Event: Terrains: Critical Perspectives and Methods in Geography, Anthropology and History

What does it mean to conduct research ‘in the field’?

The DIMAS lecture series explores the concept of ‘terrains’ – not merely as physical landscapes, but as archives, communities and political spaces that shape the Middle East and Central Asia. We look beyond the map and examine the practical challenges of academic work: building trust within a community, ethical issues when working in semi-authoritarian areas, and the tensions between archival theory and ethnographic reality.

Following foundational introductions to the geography and history of these regions, the course moves on to a series of masterclasses led by internationally renowned visiting scholars. By engaging with their current projects and accompanying texts, students learn to decipher complex terrains through a critical, multi-scalar lens.

This course is open to everyone – from specialists in regional studies to those who are simply curious about how knowledge is produced in contested spaces.

The 2026 DIMAS lecture series is supported by the Hans Vielberth University Foundation and organised by Prof. Dr Timothy Nunan and Dr Mélanie Sadozaï from DIMAS.

Programme:

15 October 2026
Introduction to the Course by Prof. Dr Timothy Nunan & Dr Mélanie Sadozaï

22 October 2026
Dr Mélanie Sadozaï (University of Regensburg): Ethnographic Research in Sensitive Contexts: Insights from the Central Asia–Afghanistan border region

29 October 2026
Prof. Dr Timothy Nunan (University of Regensburg): Faith in Revolution: Islamist Internationalism in a Decolonising World

5 November 2026
Dr Dani Nassif (University of Regensburg): Authority and Legitimacy in Modern Iraq

12 November 2026
Dr Nafay Choudhury (London School of Economics): Bazaar Governance: Legal Pluralism and Economic Order in an Afghan Marketplace

19 November 2026
Dr Suzy Blondin (University of Lausanne): Mobile ethnography to explore climate-related movements in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains

26 November 2026
Prof. Dr Till Mostowlansky (Geneva Graduate Institute, Kyiv School of Economics): Microbial Terrains: How non-human evolution and movement challenge human lives and boundaries

3 December 2026
Dr Gözde Yazıcı Cörüt (University of Regensburg): Between Empires, Across Borders: The Caucasus as a Relational Terrain

10 December 2026
Dr Siarhei Bohdan (University of Regensburg): Tear Down These Borders! Transcending Imperialist and Nationalist Historiographies of the Middle East and Central Asia

17 December 2026
Dr Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyzanowska: Terrain as Collaboration: Researching the Past in the Iraqi Present

7 January 2027
Dr Elisabeth Becker-Topkara (Max Weber Institute, Heidelberg): Diasporic Terrains: Walking Jewish Berlin

14 January 2027
Dr Annika Schmeding (University of St Andrews, UK & KNAW): Contesting Frontierism: Living/researching with Friction

21 January 2027
Dr Andrei Dörre (Freie Universität Berlin): Terrains Matter! Conducting Empirical Research in High Asia

28 January 2027
Dr Carolyn Taratko (ZZF, Potsdam): Cooling the Global South: Exploring the role of technology in regionalisation, 1950s–1970s