Higher Ed

What are the purposes of higher education? When undergraduates 'declare their majors,' they agree to enter into a world defined by the parameters of a particular academic discourse, a discipline. But who decides those parameters? How do they come about? What are the discussions and proposed outcomes of disciplined inquiry? What should an undergraduate know to be considered educated in a discipline? How does the disciplinary knowledge base inform its pedagogy? Why are there different disciplines? When has a discipline 'run its course'? Where do new disciplines come from? Where do old ones go? How does a discipline produce its knowledge? What are the meanings and purposes of disciplinary research and teaching? What are the key questions of disciplined inquiry? What questions are taboo within a discipline? What can the disciplines learn from one another? What might they not want to learn and why? Once we begin asking these kinds of questions, positionality becomes a key issue. One reason why there aren't many books on the meaning and purpose of higher education is that once such questions are opened for discussion, one's subjectivity becomes an issue with respect to the presumed objective stances of Western higher education. Academics don't have positions because positions are 'biased,' 'subjective,' 'slanted,' and therefore somehow invalid. So the first thing to do is to provide a sense, however broad and general, of what dinds of positionalities will inform the books and chapters on the above questions. Certainly the questions themselves, and any others we might ask, are already suggesting a particular 'bent,' but as the series takes shape, the authors we engage will no doubt have positions on these questions. From the stance of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or transdisciplinary practitioners, will the chapters and books we solicit solidify disciplinary discourses, or liquefy them? Depending on who is asked, interdisciplinary inquiry is either a polite collaboration among scholars firmly situated in their own particular discourses, or it is a blurring of the restrictive parameters that define the very notion of disciplinary discourse. So will the series have a stance on the meaning and purpose of interdisciplinary inquiry and teaching? This can possibly be finessed by attracted thinkers from disciplines that are already multicisciplinary, e.g., the various knids of 'studies' programs (Women's, Islamic, American, Cultural, etc.), or the hybrid disciplines like Ethnomusicology (Musicology, Folklore, Anthropology). But by including people from these fields (areas? disciplines?) in our series, we are already taking a stand on disciplined inquiry. A question on the comprehensive exam for the Columbia University Ethnomusicology Program was to defend Ethnomusicology as a 'field' or a 'discipline.' One's answer determined one's future, at least to the extent that the gatekeepers had a say in such matters. So, in the end, what we are proposing will no doubt involve political struggles.

31 publications

Cinema and Media Cultures in the Middle East

ISSN: 2770-9051

The purpose of this series is to demarcate and critically examine the shifting terrain of film- and media-making in the Middle East, and of practices of film and media studies regarding it, testing them both against their larger, social enabling conditions at the national, regional, and transnational levels. Titles in the series will engage recent developments in the field of Middle East film and media studies and will help point the field in an intellectually meaningful, pedagogically effective direction in relation to both current and, in some cases, significant, previously ignored older work. The series is conceived at a moment during which Middle Eastern film and film criticism have begun to develop in new directions. Recent years have witnessed a modest increase in scholarly engagement with topics and modes of inquiry often previously considered outside academic discourse. A handful of books and special journal issues published in English over the past half-decade, focusing on specific Middle Eastern countries, such as Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Iran, Palestine/Israel and Turkey, as well as the long-overdue establishment of cinema studies as an emerging field of academic inquiry within universities located in the Arab world indicate a preponderance of previously unproblematized issues now circulating within the field. These include critical questions from queer and transgendered perspectives about the representation of women, and from indigenous and settler-colonial studies perspectives about the representation of migrant workers and refugees, the growing importance of documentary, digital animation and hybrid shooting, the continuing influence of global cinema imperatives, and the revival of interest in militant, revolutionary and third cinema aesthetics.

2 publications

History of Culture of the Modern Near and Middle East

ISSN: 2199-837X

Die 1980 als Heidelberger Orientalische Studien von Anton Schall begründete und von Michael Ursinus, Raoul Motika und Christoph Herzog unter dem Titel Geschichte und Kultur des modernen Vorderen Orients (Heidelberger Studien) fortgeführte Reihe veröffentlicht monographische Studien und Sammelbände zu Fragen der Sozial-, Wirtschafts-, Geistes- und Regionalgeschichte des Vorderen Orients und Irans ab dem 15. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart. Sie legt dabei ihren Schwerpunkt insbesondere auf Arbeiten, die die Erschließung und Auswertung bisher unbeachteten oder unerschlossenen Quellenmaterials in ihren Mittelpunkt stellen und konzentriert sich in geographischer Hinsicht auf die Gebiete des Osmanischen Reiches und seiner Nachfolgestaaten, veröffentlicht aber auch Arbeiten zu benachbarten Regionen. Die Bände 1 - 36 sind in der Reihe Heidelberger Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des modernen Vorderen Orients erschienen.

4 publications

Middle and Early Modern English Texts

ISSN: 2235-0136

This series is conceived to facilitate the edition of unpublished scientific treatises written in Late Middle English (late 13th century to the very early 16th century) as well as the publication of monographs dealing with their transmission, palaeographical and dialectal features, and/or their lexical, syntactic and pragmatic characteristics. The second aspect of the series seeks to favour studies specializing in linguistic variation or any of the multi-faceted aspects of the Middle English language even from a diachronic perspective. The Late Middle English Texts series is directed towards a wide scholarly readership that includes Textual Edition, Textual Criticism and Transmission – especially on electronic and digital formats both as standalone and online –, Ecdotics, History of Science, History of the English Language and Linguistics, Late Medieval Studies, History of Cultural Artifacts and Librarianship. The chronological scope we contemplate will range approximately from the mid 1200's to the early 1500's, and will include both manuscripts, incunabula and early prints that have come down to us in English, with the occasional excursion into analogues in other languages. Editions will include codicological and language studies that will enhance the relevance of the text within the cultural transmission European framework. The series includes both scholarly and academic editions and monograph studies with a specialised and comprehensive focus. Thematic and teaching textual anthologies will also be considered for the series. We do not aim primarily at publishing collected papers from conferences, symposia, meetings and other scholarly reunions, unless the occasion had a very relevant topic and was strongly coherent and specialised in its discussions. Each publication is subject to a rigorous blind double peer-review system that involves at least five readers from five different institutions (Universities or Research Institutes).

7 publications

Acta Germanica / German Studies in Africa

ISSN: 0065-1273

Acta Germanica, the yearbook of the Association for German Studies in Southern Africa, presents the latest research findings in the field of German Language and Literature. It focuses mainly on current topics affecting (South) Africa in the fields of German literature, linguistics and culture, and on German as a foreign language. The yearbook is edited by Cilliers van den Berg. Acta Germanica, das Jahrbuch des Germanistenverbandes im Südlichen Afrika, präsentiert aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse aus dem Bereich der Germanistik. Es befasst sich schwerpunktmäßig mit aktuellen Fragestellungen zum Thema (Süd-)Afrika in der deutschen Literatur-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft sowie mit Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Herausgegeben wird das Jahrbuch von Cilliers van den Berg.

39 publications

Court Cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

ISSN: 2296-4118

Court Cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance is a peer-reviewed series focused on the inter- and multi-disciplinary cultural output of medieval and Renaissance court culture on an international scale. The series invites proposals for single- and multi-authored monographs, edited collections and editions of early works relating to the court. Prospective authors are encouraged to submit proposals which highlight the central importance of the court to medieval and Renaissance culture, including projects that explore the life and/or works of writers, artists, historiographers, soldiers, composers, diplomats and courtiers, in the East as well as the West. Other areas of particular interest are courtly ritual (e.g. chivalric code, ceremonies, spectacle) and literary and artistic representations of the court. The series will also explore the role of the court in shaping national, religious and political identities, as well as its function as an interface between different cultures. The series is affiliated with the Trinity Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Each proposal is vetted by the Editorial Board and Chief Editor and undergoes a comprehensive peer-review process.

17 publications

German Visual Culture

This series invites research on all aspects of German visual culture – including art, architecture, film and media – across different periods, geographical locations, and political contexts. Books in the series engage with aesthetic and ideological continuities as well as ruptures and divergences between individual creators, movements, educational systems, art institutions, and cultures of display. Challenging scholarship that interrogates and updates existing orthodoxies in the field is desirable. A guiding question of the series is the impact of German visual culture on critical and public spheres, both inside and outside the German-speaking world. Reception is thus conceived in the broadest possible terms, including both the ways in which visual culture has been perceived and defined as well as the ways in which modern and contemporary German creators have undertaken visual dialogues with their predecessors or contemporaries. The series welcomes cross-disciplinary approaches from art history, anthropology, material culture; the histories of science, perception, medicine, and technology; and the history of ideas. Issues of cultural transfer, critical race theory and related postcolonial analysis, feminism, queer theory, and other interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, as are studies on production and consumption, the art market, pioneering publishing houses, and the mass media, including film and illustrated magazines. All proposals for monographs and edited collections in the history of German visual culture will be considered. Contributions in English and German are welcome. Submissions are subject to rigorous peer review. Professor Christian Weikop served as series editor from 2018 to 2025, with forthcoming titles still to publish in 2026. During this time as editor, he connected his Research Forum for German Visual Culture at the University of Edinburgh with the series. Editorial Board: Sarah James (Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University) Daniel H. Magilow (University of Tennessee, Knoxville ) Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia) Leila Mukhida (University of Cambridge) Robin Schuldenfrei (Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London) Aya Soika (Bard College Berlin) Ilka Voermann (Berlinische Galerie) Christian Weikop (Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh)　

20 publications

Crosscurrents: New Studies on the Middle East

ISSN: 2381-2443

"This series will publish book-length manuscripts pertaining to the peoples of the Middle East. The Middle East is understood in the broadest sense associated with the term, and is reflective of widely shared socio-religious patterns, histories, and heritages. For the purpose of this series, the Middle East will include what is more commonly referred to as the Near East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel/Palestine); North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, the Sudans, and Somalia); Turkey and Iran; Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the countries of the Arab Gulf; and, finally, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Central Asian Republics. The series will be interdisciplinary and inclusive of diverse topics and methodologies. Representative fields will include art, art history, architecture, language and literature, history, politics, economics, and religion. Reinterpretations, as well as investigations of the hitherto uninvestigated, will be especially welcomed. "

5 publications

Stanford German Studies

ISSN: 0171-7219

16 publications

German Studies in Canada

ISSN: 0938-2704

13 publications

German Life and Civilization

ISSN: 0899-9899

German Life and Civilization contributes to a critical understanding of Central European cultural history from medieval times to the present. Culture is here defined in the broadest sense, comprising expressions and representations in literature, music, performative and pictorial arts, and media, as well as political and sociohistorical developments in the texture of everyday life. Building on its strengths in GDR scholarship and political literature, the series also seeks to explore newer thematic trends such as human entanglements with the environment and natural world, and transnational and minority communities. The series aims to foster progressive and inclusive scholarship that aspires to a synthetic view of culture by crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries. Manuscripts in both English and German are subject to a robust external peer review process. Series Editor: Kristopher Imbrigotta (University of Puget Sound) Series founder: Jost Hermand (University of Wisconsin) Advisory Board: Stephen Brockmann (Carnegie Mellon), Jason Groves (University of Washington), Brigitte Jirku (University of Valencia), Teresa Kovacs (Indiana University), Anke Pinkert (University of Illinois), Caroline Rupprecht (City University of New York), Marc Silberman (University of Wisconsin), Didem Uca (Emory University)

74 publications

German Studies in America

ISSN: 0721-3727

German Studies in America publishes research across the field of German studies in the broadest sense, from literary criticism to cultural studies. The editors welcome scholarly work that takes an innovative approach to German, Swiss, or Austrian history, literature, politics, philosophy, national identity, religion, popular culture, film, music, and/or visual art. We are also eager to consider projects that adopt interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches as well as studies with theoretical approaches including psychoanalysis, gender studies, feminism, Marxism, critical race studies, etc. We publish scholarly monographs, translations and edited volumes of essays in both German and English. This series adheres to the highest academic standards and is peer reviewed.

71 publications