Lecture Series




Starting in the winter term 2012/13, Euroculture Göttingen has organized interdisciplinary lecture series. All of the speeches were public lectures. The series was meant to invite colleagues from participating disciplines in Göttingen as well as from other institutions to share their perspectives on a given topic. Proceedings from the series "Imagining Europe" were published with Göttingen University Press (see "Publications"). Up to 2017, the Lecture Series was organized in cooperation with the Master Programme "Intercultural Theology". The series 2019/20 was held jointly with the Erasmus Mundus MA "Global Markets, Local Initiatives" (GLOCAL).



During the lecture series, the Erasmus Mundus MA Euroculture asked how Europe is seen from both the inside and from other parts of the world. Political Scientists, scholars from Literary Studies, Theology and History presented their perspectives on Europe from India, UK, New Zealand, Spain, the United States and Germany. The former foreign minister Markus Meckel and the former Bishop for Ecumenical Relations of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Rolf Koppe, shared their insights on negotiating European identity in the Wider World. The public lecture series was organized by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Tamcke and were held every week in autumn and winter 2012.

  • Prof. Dr. George Zachariah
    Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India
    The Ecological Crisis: Eurocentric Morals and Subaltern Alternatives
    25.10.2012

  • Dr. Sabine Selchow
    London School of Economics, UK / LMU Munich
    Security and the "New World" in Europe
    01.11.2012

  • Prof. Dr. Barbara Schaff
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Gender Identities in Europe: A Clash of Cultures?
  • 08.11.2012

  • Dr. Lars Klein
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Belonging without Believing? Reflections on European Identity
    15.11.2012

  • Prof. Dr. Natalia Chaban
    University of Canterbury, New Zealand
    Communicating Europe in the Times of Crisis: EU Images and Perceptions from Asia-Pacific
    22.11.2012

  • Prof. Dr. Monika Oberle
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Learning EU at School: An Emperical Look at Pupils‘ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding the European Union
    29.12.2012

  • Markus Meckel
    Former Member of Federal Parliament, Berlin
    Challenges for the European Union and Transatlantic Relations: An Issue for Germany
    06.12.2012

  • Dr. Asier Altuna-García de Salazar
    Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
    The Pillars of Identity: Representations in Irish Writing
    07.12.2012

  • Prof. Dr. Elizabeth M. Goering / Dr. Andrea Krause
    Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, USA / Universität Paderborn, Germany
    Forever Old? Cultural Mis/Perceptions of Europe in American Film
    13.12.2012

  • Dr. Rolf Koppe
    Göttingen
    A Soul for Europe: The Contribution of Churches and Religions for a More Just, Participatory and Sustainable Europe
    20.12.2012

  • Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    European and Arab, Christian and Oriental: Mono-, Bi- or Multipolar Existence in Europe
    10.01.2013


You can download the poster here.

During the financial crisis that has been going on since 2008, the role of the European Union has been under much discussion. The economic usefulness of the Euro has been debated just as the political implications of European unification. Most often, the current state of Europeanization has been presented as being without alternatives. For this lecture series, we invited scholars from various disciplines to elaborate on ways of imagining Europe that goes beyond the rather limited view of EU institutions that has been presented by politicians. How was, how is Europe imagined? Which memories are evoked, which visions explicated? Which counter-narratives to prominent discourses are there? How is the role of the university envisioned? The lecture series was dedicated to these and other questions and features speakers from Sociology, Political Science, English as well as French Literature, History and Theology.

The public lecture series was organized by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Tamcke and Dr. Lars Klein.

Following lectures took place in the winter term 2013/14:

  • Dr. Sabine Selchow
    London School of Economics, UK / LMU Munich
    Beyond Globalisation and Transnationalisation. Thinking about Europe in Times of Cosmopolitization
    31.10.2013

  • PD Dr. Peter W. Schulze
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    German-Russian Relations as a Decisive Factor of the EU's Eastern Policy. Unforeseen Consequences of Shifts of Paradigm
    21.11.2013

  • PD Dr. Claudia Jünke
    Universität Bonn
    Entangled Pasts. Remembering War and Violence in Contemporary French Fiction
    22.11.2013

  • Dr. Lars Klein
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Sketching a Cosmopolitan Europe
    28.11.2013

  • Dr. Asier Altuna-García de Salazar
    Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
    Imagining a Transcultural Europe. Irish Counter-Narratives
    05.12.2013

  • Christina Norwig
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Re-inventing Europe. Visions and Experiences of Europe in the European Youth Campaign 1951-1958
    12.12.2012

  • Dr. Esther von Richthofen
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    The European Higher Education Area and the Internationalization of the University of Göttingen
    19.12.2013

  • Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    The Eurpeans in us. The use of "Europe" by Orhan Pamuk
    16.01.2014


You can download the poster here.

The lecture series was held in the winter term 2014/15 and convened by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Tamcke and Dr. Lars Klein. It was held jointly with the MA Intercultural Theology.

  • Dr. Alexander Kamkin
    Russian Academy of Science
    Intellectual turnover. Reception of German romantic ideas by Russian slavophiles. Example of intercultural dialog
    23.10.2014

  • Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    West - East identity: the example of Henry von Heiseier
    30.10.2014

  • Svetlana Fakhrazeeva
    Perm State University
    Russian Orthodox Church in Contemporary Russia
    06.11.2014

  • Prof. Dr. Bassam Tibi
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    The Return of the Sacred to the Public Square: Muslim Migration to Europe
    20.11.2014

  • Dr. Vladimir Svetkovic
    Nis/Belgrad/Göttingen
    Serbian Church and Europe on the Threshold of the Third Millennium?
    04.12.2014

  • Dr. Fritz Erich Anhelm
    Evangelische Akademie Loccum
    Minority Religion and Identity Politics - Muslims in Germany and Christians in Egypt and their strategies for political acceptance
    15.01.2015

This seminar is meant for students to discuss questions of inclusion/exclusion in Europe with a special focus on the role of religion. As a case study, the debate on the so-called “refugee-crisis” will be analysed throughout the seminar, because it is here, that the terms and conditions of integration and participation are being discussed and ideas of Europeanness are formulated. In order to allow for a multi-faceted debate, the class includes lectures and discussions with guest from different (academic) fields. The block seminar on “intercultural hermeneutics” will introduce theoretical approaches to interaction between people.

The lecture series was held in the winter term 2015/16 and convened by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Martin Tamcke and Dr. Lars Klein.

  • Prof. Dr. Larisa Deriglazova
    Tomsk
    What does it mean to be a Russian?
    04.11.2015

  • Dr. Benjamin Martin
    Uppsala Universitet
    A Historical Perspective on Muslims, Migrations, and European Identities
    11.11.2015

  • Dr. Sabine Selchow
    London School of Economics, UK / LMU Munich
    The Refugee Crisis and the Dialects of a Cosmopolitised Europe: Understanding Inclusion and Exclusion in Germany
    12.11.2015

  • PD Dr. Claudia Jünke
    Universität Bonn
    Constructing Europe, Reconstructing the Past. Cultural Memory and Traumatic History in Contemporary
    Literature

    13.11.2015

  • Dr. Lars Klein
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    New Forms of Participation? Sketching a "Citizenship in Europe"
    04.12.2015

  • Dr. Kamal Sido
    GfbV – Society for Threatened Peoples, Göttingen
    Discussing the "refugee crisis"
    04.12.2015

The diagnosis that Europe – and/or the European Union – is in crisis is not new. The debate has deep historical roots, as the idea of “Europe”, and the notion of an ever-expanding and ever-deepening political union have been called into question for decades. However, current trends make the diagnosis even more pertinent. Recent economic and financial crises have shown that Europe is socially and economically extremely disparate. Politically, the legitimacy of the whole European Union as a project is challenged by the Brexit and, again, the rise of nationalism and populism. Culturally, the question in how far ideas of a “European identity” provides for an umbrella in the search for Europeanization processes has long been contentious. With the rise of nationalism and the so-called “Migration crisis”, this question is in the spotlight of cultural and political discourse. The lecture series tries to generate a multi-faceted debate among different academic disciplines, discussing different symptoms of Europe in crisis – among them identity and culture, social cohesion, and political legitimacy. It is meant to give insights into how a “Europe in crisis” is discussed in the different disciplines and which ideas for problem solving are seen. Hopefully, the lecture series will also spark some ideas on how to re-invigorate Europe as an idea and as a political project.

Following lectures took place during autumn and winter 2017/2018:

  • Dr. Dimitri Almeida
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Euroscepticism in Crisis? The Populist Radical Right and the EU
    24.10.2017

  • Julian Plottka
    Institute for European Politics (IEP), Berlin
    The Commission's White Book Process: Making Europe Crisis Proof?
    07.11.2017

  • Prof. Dr. Simon Fink
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    When Do Crises of the EU Spur Reforms?
    14.11.2017

  • Lavinia Marin / Benedikte Custers
    University of Leuven / University of Porto
    Higher Education in European Discourse. A Conversation That Never Took Place
    21.11.2017

  • Dr. H. Pinar Senoguz
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Hospitality Discourse and Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Uniting or Dividing?
    28.11.2017

  • Dr. Flora Ferati-Sachsenmaier
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    The Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue: A Litmus Test for the EU Diplomacy
    05.12.2017

  • Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Goering
    Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
    De/Construction Zone Europe: American Media Representations of Europe in Crisis
    12.12.2017

  • Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Martin Tamcke and students from Perm State University
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen / Perm State University
    How Do We Want to Live? Russian Students Interpret Life after the Political Changes 1990/91 Through Literary Texts
    19.12.2017

  • Dr. Lars Klein
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Europe - Anatomy of a Crisis
    09.01.2018

  • Jesse van Amelsvoort
    Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands
    Contemporary Europe is Postcolonial: Transitions, Representations and Connections
    16.01.2018

  • Prof. Dr. Moritz Ege / Dr. Alexander Gallas
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen / Universität Kassel
    What is 'Conjunctural Analysis' and What Are its Uses? Revisiting a Transdisciplinary Program in a New Time of Crisis
    23.01.2018

Many current and historical debates in the social sciences and humanities focus on the question of regulation of human behavior. This ranges from small-scale social units such as families, villages or tribes to full-fledged industrial societies or even to the global level. Basically, there are two opposing camps in the diverse debates. One position holds that it is desirable and possible to develop societal aims, develop formal rules that help to steer groups towards these aims, devise institutions to monitor the implementation of these rules, and sanction noncompliance with these rules. The normative conclusion is that we can to some extent see government and governance as a feat of engineering, as a way of finding the right rules and incentives. The competing position holds that boundedly rational human decision makers cannot fully grasp the full consequences of their plans and rules. Moreover, informal rules and socially constructed notions of legitimacy are often more powerful than formal rules. Therefore, decision makers should refrain from overly ambitious projects and rather have an evolutionary approach to rules. The lecture series will approach these debates from different disciplines, always trying to find answers to the question how we can (and should) govern human communities, and discuss empirical patterns of the ambitions (and shortcomings) of governance efforts.

The lecture series was held in the winter term 2018/19 and convened by Prof. Dr. Simon Fink and Dr. Lars Klein.

  • Prof. Dr. Simon Fink
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    How do we want to govern?
    23.10.2018

  • Dr. Levke Aduda
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Third-Party Conflict Management: Mediation in Intrastate Conflicts
    30.10.2018

  • PD Dr. Kirsten Sandrock
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Colonial Utopias/Dystopias
    06.11.2018

  • Prof. Dr. Tobias Lenz
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    The design of international organizations. Why some international organizations are more authoritative than others
    13.11.2018

  • Dr. Julia Martinez-Arinio
    Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands
    Regulating religion from within? Participatory governance of religious diversity in European cities
    20.11.2018

  • Dr. Lars Klein
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    "Impetous, adversarial, petty and ineffective". Fashioning the White House under Trump
    27.11.2018

  • Dr. Matthias Roick
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Between Ethics and Politics: Virtue, Self-Government and Governmental Power in Early Modern Europe
    04.12.2018

  • Vincent Lindner
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Take it or leave it! Social Concertation and Social Pacts in Europe during times of crises
    11.12.2018

  • Dr. Karthikeyan Damodaran
    University of Edinburgh, Scotland
    Caste, Class and Political Society in Southern India
    18.12.2018

  • Miriam Schafer
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Polic*e Work in Practice. Processes of Typification in the German Police
    08.01.2019

  • Dr. Christina Gabbert
    Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Land use governance in Ethiopia
    15.01.2019


The public lecture series presents current research on Europe’s interrelationship with the global economy (past and present). Speakers from various disciplines provide a wide array of specialized topics to explore different facets of European engagement with economic globalization including: issues of trade and international investment, multinational companies and organizations, cross-cultural management and marketing, transfers of knowledge and know-how, questions of development and immigrant entrepreneurship, as well as finally issues of global migration and international labor markets. The lecture series addresses core questions of two Erasmus Mundus MA Programs in Göttingen about central issues for European politics and culture (Euroculture) and about regional perspectives on global markets (GLOCAL).

The lecture series was held in the winter term 2018/19 and convened by Prof. Dr. Simon Fink, PD Dr. Jan Logemann and Dr. Lars Klein.

  • Prof. Dr. Simon Fink
    Euroculture, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    EU, ASEAN, Mercosur: Regional Integration in Global Perspective
    29.10.2019

  • PD Dr. Jan Logemann
    Economic History, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    European “Roots” of Consumer Capitalism? Emigres and Transatlantic Knowledge Transfers
    05.11.2019

  • Prof. Dr. Kilian Bizer
    Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Different Modes of Innovation: Fostering Global Competitiveness through Innovation Policies in Germany
    12.11.2019

  • Prof. Dr. Fabian Froese
    Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    European Expats in East Asia: Issues in Cross-Cultural management
    19.11.2019

  • Prof. Dr. Céline Teney
    Sociology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Does the EU Economic Crisis Undermine Subjective Europeanisation?
    26.11.2019

  • Dr. Lucas Drouhot
    Sociology, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
    Immigrant and Second Generation Entrepreneurs: Assimilation in the Knowledge Economy
    03.12.2019

  • Dr. Bruno Witzel
    Economics / Economic History, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Migration and Development: Knowledge Transfers between Europe and Brazil in the 19th Century
    10.12.2019

  • Prof. Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos
    Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Globalization and Social Change: Trade Liberalization and Gender Dynamics
    17.12.2019

  • Prof. Dr. Sascha Münnich
    Sociology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Legitimacy of Financial Profits in a Global Perspective
    07.01.2020

  • Prof. Dr. Dominic Sachsenmaier
    History / CeMEAS, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    China and the World: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
    14.01.2020

  • Prof. Dr. Udo Kreickemeier
    Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
    Globalisation and Labour Market Polarisation
    21.01.2020