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DIMAS | Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies

DIMAS was founded in 2022, following on from CITAS. CITAS was founded in 2017 as a platform for coordinating and developing collaborative area studies activities between institutions, projects and colleagues in Regensburg.

DIMAS is continuing this academic tradition with six permanent professorships, postdoctoral and doctoral positions, and an innovative teaching and research programme. Find out more about the concept and ideas shaping DIMAS here.

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News

Colonialsm: Different Approaches and Different Areas

DIMAS Lecture Series Summer Semester 2024 | Wednesdays, 14:00 in H22 

Full programme and more details here | Talks are in English and German

Rike Krämer-Hoppe, Professor of Public Law and Transregional Norm Development at DIMAS and the Faculty of Law at UR, is organizing a lecture series (Ringvorlesung) this summer semester. Colonialism: Different Approaches and Different Areas will take place on Wednesdays at 14:00 in Lecture Theatre H22. 

The event is open to the public and all interested colleagues and students. Students wishing to receive credits sign up for the course via SPUR. 

Each week, a different researcher, including guest speakers, will give a talk addressing colonialism from across a variety of disciplinary and regional perspectives. Speakers include experts in law, history, literary studies and media studies, with insights on India, French colonial territories, relations with indigenous populations in Canada and elsewhere.  

The Lecture Series is supported by the Hans-Vielberth University Foundation.
 

25-27 April | The Politics and History of Islam in East Asia with Kelly Hammond (Arkansas)

Professor Timothy Nunan (Transregional Cultures of Knowledge) will be hosting Professor Kelly Hammond from the University of Arkansas for a series of events on “The Politics and History of Islam in East Asia.” Professor Hammond will deliver a lecture on her current work from 10:00-12:00 c.t. on April 25, 2024, in Lecture Hall H23 followed by a brown bag lunch discussion in Raum SG214 at from 12:00-14:00 c.t..

On April 26-27, 2024, Professor Hammond and Professor Nunan will be co-teaching a block seminar “Regional Histories of the Cold Wars.” Professor Hammond’s lecture is open to the university public, and it is still possible for students (as well as interested doctoral students or post-doctoral scholars) to register for the block seminar. However, those interested in attending the brown bag lunch are requested to write to Timothy Nunan (timothy.nunan@ur.de) for planning purposes. This event series is generously sponsored by the Regensburger Universitätsstiftung Hans Vielberth.

“Videogames as Folk Worlds: Nationalism – Democracy – Sustainability”

An international symposium “Videogames as Folk Worlds: Nationalism – Democracy – Sustainability” will be held on April 11th-12th in room 319 of Altes Finanzamt.

Videogames are a mass medium whose global sales and user numbers have exceeded those of the film and music industries for over a decade. However, they serve much more than just entertainment purposes. As interactive, educational experience worlds, they are used by governments and paramilitary groups as propaganda tools and military training simulators, e.g. in the Ukrainian War.

Simultaneously, videogames can serve to convey and critically engage with culturally specific and folkloric content and thus pursue pacifist, democratic and sustainability-promoting goals. Although this dual role forms the basis of much public controversy, there is no comprehensive scientific/scholarly understanding of how videogames as folk worlds can impact intercultural understanding in anti- and prosocial ways. Nor do we have the methodological tools to perform such research in qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches.

To address this lacuna, this international symposium serves to develop a systematic transdisciplinary research program in videogames as folk worlds and as tools for transcultural understanding. The contributions range from media, literary and cultural studies to computer science, anthropology, educational psychology and political science.

The two-day symposium will analyze the dual role of computer games as transregional, nationalistic propaganda machines on the one hand and as democracy and diversity-fostering, critical and prosocial media experiences on the other. It will explore how the social and political actions of players are shaped by nationalist or fascist content, how such content appears in games, and how, conversely, pro-democracy, sustainability-promoting elements can be incorporated, experienced and learned in and through the design of alternative “indie” games. 

You can find the complete program here.
 

NACHT.SCHAFFT.WISSEN.

NACHT.SCHAFFT.WISSEN is the title of the Regensburg Science Night, organized in partnership with the city of Regensburg.

Under the motto “Regensburg Global – interesting and exciting things from Eastern Europe and the rest of the world”, several UR institutions, together with the IOS Regensburg, have put together an evening full of exciting insights, interactions and fun. Join us to go behind-the-scenes of our research and get a taste of our work in promoting knowledge about Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and the global world.

On Friday, 19 April 2024, from 17:00 to 22:00, a varied program with family activities, mini-lectures, interactive elements and a pub quiz awaits you in the Altes Finanzamt (ALFI) at Landshuter Straße 4. Are you a quiz enthusiast and already have ideas for questions? Then feel free to share them with us!

Several DIMAS professors and colleagues will be involved in the event, giving short talks based on their research or demonstrating the educational and entertainment value of computer games. Back in 2019, DIMAS (then CITAS) was involved. This photo gallery offers a reminder of a great night: Galerie - Universität Regensburg (uni-regensburg.de)

The programme will be in German, with sessions also in Ukrainian. Participation is free of charge and does not require prior registration. You can find the full program at this link: LSC –  Nacht.Schafft.Wissen (europeamerica.de)

Bring family and friends and enjoy an inspiring evening with us, your colleagues, friends and the other visitors to Nacht.Schafft.Wissen.

We are looking forward to you!

DIMAS Courses in Summer Semester 2024

Find details of all the courses being offered by the six DIMAS Professors and the doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at DIMAS by following this link.

Fairville - für faire Städte: DIMAS-Project under supervision of UR-Professor Dr. Anna Steigemann received funding by Horizon Europe

Anna Steigemann, Professor of Sociological Dimensions of Space, at DIMAS is part of a consortium that has secured EU-Horizon funding for Fairville - Facing inequalities and democratic challenges through co-production in cities. The project intends to address embedded urban inequalities and the challenge this poses to democracy in large cities and urban regions. It will do so by intervening in low-income neighbourhoods that face a growing distance to the institutions and processes of representative democracy. Find out more about the project in the UR press release (in German) and on the Fairville website.

From CITAS to DIMAS - on the transition from a Center into a Department

In November, the newly elected board of DIMAS, Prof. Dr. Anna Steigemann and Prof. Dr. Rike Krämer-Hoppe, met with the President of the University of Regensburg, Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel, together with members of the CITAS Board and the manager of CITAS, and now DIMAS, to outline the transition from an area studies Center (CITAS) into a new Department (DIMAS) structure.

Find out more about this meeting and the work in area studies at UR in this report from the UR communication department (in German).

• Image caption: Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel, President of the UR (R) with members of the DIMAS and CITAS Boards and Manager: (L to R) Prof. Dr. Jochen Mecke, Prof. Dr. Anna Steigemann, Prof. Dr. Rike Krämer-Hoppe, Dr. Birgit Hebel-Bauridl und Dr. Paul Vickers. Photo: Margit Scheid/UR