The Centre for Area Studies (CAS), founded in 2009, is an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research institute at the University of Leipzig that places a special emphasis on the academic collaboration between area studies and other disciplines in social sciences and humanities. The current research programme for the study period 2010-2013 promotes projects under the theme "Cultural Encounters and Political Orders in a Global Age", which is financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) by the initiative "Strengthening Area Studies in Germany", with additional funding from the German Research Council (DFG).