Practice in China between Waste and
Economic Reason, PhD Project
Thomas Hllein (Japanese Studies), The
Normative Effect of the Health Concept on
Bioethical Expert Debates and Legal
Initiatives in Japan, PhD Project
Lisa Indraccolo (Chinese Studies), Debate
Arena: Argumentation and Persuasion in
Warring States Philosophical Discourse,
Postdoc Project
Elena Lange (Japanese Studies), The Over
coming of the Subject: Nishida Kitars
(1870-1945) Way to Ideology,
Faculty of Arts, PhD 2011
Phillip Lasater (Theology), The Facets of Fear:
Fear of the Divine in the Hebrew Bible and the
Ancient Near East, PhD Project
Polina Lukicheva (Chinese Studies), The Con
cepts of Space and Methods of Composition
in the Chinese Literati Theories of Art in the
Seventeenth Century, PhD project
Christoph Mittmann (Japanese Studies),
Yamagata Bants Yume no shiro: An
Attempt to Reorganize the Knowledge
Available to Japan, PhD Project
Ralf Mller (Japanese Studies), Zen and
Japanese Philosophy: Dgens Importance to
the Kyto School, Postdoc Project
Simone Mller (Japanese Studies), Torn Con
sciousness: Repetition and Difference in the
Intellectual Discourse of Inter- and Postwar
Japan, Faculty of Arts, Habilitation 2012
Roman Seidel (Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies), The Reception of Kantian Philosophy
in Iran: Its Origins and Significance, Faculty
of Arts, PhD 2012
Olga Serbaeva Saraogi (Indian Studies),
Translating the Non-Evident: Altered States
of Consciousness in Vidyapitha Tantras and
in Western Transcreations of Tantrism,
Postdoc Project
Viatcheslav Vetrov (Chinese Studies), Re

incarnated Conceptuality: The Other Life of
Western Philosophy in the Work of Hu Shi
(18911962) and Qian Zhongshu
(19101998), Postdoc Project
Rohit Jain (Social and Cultural Anthropology),

Between Assimilation, Exoticism and Global
Indian Modernity: Transnational Subjec
tivities of Second Generation Indians from
Switzerland, Faculty of Arts, PhD 2014
Paola von Wyss-Giacosa (Social and Cultural

Anthropology), Pictorial Ethnography of
Religion in European Publications on Asia,
Postdoc Project
Rita Krajnc (Indian Studies), Indianness in the

Hindi novel Cittkobr by Mdul Garg: The
Main Female Character between Western
and Indian Role Model, PhD Project
James Weaver (Islamic and Middle Eastern

Studies), Organising Disagreement in the
Long Ninth Century: On the Use of the Term
itilf in the Abbsid Period, Postdoc
Project
Jrg Lanckau (Theology), Constructions and

Transformations of Judaism in the Hellenistic
Period, Postdoc Project
Ralph Weber (Philosophy), Constructions of

Political Modernity in Contemporary Chinese
Political Thought, Postdoc Project
Ralph Weber (Philosophy), Tertium com
parationis? Comparative Philosophy and the
Philosophy of Comparison, Postdoc Project
Eric Alms (Geography), A Political Ecology of
Nature Conservation and Sustainable Tourism
in Chinese Conservation Areas, PhD Project
Natalie Bhler (Film Studies), Made in Thai
land: Thainess, Performance and Narration in
Contemporary Thai Cinema, Faculty of Arts,
PhD 2010
Sofia Bollo (East Asian Art History), Chinese
Cultures on Display: A Comparative Study on
Chinese and European Oriental Art Museums
and their Narratives on the Origin of Chinese
Civilisation, PhD Project
Samir Boulos (Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies), European-Protestant Missionary
Institutions in Egypt: Locations of Cultural
Entanglement (19001956), Faculty of Arts,
PhD 2012
Laura Coppens (Social and Cultural Anthro
pology), Film Activism in Contemporary
Indonesia: Queer Autoethnography, Film
Festival Politics, and the Subversion of
Heteronormativity, Faculty of Arts, PhD 2014
Tobias Delfs (History), Lifeworlds of Protes
tant Missionaries in India (17701813), PhD
Project
Jeanne Egloff (East Asian Art History), Kindai
bijutsu: The Reception of Western Concepts of
Art in Japan around the Year 1900, PhD
Project
Alfred Hirt (History), The Cultural Trans
formation of Phoenicia, 1000 BC AD 500,
Postdoc Project
Justyna Jagucik (Chinese Studies), Literary
Body Discourses: Corporeality, Gender and
Class Difference in Contemporary Chinese
Womens Poetry and Fiction, Faculty of Arts,
PhD 2014
Virginia Yee-Yarn Leung (Chinese Studies),

Coming of Age in Hong Kong: A Study of a
Colonial Literary Field in the 1950s, PhD
Project
Nathalie Marseglia (Social and Cultural
Anthropology), Living National Treasures
Hegemonic Discourse and Practical Knowl
edge: An Ethnographic Study of Cultural
Politics and Pottery in Japan and France, PhD
Project
Urs Mller (Geography), Overcoming the
Nature-Culture Dualism? Notions of Nature
and Nature Protection in Model Regions for
Integrated Nature Conservation, Postdoc
Project
Claudia Nef-Saluz (Social and Cultural An
thropology), Living for the Caliphate: Hizbut
Tahrir Student Activism in Indonesia, Faculty
of Arts, PhD 2012
Henning Sievert (Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies), Imperial Reign in Libya: Processes of
Negotiating Local and Translocal Acteurs in
Osmanic and Italian Contexts (18701930),
Postdoc Project
Anusooya Sivaganesan (Legal Studies),
Forced to Marry A Human Rights Violation
within its Euro-Asian Entanglements: Unfree
Marriages from a Multi-Country Perspective
Exemplified by Switzerland, Great Britain,
Holland, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, PhD
Project
Sven Trakulhun (History), Asian Revolutions:
Conceptions of Political Change in the Orient,
16441818, Faculty of Arts, Habilitation 2012
(University of Konstanz)
Henning Trper (History), The Grammar of
Modernity: Inquiries into the History of 19th
and Early 20th Century Oriental Philology,
Postdoc Project
Marco Vitale (History), Eparchy and Koinon in
Asia Minor from the End of the Republic to
the Third Century A.D., Faculty of Arts, PhD
2010
Miriam Wenner (Geography), Contested
Spaces: Gorkhaland and the Making of New
Geographies of Darjeeling, PhD Project
Helena Wu (Chinese Studies), (Re-)Configu
rations of Place, Person and Thing in Hong
Kong Cinema and Literature after the Millen
nium, PhD Project
Dagmar Wujastyk (Indian Studies), When the

Vaidya Met the Doctor: Medical Exchanges in
17th19th Century India and the Reimagining of
a Great Medical Tradition, Postdoc Project
Andreas Zangger (History), Koloniale Schweiz:
Ein Stck Globalgeschichte zwischen Europa
und Sdostasien (18601930) , Faculty of Arts,
PhD 2010
Dinah Zank (East Asian Art History), Divine
Mothers Across Borders of National Identities:
Japanese-Indian Artistic Exchanges in Early
Twentieth-Century Buddhist Paintings and
the Reception of the British Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhoods Concept of Spirituality and
Sensitivity, PhD Project
Yue Zhuang (Marie Curie Fellow in Archi
tectural History), Matteo Ripas Views of
Jehol: Entangled Histories of 18th Century
European and Chinese Landscape Represen
tations, Postdoc Project
Research Field 3: Norms and Social Order(s)
Motaz Alnaouq (Legal Studies), The Right to
Life in the Palestinian Society: The Case of the
Death Penalty from Comparative Human
Rights Perspective, PhD Project
Amir Hamid (Islamic and Middle Eastern

Studies), On Bodies, Books and Hypertext:
Mediating Islamic Norms of Gender and
Religious Violence in the Transnational Arab
Public Sphere, PhD Project
Pia Hollenbach (Geography), The Paradox of
Good Intentions: The Biography of Private
Giving in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka, Faculty of
Science, PhD 2014
Zhanna Hrdegen (Legal Studies), Legal and
Political Integration in the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS), Postdoc Project
Sandra Hotz (Legal Studies), Immorality and
Private Autonomy in Contract Law: A
Comparative Research Project to Balance
Freedom of Contract and Control in Europe
and Japan Exemplified by Contracts Re
garding Prostitution, Surrogate Motherhood
and Marriage, Postdoc Project
Eliza Isabaeva (Social and Cultural An
thropology), Social Citizenship from Below
and the Making of State in Kyrgyzstan:
Migrants Making a Living in the Squatter
Settlements of Bishkek, PhD Project
Thiruni Kelegama (Geography), Contested
Spaces: An Examination of State Sponsored
Colonisation Schemes in Sri Lanka, PhD Project
Katajun Amirpur (Islamic and Middle Eastern

Studies), Civil Society in Iran, Postdoc Project
Aliya Khawari (Political Science), The Political

Economy of Microfinance, PhD Project
David Arn (Islamic and Middle Eastern

Studies), From Crime to Illness: Shifts in the
Iranian Press Discourse on Drugs (1995
2000), Faculty of Arts, PhD 2010
Nikolas Kosmatopoulos (Social and Cultural

Anthropology), Pacifying Lebanon: Violence,
Power and Expertise in the Middle East,
Faculty of Arts, PhD 2012
Anne-Sophie Bentz (Political Science), Indias

Refugee Policies, Postdoc Project
Dominik Linggi (Sociology), Trust in Chinese

Society: A Critical Contribution to Crosscultural Social Research, Faculty of Arts, PhD
2010
Yasmine Berriane (Political Sociology), Col

lective Lands, Political Change and Protest in
Morocco: Transformations of Collective
Actions, Citizenship and Gender Relations,
Postdoc Project
Christine Bichsel (Geography), From Socialist
Pasts to Developmentalist Futures: European
and Chinese Development Schemes for
Central Asia, Postdoc Project
Ulrich Brandenburg (Islamic and Middle
Eastern Studies), Japan and Islam 18901914:
Between Global Communication and PanAsiatic Movement, PhD Project
Rasmus Brandt (Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies), Islam, Pluralization and Gender: The
Tunisian Movement an-Nahda, PhD Project
Patrick Brozzo (Legal Studies), Marriage in
Islamic and Jewish Law: A Contribution to the
Inclusion of Cultural Diversity into Family
Law, PhD Project
Catherine Chammartin (Legal Studies), StateOwned Banks: A Comparative Analysis of
State-Owned Banks in China and Switzerland,
Faculty of Law, PhD 2009
Ayaka Lschke (Japanese Studies), The

Mothers Network National Network of
Parents to Protect Children From Radiation:
A Social Movement after the Nuclear Reactor
Accident of Fukushima, PhD Project
Linda Maduz (Political Science), Social
Protest and Political Change: Evidence from
(South-) East Asias Newly Democratized
States, PhD Project
Elham Manea (Political Science), The Arab
State and Womens Rights: The Trap of the
Transitional State, Habilitation at the Faculty
of Arts, 2010
Nina Rageth (Religious Studies), Medical
Pluralism in Contemporary South India:
Religion, Tradition and Competing Medical
Systems, PhD Project
Matthus Rest (Social and Cultural An
thropology), Water Power: Discourses on
Modernity and Development around the
Nepalese Arun-3 Hydropower Project, Faculty
of Arts, PhD 2014
Meltem Sancak (Social and Cultural Anthro

pology), Economic Transformation, Social
Change, and Surviving Strategies in PostSoviet Rural Uzbekistan, PhD Project
Vijay Singh (Legal Studies), Developments in
Indian Copyright, PhD Project
Dilyara Suleymanova (Social and Cultural
Anthropology), Schooling the Sense of
Belonging: Identity Politics and Educational
Change in Post-Soviet Tatarstan, Faculty of
Arts, PhD 2013
Tobias Weiss (Japanese Studies), Media and
Nuclear Power in Japan: Tricksters, Lapdogs
and Agenda Setters, PhD Project
Annual Conferences
URPP Annual International Conference,
Varieties of Modernity? Possibilities and Limi
tations of a Research Perspective on Asia and
Europe, Zurich, September 810, 2009
What is Philosophy?, including sections on
philosophy in the Islamic world, philosophy
in India, philosophy in China, and philosophy
in Japan, January 1316, 2011
Concepts of Religion between Asia and
Europe, November 13, 2012, in cooperation
with Schweizerische Gesellschaft fr Reli
gionswissenschaft SGR/SSSR
URPP Annual International Conference, Trav
eling Norms and the Politics of Contention,
October 2426, 2013
URPP Annual International Conference, Asia
and Europe in Translation: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives, November 68, 2014
17
18
Members of the URPP Asia and Europe at the annual retreat in Vitznau (June 24, 2014).
Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program Asia and Europe
The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program Asia and

Europe provides highly qualified young academics
with a vibrant environment in which to pursue a doctoral
degree in an interdisciplinary context. The PhD students
are integrated into the research structure of the URPP
Asia and Europe and focus on research questions within
the framework of three research fields: 1) Concepts and
Taxonomies; 2) Entangled Histories; and 3) Norms and
Orders.
The program offers:
ample opportunities to enter into contact with
professors and peers from a variety of academic
backgrounds
interdisciplinary workshops and courses dealing
with theoretical and methodological questions
discipline-specific doctoral level study in ones
own field through access to colloquia, seminars,
workshops, and conferences
development of transferable skills, including
presentation techniques, academic writing, and
more
intensive mentoring by interdisciplinary and
international doctoral committees
The languages of the program are German and English.
Non-English speakers are expected to acquire the
necessary German language skills in due course of time
and are supported by the URPP in these efforts. Currently
fourteen PhD students from eight countries participate
in the program.
A URPP Asia and Europe compulsory modules

(10 ECTS)
regular URPP colloquium
thematic work groups
individual colloquium presentations
B Core elective modules I: interdisciplinary

modules offered by the URPP Asia and Europe
(8 ECTS)
interdisciplinary research seminars
URPP Asia and Europe research retreat
workshops in transferable skills
scientific management (e.g. conference or
ganization)
C Core elective modules II: discipline-specific

courses (8 ECTS)
disciplinary research seminar/colloquium
participation at a conference with paper
presentation
publication of an article in a scientific
journal
teaching of a course
D Elective modules (4 ECTS)

Curriculum
The writing of a doctoral thesis based on original
research forms the core of the doctoral program. The
research is accompanied by a variety of courses aimed at
strengthening participants methodological and theo
retical knowledge as well as at the acquisition of
transferable skills. Doctoral candidates in the program
must earn a minimum of 30 credits in accordance with
the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Credits
can be acquired in the following areas:
Application
Detailed information about the deadlines and application
procedures may be found on our webpage:
www.asienundeuropa.uzh.ch
Contact
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Behr, Director Interdisciplinary Doctoral
Program Asia and Europe
PD Dr. Simone Mller, Executive Manager URPP Asia and
Europe
19
Participating Professors and Departments
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Katajun Amirpur
Modern Islamic World with Focus on Iran
URPP Asia and Europe
20102011
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Behr
Chinese Studies / Traditional China
Since 2008
Prof. em. Dr. Helmut Brinker
East Asian Art History
Institute of Art History
20062012, Professor Emeritus since 2006
20
Prof. Dr. David Chiavacci

Mercator Professor in Social Science of Japan
Since 2010
Prof. Dr. Bettina Dennerlein
Gender Studies and Islamic Studies
Since 2009
Prof. Dr. Annuska Derks
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Since 2014
Prof. Dr. Peter Finke
Since 2006
Prof. em. Dr. Jrg Fisch
Modern History
Department of History
Since 2006, Professor Emeritus since 2012
Prof. Dr. Mareile Flitsch
Ethnographic Museum
Since 2008
Prof. em. Dr. Robert Gassmann

Chinese Studies / Language and Literature of
Ancient China
Prof. Dr. Francine Giese
Art History
Since 2014
Prof. Dr. Almut Hfert
Transcultural History of the Latin and
Arabic Middle Ages
Since 2012
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplony
Islamic Studies
20062011, Research Associate since 2011
Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar
Indian Studies
Since 2009
Prof. Dr. Christian Marek
Ancient History
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Katharina Michaelowa
Political Economy and Development
Department of Political Science
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Johannes Quack
Since 2014
Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria
Prof. Dr. Andrea Riemenschnitter

Chinese Studies / Modern China
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Markus Ritter
Islamic Art History
20102012
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Rudolph
Islamic Studies
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Dieter Ruloff
Political Science
Department of Political Science
20062010
Prof. em. Dr. Peter Schreiner
Indian Studies
Prof. Dr. Raji C. Steineck
Japanese Studies
Since 2008
Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne Thomsen
East Asian Art History
Since 2007
Prof. Dr. Sven Trakulhun
Modern History of Asia
Prof. Dr. Sandro Zanetti
Comparative Literature
Department of Comparative Literature
Since 2011
Faculty of Theology
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Science
Prof. Dr. Dorothea Lddeckens

Religious Studies
Institute of Religious Studies
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Andrea Bchler

Private and Comparative Law
Institute of Law
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Norman Backhaus

Human Geography
Department of Geography
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati

Religious Studies
20062008
Prof. Dr. Helen Keller

Public Law, European and Public Inter
national Law
Institute of Law
20082010
Prof. Dr. Benedikt Korf

Political Geography
Since 2007
Prof. Dr. Konrad Schmid

Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism
Institute of Theology
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Christoph Uehlinger
History of Religions / Comparative Religion
Since 2006
Prof. Dr. Matthias Mahlmann

Legal Theory, Legal Sociology, and
International Public Law
Institute of Law
Since 2010
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Mller-Bker

Human Geography
Since 2006
Academic Directors
Executive Managers
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Rudolph (January 2006 December 2007)

Prof. Dr. Andrea Bchler and Prof. Dr. Christoph Uehlinger (January 2008 July 2010)
Prof. Dr. Andrea Riemenschnitter (August 2010 December 2012)
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Behr and Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar (January 2013 December 2014)
Prof. Dr. David Chiavacci and Prof. Dr. Mareile Flitsch (beginning in 2015)
Dr. Inge Ammering (20062013)

PD Dr. Simone Mller (since 2014)
Organizational Structure
Executive Board of
the University
Faculties
(Arts and Social Sciences,
Theology, Law, Science)
Advisory Board
Steering Committee
Academic Director
Executive
Manager
Speaker
Research Field 1
Speaker
Research Field 2
Director
PhD Program
Asia and Europe

Doctoral Program Study
Committee
Head Office
Assembly of the
Participating Professors
Speaker
Research Field 3
21
Research Partners
Cluster of Excellence Asia and Europe in a Global

Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows at
Heidelberg University
Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations, Rome
Cluster of Excellence The Formation of Normative

Orders at Frankfurt University
The Research Project Europe 18151914, University of

Helsinki, financed by the European Research Council,
September 2009 August 2013
Swiss Asia Society
Kte Hamburger Collegium Dynamics in the History

of Religions between Asia and Europe, Ruhr-Universitt
Bochum
Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research

(IPMZ) of the University of Zurich
Taiwan Studies Center (TSC), National Chengchi

University, Taipei
Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Legal Studies

(CIMELS), University of Zurich
Centre for African Studies Basel (CASB), University of

Basel
Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS),

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and
the University of Zurich
22
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen

International Center for Chinese and Comparative
Philosophy, Renmin University of China, Beijing
Chair of History of the Modern World, Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
Centre for Human Rights Studies, University of Zurich
Interdisciplinary Department of European Studies,

Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Research Group Concepts and Modalities: Practical
Knowledge Transmission at the Max Planck Institute
for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany
Kommission UZH Interdisziplinr , University of Zurich
22
Hangzhou seal artist, calligrapher, painter and

musician Lu Dadong has created a seal stone
especially for the URPP Asia and Europe. Modeled
after a Han-era stone ball with 16 surfaces
suitable for engraving, the artist has managed to
carve our motto in 11 different European and Asian
languages and scripts into a Changhua stone
without having to alter its natural form more than
necessary. The modern Chinese term for an object
is dongxi, literally east-west. Our dongxi conveys
this double meaning and at the same time
translates the term into the different languages of
the URPP, generating both a loss of and a gain in
meaning.
24
Wiesenstrasse 7/9
CH-8008 Zurich
Phone: +41 44 634 49 83
www.asienundeuropa.uzh.ch

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University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

University Research Priority Program (URPP)

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Research Field 3: Norms and

Research Projects and

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program

Participating Professors and

The annual publication Asia & Europe Bulletin

Asia & Europe Bulletin 1/2012

Asia & Europe Bulletin 2/2013

p. 4: The Trustees of the Chester Beatty

p. 8 and 9: Children of Srikandi Collective

p. 6 left: Facsimile Edition from the Institute for

Prof. Dr. Angelika Malinar, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang

p. 10 left: Historical and Ethnological Museum

English Language Editor

p. 12: Julia Leser / radioactivists.org

Phillip Lasater, M.Div.

Exchanges and Encounters

p. 10 right: Norman Backhaus

Asia & Europe Bulletin 3/2014

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Dear colleagues and interested readers,

Exchanges and Encounters

research fields. Our annual international conferences

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Mughal emperor Akbar in the midst of a theological

The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Research Field 1: Concepts and Taxonomies

Research field coordinators: Prof. Dr. Christoph

Exchanges and Encounters

other and with regard to the underlying concepts of

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

An excerpt from Mou Zongsans Fourteen Lectures on the Convergence of

perspective. Special attention is given to questions of the

research and to critically pursue the possibilities of

Law and Order

Exchanges and Encounters

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

R.Gassmann, E.Lange, A.Malinar, U.Rudolph,

Junichi Isomae, Location of Reason: Subjec

T.It, S.Mller, R.Rehm (eds.), Wort-BildAssimi

Exchanges and Encounters

David Mervart, A Sketch Map of a Eurasian

Public Lecture Series, Concepts of Religion in

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Exchanges and Encounters

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Research Field 2: Entangled Histories

Research field coordinators: Prof. Dr. Hans Bjarne

Exchanges and Encounters

Crew members of the documentary Children of Srikandi (created as part of a

of spaces, which are closely related to creating or nego

University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe

Portrait of a French woman wearing a kimono (attributed to Auguste Blondel,

Our investigations entail exploring the circulation of

parallel developments in histories of knowledge is

History of Knowledge and Cultures of Knowledge