Category: Colloquium

In this semester, the colloquium will focus on current debates in and critics of Area Studies and the various attempts to save them (e.g. new area studies, global area studies). We will discuss theoretical and methodological implications of using socio-scientific concepts across regional or historical contexts for our understanding of Area Studies and, in particular, the role of relationality with regards to both the scope of inquiry (as opposed to the object of inquiry) and the configuration of the region or area of study.

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programme

Mon 06.03.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Introduction: Beyond Area Studies
Benedikt Korf (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

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Mon 20.03.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Area studies, geography and critical Muslim studies
James Derrick Sidaway (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore)

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Mon 03.04.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
The Globality of Higher Education Research as an Area Study
Patrício Langa (University of the Western Cape/Eduardo Mondlane University)

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Mon 24.04.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Area studies and other containers
Aline Schläpfer (Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Mon 22.05.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Review session

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The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please use the registration form to register for one or several sessions.

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PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (1 ECTS credit point).

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 67655-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.

In this semester, the colloquium will discuss the changes socio-scientific analytical concepts undergo to be able to render phenomena intelligible in different settings. The standard assumption according to which concepts, when properly used, are independent of context has come under massive critique, especially within the context of postcolonial and decolonial critiques. But does this mean that concepts are hopelessly tied to context and are bearers of normative assumptions? What happens with analytical concepts when they travel from one historical or regional context to another? What is gained – and what is lost? And (why) should we make concepts crossing borders at all?

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program

Mon 26.09.2022, 12:30-14:00 CET
Knowledge: Values and validity
Elísio Macamo (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Mon 10.10.2022, 12:30-14:00 CET
Traveling theory: The potentials and limitations of ideas as they ‘travel’
Harshana Rambukwella (Postgraduate Institute of English, Open University of Sri Lanka)

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Mon 17.10.2022, 10:15-16:00 CET
Researching the (un)familiar (workshop)

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Thu 27.10.2022, 08:00-16:00 CET
Decoloniality and the Politics of the Urban (workshop)

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Thu 03. & Fri 04.11.2022
The Cultural Life of Democracy (workshop)

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Mon 21.11.2022, 12:30-14:00 CET
Towards non-representational concept-making
Rose Marie Beck (Institute of African Studies, Universität Leipzig)

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Mon 05.12.2022, 12:30-14:00 CET
Review session
Ralph Weber (Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please use the registration form to register for one or several sessions.

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PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (1 ECTS credit points).

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 65906-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.

In this semester, the colloquium will focus on the ways in which academic and non-academic interpretations of the concept of ‘the state’ vary in different contexts. Drawing from case studies of the research project “Reversing the Gaze” as well as guest talks, the sessions will shed light on research endeavors involving the travel and translation of concepts across different regions, disciplines and research foci.

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program

Mon 14.03.2022, 12:30-14:00
Is the state an ideological power?
Tebuho Winnie Kanyimba & Matthias Maurer Rueda (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Mon 28.03.2022, 12:30-14:00
The Postcolonial African State in Transition
Lerato Posholi (Institute of European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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Mon 11.04.2022, 12:30-14:00
Retribalization and the State in Switzerland
Tebuho Winnie Kanyimba & Matthias Maurer Rueda (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Mon 25.04.2022, 12:30-14:00
A Colonial History of Pensions: The East India Company and One Genesis for the Welfare State
Geeta Patel (Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures/Women, Gender & Sexuality, University of Virginia)

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Mon 09.05.2022, 12:30-14:00
The State, Infrastructure, and Populism
Stephan Hochleithner (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

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Mon 23.05.2022, 12:30-14:00
Review session
Stephan Hochleithner (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

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The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please register via email to: rtg@unibas.ch.

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PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (3 ECTS credit points). In order to do so, participants should write a report on one of the sessions.

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 64025-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.

The focus of this semester is on the translation and operationalization of social scientific concepts in specific historical contexts and socio-cultural environments. The colloquium will engage with methodological and theoretical issues bearing on the translation of concepts across regions, across disciplines, and across academic and non-academic contexts.

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program

Wed 29.09.2021, 12.15-14.00
Retribalization across time and space
Tebuho Winnie Kanyimba & Matthias Maurer Rueda (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Wed 13.10.2021, 12.15-14.00
Translating Black-Boxes
Elísio Macamo (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Wed 27.10.2021, 12.15-14.00
Unspent Funds: Mobilisation and Accountability Post-COVID
Sruthi Herbert (University of Edinburgh), Christine Lutringer (Graduate Institute Geneva)

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Wed 10.11.2021, 12.15-14.00
Chatterjee Revisited: Contextualizing Political Societies
Stephan Hochleithner & Benedikt Korf (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

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New date: Wed 01.12.2021, 12.15-14.00
Translating Forms of Knowledge
Maria Paula Meneses (Centro de Estudos Sociais e Económicos, Universidade de Coimbra)

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Wed 08.12.2021, 12.15-14.00
Review session
Ralph Weber (Institute of European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please register via email to: rtg@unibas.ch.

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PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (3 ECTS credit points). In order to do so, participants should write a report on one of the sessions.

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 62347-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.

The focus of this semester is on methodological and conceptual issues concerning comparison. In particular, the colloquium will discuss recent critical reflections on, and engage with new perspectives for, social scientific comparison.

After an introduction to the general topic in the first two sessions, four sessions will address current comparative research and reflect on the methodological and conceptual implications for different disciplines and research areas. The final session will pick up on questions raised previously and discuss new approaches in the social sciences in general and in Area Studies in particular.

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program

Wed 10.03.2021, 12.15-14.00
Introduction to Comparison
Ralph Weber (Institute of European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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Wed 24.03.2021, 12.15-14.00
Post-Comparison and Mid-Level Concepts
Ralph Weber (Institute of European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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Wed 07.04.2021, 12.15-14.00
Reversing the Gaze: Anthropological Experiments – Steps towards Decolonization?
Peter Geschiere (Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, Amsterdam)

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Wed 21.04.2021, 12.15-14.00
Anthropology and the positivist legacy of comparative agendas. Theoretical concepts and their epistemological power
Till Förster (Institute of Social Anthropology, Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Wed 05.05.2021, 12.15-14.00
What do (research ) objects stand in for? Sociological implications of comparison
Elísio Macamo (Centre for African Studies Basel/Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

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Wed 19.05.2021, 12.15-14.00
Generating concepts for global urban studies: Reformatting comparative urbanism
Jennifer Robinson (Department of Geography, University College London)

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Wed 02.06.2021, 12.15-14.00
Reversing the gaze as a response to Eurocentrism: some preliminary thoughts
Lerato Posholi (Institute of European Global Studies, University of Basel)

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The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please register via email to: rtg@unibas.ch.

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PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (3 ECTS credit points). In order to do so, participants should either present a paper on their ongoing research; discuss a core text in a reading session; act as a discussant on one of the sessions; or write a report on one of the sessions.

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 60720-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.