Research Opportunities Also Open to Fellows from Islamic Societies

The Institute for Advanced Study provides scientists with the opportunity to devote themselves fully to their chosen research projects. Youssef Hijazi spoke with Georges Khalil, Program Coordinator of the Modernity and Islam Working Group

photo: Youssef Hijazi
"We offer leading researchers the opportunity to fully concentrate on their research projects," says George Khalil.

​​Mr. Khalil, how are topics and Fellows chosen at the Wissenschaftskolleg?

George Khalil: The research projects are determined by the researchers themselves. Thematic emphasis is usually given to issues from the humanities and social sciences. Yet, we also focus on areas of the theoretical natural sciences, and musicians and authors are invited as well. The choice of Fellows is made by our academic advisory board.

What makes a stay at the Wissenschaftskolleg something special?

Khalil: Normally, scholars and scientists work within a context defined by their discipline and national traditions. They are bound by academic activities at their universities and overburdened by administrative duties within their institutes. We offer outstanding researchers the opportunity to fully concentrate on their research projects in a temporary academic community and in a stimulating international and intercultural environment. This, together with excellent academic services, is what is special about the Wissenschaftskolleg.

You are the program coordinator of the Modernity and Islam Working Group. What is the idea behind it?

Khalil: The group was conceived in the 1990s by former Wissenschaftskolleg Rector Wolf Lepenies in discussion with Berlin academics and Fellows from the Middle East, such as Abdallah Hammoudi, Sadek Al-Azem, Aziz Al-Azmeh, and Fatima Mernissi. Financial support is provided by the state of Berlin, the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Körber Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation, and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.

The basic idea of the project was to attempt to question modernity from an enlarged field of reference and conduct this research with academics from Muslim societies. Thus the name Modernity and Islam. The issue here is not about modernizing Islam, but rather the reverse, about expanding the inward-looking horizons of research.

In Germany, as in other countries, all disciplines from humanities and social science faculties, such as history, philosophy, theology, and literature, tend to have a strong empirical bias towards their home country or region.

How is this idea being implemented?

Khalil: This year, as in the recent past, the Wissenschaftskolleg has invited a number of Fellows, researchers, and also authors from the Middle East and the Islamic world to Berlin to work for a year and to participate in the projects of the Modernity and Islam Working Group. Modernity and Islam has its own fellowship program for promising young scholars, especially those coming from the Middle East.

To a great extent, its activities – seminars and workshops – involve the participation of researchers from Berlin's universities and research institutions. Berlin researchers are members of the advisory board and also head various projects within the working group. We are currently supporting five projects within Modernity and Islam.

What sorts of issues are investigated by the projects?

Khalil: All of the projects share a similar perspective. They investigate themes from a particular discipline within a common framework stretching beyond the borders of Europe. One project, for instance, Cultural Mobility in Middle Eastern Literatures, investigates issues of cultural transfer, such as translation, multilingualism, literary canonization, and similar topics from the starting point of Middle Eastern literature, yet within the context of comparative literature and the literature of other countries and regions.

Here, we have received institutional cooperation from the Institute of Arabic Studies of the Free University Berlin and the Center for Literary Research. For the last three years, we have organized a joint seminar within this framework, in which literary scholars from Berlin work together with our scholarship holders. Other projects are concerned with topics such as Islamic and Jewish hermeneutics, a comparison of the various social strata in merchant cities in the former Ottoman Empire, and the issue of exhibiting non-European art in European cities.

We conduct annual summer academies for doctoral and post-doctoral students, which are held both in Berlin and in the Middle East. Applications for candidates are advertised internationally, and 20 to 25 scholars are then chosen to participate for two weeks and present their own research work within the framework of a particular theme. Last year's summer academy took place in Alexandria and had as its theme "Literature and Borders." Academics from 16 countries participated in the event.

Could you provide a current example of the group's work?

Khalil: There are presently 14 promising young academics in the Modernity and Islam Working Group. For the most part, they are assistant professors, who will be working at Berlin research institutions over the course of the year. Shereen Abou El Naga, Assistant Professor for English Literature at Cairo University, for instance, is currently working on issues concerning the construction of cultural images, in particular the double meaning of pictures and images.

At the end of April, we will be organizing a workshop that will include scholars from the Middle East, such as Faisal Darrag from Syria, Marie-Therese Abdel Messih and Viola Shafiq from Cairo, and Khaled Hroub from London, as well as the American media theoretician Tom Mitchell, who is currently a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg, and Monika Flacke, curator of the Myths of the Nation exhibition at the German Historical Museum.

What sort of concrete positive results come from such encounters?

Khalil: In terms of scholarly work, the results are primarily expressed in the mind-set and individual projects of the participants. You can observe it in their books and texts. To date, more than 500 scholars and scientists have participated in our programs, resulting in the creation of a large network.

The inward-looking tendencies of academic communities contribute to the fact that the media and politics very often speak in terms of dichotomies – Islam/Europe, Jews/Arabs, secular/religious, to name but a few. In addition to overcoming the borders between disciplines and regions within the sciences, our projects also aim at finding a common language that doesn't seek recourse to a black and white perspective on issues. Instead, we attempt to discuss common problems from various perspectives. The West-Eastern Divan project, which we support, has similar aims, except that here authors are involved.

What kind of difficulties does the Modernity and Islam Working Group encounter?

Khalil: One sort of difficulty results from the linguistic situation. As the working group includes numerous researchers from the Middle East as well as other countries, we are required to conduct our activities in English, which at times can seem rather artificial.

Another difficulty is in attracting good scholars from the Middle East for a stay at the Wissenschaftskolleg. This is partially due to the fact that our system for notifying candidates and our contacts to foreign universities are still being developed.

A fundamental problem is the tenacity of central paradigms, which maintain highly focused German or European perspectives on issues. This is often related to an insufficient knowledge of other contexts. With the exception of Islamic scholars or Arabists, most German researchers lack even a basic knowledge of Middle Eastern history and culture.

Does this lead to tension in common discussions?

Khalil: Intellectual tension occasionally emerges when a European genealogy of history and modernity is put forward during discussions on particular issues.

Such is the case, for instance, when it is claimed that the autobiographical genre is specifically Christian European, as it can be traced back to the Confessions of St. Augustus. Although Augustus lived in the Roman province of Africa, current-day Tunisia, he is defined as part of an exclusively European-Christian tradition, which is also cited as the foundation for the emergence of individuality. Thereby, the further influence of Greek, Roman, and Christian culture in the Middle East is negated. Islam is then understood as a cultural rupture after a divided antique period and an essential element of modernity is defined as European.

Inquiries into different forms of expressing individuality in differing contexts are one way of overcoming this viewpoint. This is why research with scholars from other countries and regions is of such great significance.

How can scholars and scientists take advantage of the opportunity to work here? How are candidates chosen?

Khalil: Researchers are nominated by former Fellows of the Wissenschaftskolleg, but they can also apply for themselves. There is an academic procedure involving a decision from our advisory board. The Modernity and Islam Working Group recruits promising young researchers through international announcements that we send worldwide per post, Internet, and via former participants of our program. The selection is then made by academic committees.

Youssef Hijazi

© Qantara.de 2005

Translation from German: John Bergeron

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