GWZO Junior Research Group
Contrasting East Central Europe
The GWZO Junior Research Group »Contrasting East Central Europe« was established in April 2019. The group examines cultural and social change in East Central Europe in comparison with other European sub-regions and across the world. The group’s research pursues a transnational and transregional approach that opens up the regional focus to the East and to the West and considers the regional processes in a global context. For this, the Junior Research Group draws on current debates in area studies and global studies and combines comparative methods with those of transfer and entanglement. By considering contrasts, crises, and caesura, the group’s research uses multiple perspectives, dynamic conditions and spatial overlaps as a point of departure for comparative frameworks.
As a central measure of the institute’s career development, the Junior Research Group is attached to the Directorate. The group members engage in regular interdisciplinary exchange with the researchers of the GWZO departments.
Insights into the work of the GWZO Junior Research Group
GWZO Annual Conference 2021
At the institute’s annual conference in 2021, the Junior Research Group put comparative research methods into the spotlight. The interdisciplinary event titled »Asymmetries of a Region: Decentring Comparative Perspectives on Eastern Europe« discussed the potentials and challenges of comparative approaches for current and future research in area studies.
Area Studies under Discussion
Since 2020, the Junior Research Group has been co-organiser of a virtual series on current debates in area studies. The format was launched in cooperation with the CITAS and Leibniz ScienceCampus »Europe and America« in Regensburg as well as the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe. The editions so far discussed comparative approaches, travelling concepts, the challenges of the digital era, public knowledge, and policymaking.
Research Lab “Valorisation and Commodification” within the Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past”
The Leibniz Research Alliance »Value of the Past« was launched in 2021. The GWZO is a full member of this alliance alongside twenty institutions of the Leibniz Association and numerous national and international cooperation partners. Dr Corinne Geering took on the role of speaker in one of nine research labs within the research alliance, together with Dr Torsten Meyer (Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources in Bochum). Their research lab “Valorisation and Commodification” examines the economic uses of the past: this includes history marketing, the role of the past in cultural and creative industries as well as the use of the past in urban and regional development.
New Research Project on Heritage and Post-Soviet Urban Development
The collaborative research project »Cities Building Culture – Built Heritage in Post-Soviet Urban Development« started its activities in April 2021. It is conducted in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the RWTH Aachen. The sub-project “Values of Built Heritage” at GWZO is led by Dr Corinne Geering and Prof. Dr Arnold Bartetzky.
