The Historicity of Democracy Seminar
Organized within the framework of the HISDEMAB international and collaborative research programme of the Leibniz-Association (ZMO-ZZF-IEG) in collaboration with IFPO and Manouba University.
Registration: https://forms.gle/A8AJDvdaQyUiG5qD8
You can also send an email to HISDEMAB@gmail.com
The objective of this seminar is to explore the theme of the existence and nature of deliberative institutions and practices, as well as possible early democratic impulses in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim World from the Middle-Ages to the 19th century. Paying attention to the political, social and anthropological roots of such practices, concepts and institutions also allows for a critical and innovative discussion of processes of transformation, erasure, submission to an external order, reinterpretation, mythification or reinvention they have been the object of in the contexts of modernization, colonization, independence, the Cold War and in general the impact with ideologies and policies of the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Guests in the seminar are invited to discuss, among others, research questions relating to the civic role of guilds, the existence of local instances of deliberation, consensus-building, discussion or collaborative decision, the role of confessional communities in such processes as well as the institutionalization of such practices and its possible limits. Questions relating to the construction of citizenship, the functioning of assemblies and then parliaments, as well as on constitutional processes and their roots will also be addressed in the seminar, just like questions on citizen movements, mobilization methods, opinion formation, forms of negotiation and civic conscience. Guest contributors will address the question of the treatment under colonization and since decolonization of this complex heritage.
The 2020-2021 edition of the seminar takes place on selected Thursdays (15.00-17.00 Berlin-time) in the form of a videoconference
November 26, 2020: Dalenda Larguèche (Université de La Manouba, Tunis) “Feminine deliberative practices in Tunis: between intimacy, decision-making processes and the opinion”
December 10, 2020: François Hartog (Directeur d’études émérite, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) “Reflections on Historicity, Time and Historical Research”
January 28, 2021: Hedayat Heikal (Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, Cambridge MA) “Constitutionalism in the Middle East and the question of democracy”
February 18, 2021: Tariq Tell (American University of Beirut) “Debating Representation and Democracy in early-Independent Jordan”
March 11, 2021: Abdul-Hameed Al-Kayyali (Institut français du Proche Orient, Amman) “The question of Power in Classical Islam: Searching for the Roots of Deliberative processes”
March 25, 2021: Amr Elshobaki (Alahram center for political & strategic studies, Cairo) “Contemporary Visions of Historical Deliberative processes in Egypt“
April 29, 2021: Hedwig Richter (Universität der Bundeswehr, München) “Historicizing Democracy. Inclusion and equality in the long 19th century.”
May 6, 2021: Selda Tuncer (Yüzüncü Yıl University, Van) “Women and Public Space in Turkey. A Gendered History of Modernity, Urban
Experience and Everyday Participation”
May 27, 2021: Esther Möller (Professor of Modern Cultural History of North Africa, Universität der Bundeswehr, München) “Claims for humanitarian sovereignty, forms of political participation and the question of democracy in 20th century Egypt”
June 10, 2021: Rashid Khalidi (Columbia University, New-York) “Anti-colonial Movements in the Middle East and the question of democracy”
June 24, 2021: Falestin Naili (IFPO Amman) “Colonial contingencies: the political marginalisation of the municipality of Jerusalem under the British Mandate“
July 8, 2021: Holger Nehring (University of Sterling) “Theoretical Reflections on Social Movements: contestation of liberal democracies and laboratories of democratic practices“
The 2021-2022 edition of the seminar takes place on selected Mondays (16.00-18.00 Berlin-time) in the form of a videoconference
December 13, 2021: Elke Hartmann (Freie Universität Berlin), “Communal representation, imperial deliberation and the question of democracy within the Late-Ottoman Parliament“
January 17, 2022: Dario Miccoli (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia), “The Jews of Alexandria: middle class feelings, urban identity and politics, 1880s-1920s“
February 7, 2022: Matthieu Rey (IFPO), “Between elections and constitution: Syrian discussions around “the people” as body politic (1943-1963)“
March 14, 2022: Caner Tekin (Ruhr Universität Bochum), “Attitudes of the Turkish Guest Workers towards Democratic Participation in Trade Unions and Companies: Evidence from the Migrant Associations in Cologne and Frankfurt until the Recruitment Ban (1973)”
April 25, 2022: Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat (University of Connecticut), “Human Rights and Democracy in Class and Identity Politics”
May 30, 2022: Mohamed Gamal-Eldin, “Water, Land and Early Nationalism: Protest and Popular Resistance in the Suez Canal Cities, 1859-1919”
June 13, 2022: Erol Ülker (Işık University, Istanbul): “‘Authoritarian Democracy’ and the late Ottoman Empire: State, Power, and Civil Society in the Second Constitutional Period“
July 11, 2022: Ulrike Freitag (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient / Freie Universität Berlin), “Consultative mechanisms and institutions in late Ottoman Jeddah“
The online seminar is free and open to the public upon registration.
The 2022-2023 edition of the seminar takes place on selected Mondays (16.00-18.00 Berlin-time) in the form of a videoconference
December 12, 2022: Markus Koller (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), “Public Debates and Decision-Making Processes in the Ottoman Empire: State Practices of Violence in the 17th and 18th c.”
February 6, 2023: Malte Fuhrmann, “From Empire to Dromocracy. Building the Infrastructure State in Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, 1839-1908“
February 20, 2023: Cilja Harders (Freie Universität Berlin), “The politics of the poor in Egypt – analytical reflections and empirical findings“
February 27, 2023: Çanay Șahin, “Decision-Making Processes in Samsun and Trabzon: Land Dispute and Claiming Justice (1847-1857)”
March 6, 2023: Gabriel Doyle, “Collective Decision-Making and Foreign Interference in the Latin Community of Ottoman Istanbul“
May 8, 2023: Sarah El-Bulbeisi (Orient Institut Beirut), “On taboos and traumatic experiences in democratic societies: Palestinians in Germany and Switzerland”
May 15, 2023: Youssef Ahmed Bani Yassin (University of Jordan), “Reflections on the experiences of deliberative councils in al-Andalus during the era of the Mulûk al-Taïfa“
June 05, 2023: Pascale Ghazaleh (American University Cairo), “Deliberation and self-autonomy in Ottoman Egypt’s trade and crafts community”
June 12, 2023 : Mounir Saidani (CERES Tunis), “Intermediary Bodies and the Political Construction of Democracy in Tunisia”
June 26, 2023: Mehmet Osmanli (Pamukkale University), “Deliberation and autocratic mentality in State Society: a Reading of Izzet Pasha al-Abed’s Diaries”
July 10, 2023: Annegret Roelcke (Leibniz-ZMO Berlin/ Freie Universität), “Contesting the Redevelopment of Istanbul’s Pierre Loti Hill (1980s – 2010s): Cultural Heritage, Religious Places and the Public Interest”
The fall 2023 edition of the seminar takes place on selected Mondays (16.00-18.00 Berlin-time) in the form of a videoconference
October 16, 2023: Charis Boutieri (British Academy Mid-Career Fellow | King’s College London),The Art of Public Speaking (Fan al-Khitaba al- Amma): The Tunisian Public Sphere after 2011
November 13, 2023: Claudia Gatzka (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), “Democracy as Local Practice. Citizens, Politics and Elections in West Germany and Italy (1945-1976)“
HISDEMAB is an international and collaborative research programme of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft chaired by Nora Lafi (Leibniz-ZMO, Berlin) in association with Leibniz-IEG (Mainz), Leibniz-ZZF (Potsdam), IFPO Amman and Université de la Manouba (Tunis).
Members of the programme: Nora Lafi, Robin Schmahl, Simon Baumann and Maija Susarina (Leibniz-ZMO Berlin); Frank Bösch and Elisabeth Kimmerle (Leibniz-ZZF Potsdam); Manfred Sing and Marianne Dhenin (Leibniz-IEG); Falestin Naili and Abdelqader Amer (IFPO Amman); Habib Kazadaghli and Ahlem Hajjaji (Université de la Manouba)
