Archive

Exhibition and Symposium on "Motherland: Pushpamala N.’s Woman and Nation"

As part of the 60th anniversary of the South Asia Institute, the exhibition "Motherland: Pushpamala N.’s Woman and Nation" and an accompanying symposium will take place from May 28th till July 31st, 2022 at the Völkerkundemuseum, Heidelberg (VPST).The exhibition was curated by Monica Juneja (HCTS) and Sumathi Ramaswamy (Duke University) in collaboration with Robert Bitsch (VPST). You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition and reception on Friday, May 27, starting at 18:00. A guided walk through the show with the artist will be part of the event. A day-long symposium of scholars discussing this body of work from different disciplinary perspectives will take place on Saturday, May 28, from 9:00 to 18:45, also at the Völkerkundemuseum (VPST). Please register for the symposium using the following e-mail: info@vkm-vpst.de. [read more]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced governments around the world to take a stand, including in countries studied at CATS. Among the more remarkable reactions that were picked up by media worldwide are the refusals of the People’s Republic of China and India to condemn Russia before the United Nations. CATS researchers recommend the following online pieces for further background to different Asian nations’ reactios to the war in Ukraine:

• On China, the website Echowall run by CATS’s Anja Senz, a new article gives an insight into how the war is differently perceived in the People’s Republic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
• An analysis in The Wire India explains the military-diplomatic consequences for the India–China rivalry of U.S.-led economic sanctions against Russia, India’s main weapons supplier.
• The magazine Foreign Policy analyzes how Putin’s invasion has led to a radical turnabout of Japan’s foreign policy within a matter of days, somewhat resembling the swift policy shifts in Germany.
• In addition, the chair for Eastern European History at Heidelberg University has collected useful information on its website on the background of the war, focusing on how history is being used by Putin in his attempts to legitimize the invasion.

New 4EU+ joint course: Culture, Democracy, International Affairs through the lens of Area Studies

Jointly offered by four universities ( the University of Heidelberg, the University of Warsaw, the University of Heidelberg, the University of Milan and Charles University, Prague), this course aims to provide students with an inter-disciplinary and comparative understanding of different regions of the world and of current problems affecting them. It draws on the diverse multidisciplinary expertise of four European universities, but focuses especially on cultural, International Relations and historical perspectives. The course will equip students with the conceptual and analytical tools to analyse events and dynamics of a global nature, while at the same time drawing upon a series of very concrete case studies. More details are here.

CATSFORUM reinvigorated

In the coming semesters the CATSFORUM is reinvigorated as to give all CATS researchers the opportunity to discuss research questions. In the CATSFORUM the CATS community shall come together in a bottom-up and interactive way in order to present existing research projects, individual research foci, or even initial research ideas and sketches that are still in development. Presentations could be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 15 minutes, followed by a brief discussion. The CATSFORUM is designed as a 3-hour event, which also offers the opportunity for individual discussions during the coffee and catering breaks. The next two dates for the CATSFORUM have been fixed. They are Friday, 24 June (summer semester 2022), 15-18h and Friday, 20 January (winter semester 2022/23), 10-13h in each case.

Inaugural Issue of CATSarena online

The inaugural issue of CATSarena, the newsletter of the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), is now online. It is focused on the topic of social distancing in Asia.As the two founding directors of CATS, Axel Michaels and Barbara Mittler, with the help of two generous designers, Susann Henker and Jennifer Landes, have served as editors for this inaugural issue of CATSarena. [Read more] | [Subscribe] | [Read the inaugural issue]

Awarding of the Karl-Jaspers-Prize

Invitation of the Awarding of the Karl-Jaspers-Prize for Professor Dr. Rudolf Georg Wagner, which will take place on Thursday, 14 November 2020, 6:30 pm in Alte Aula, Heidelberg University. [more...]

Searching for the Music

From July 13, 2019 to April 4, 2020 selected items from the CHIME Collection will be displayed in the foyer of the CATS Library, introducing e.g. the peculiarities of the Chinese seven stringed zither guqin, and the development of a new wave of Chinese music in the 1980s. [more...]

The Scholar's Choice

The Scholar´s Choice at Völkerkunde Museum Heidelberg will be presented by RNZ with a weekly series [more...]

Podcast 15past15

Several current and former members of the Cluster "Asia and Europe" and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies are featured in the new podcast series “15past15”. [more...]

CATS Opening Celebrations

The opening ceremony of the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies will take place on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. [more...]

Laying the Foundation for CATS

On Friday, February 17, the foundation stone for the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) was laid in a festive setting at the construction site. [more...]