A Small But Fertile Field: Strengthening Southeast European Studies in Regensburg

The Area Studies at the UR and the IOS are recieving a grant by the Volkswagen Foundation as part of their programme "Weltwissen – Strukturelle Stärkung Kleiner Fächer" (transl.: "Global Knowledge - Structural Strengthening of Small Disciplines").

08 February 2022

As one of the most diverse regions in Europe, South Eastern Europe is an important translocal and transregional hub. It has been a meeting point of cultures, languages and religions on a local level but also in wider interrelations. ­Geopolitcally it is interwined with other parts of Europe, but also the Middle East and the Americas.

The University of Regensburg (UR) and the Leibniz-Institute for Eastern and Southeast European Studies (IOS) have proposed a strategy concept for a coordination centre for the Southeastern European Area Studies. This endeavor is supposed to improve teaching by internationalizing and digitalizing it, as well as through the implementation of Albanian language courses. On top of that it is planned to establish a Visiting Professorship Programme and International Visiting Fellowships for Early Career Scholars, and also to 'mobilize' local knowledge and enable knowledge transfer in general.

Regensburg is one of the best locations to realize these ideas due to the amount of expertise and resources on site. And for the next seven years, the Volkswagen Fundation is going to support the South Eastern European Studies at the UR and IOS as part of their programme "Weltwissen – Strukturelle Stärkung Kleiner Fächer" (transl.: "Global Knowledge - Structural Strengthening of Small Disciplines") with up to 996.000 Euro.

Congratulations to our Principal Investigators Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer and Prof. Dr. Ger Duijzings as well as PD Dr. Heike Karge, Prof. Dr. Klaus Buchenau and Prof. Dr. Björn Hansen on this success.