Welcome
Claus Altmayer
(U Leipzig, Germany)

Address

Area Studies and Globalization: Connections, Challenges and Reflections

Matthias Middell

(U Leipzig, Germany)

18:45 – 20:00

Opening Lecture
The Purposes of Area Studies: History and Future Prospects
David Engerman
(Brandeis U, USA)

20:00

Reception

Peculiar Encounters with the “Black Continent”:
Soviet Africanists in the Global 1960s and the Expansion of the Discipline
Steffi Marung (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: David Engerman (Brandeis U, USA)

Chair: Ulf Engel (U Leipzig, Germany)

Coffee break

Panel 2
10:30 – 12:30

Standardizing Islamic Finance:
Questioning Traditional Concepts of the Orient
Martin Heckel (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Hans-Georg Ebert (U Leipzig, Germany)

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Sacred Spaces Reloaded: New Trends in Buddhism and Shintō in Japan
Elisabetta Porcu (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Paul Watt (Waseda U, Japan)

Chair: Philip Clart (U Leipzig, Germany)

12:30 – 14:00

Lunch break

Panel 3
14:00 – 15:00

State Failure or State Formation?
An African Perspective on Mexico’s “New Violence”
Markus Michael Müller (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Marianne Braig (FU Berlin, Germany)

Chair: Michael Riekenberg (U Leipzig, Germany)

15:00 – 15:30

Coffee break

Panel 4
15:30 – 16:30

“Turning the Tables” on International Financial Institutions:
Considering the Global South’s Influence on Change and Continuity
Kristin Seffer (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Matthias Dembinski (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Germany)

Chair: Heidrun Zinecker (U Leipzig, Germany)

19:00

Dinner by invitation

Unsettling Paradigms:
War in the Balkans, Refugees and the Forgotten Spaces of Change
Isa Blumi (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Fikret Adanir (Sabanci U, Turkey)

Chair: Matthias Middell (U Leipzig, Germany)

Coffee break

Panel 6
10:30 – 12:30

Culture as a Resource for Development?
Critical Perspectives from Contemporary Dance in Burkina Faso
Nadine Sieveking (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: David Simo (U Yaoundé, Cameroon)

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Ex-Centring the Global:
Impressions of Liminality and Interconnectedness at Lake Tanganyika, c. 1850-2000
Geert Castryck (U Leipzig, Germany)

Commentator: Achim von Oppen (U Bayreuth, Germany)

Chair: Adam Jones (U Leipzig, Germany)

12:30 – 14:00

Lunch break

Panel 7
14:00 – 15:00

The New Rush for Food Security:
Globalized Arenas of Investments in Land and Water
Sarah Ruth Sippel (U Leipzig, Germany) & Birgit Kemmerling (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany)

Commentator: Karin Frank (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany)

Chair: Jörg Gertel (U Leipzig, Germany)

15:00 – 15:30

Coffee break

Podium
Discussion
15:30 – 17:30

New Area Studies: A University of Leipzig Perspective?

Discussants:
Rose Marie Beck  (U Leipzig, Germany)
Ulf Engel  (U Leipzig, Germany)
Hennie Kotzé (U Stellenbosch, South Africa)
Ursula Rao (U Leipzig, Germany)
Dominic Sachsenmaier (Jacobs U, Germany)
Ute Wardenga (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Germany)

Moderator: Matthias Middell (U Leipzig, Germany)