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Forum Transregionale Studien secured

The continuation of the Forum Transregionale Studien is now secured due to the budgetary decision of the Berlin parliament on 12 December 2013. The former plans of the Berlin Senate for Economy, Technology and Research to suspend the funding of the Forum were withdrawn. The Forum’s head office will receive financial support, however, the forum’s programs will not be supported any longer from January 2014 onwards.

Current Fellowships and Programs of the Forum

The program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices and the Forum’s initiatives like the Summer and Winter Academies and the Annual Conference are completely funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. They are not affected by the financial cuts of the Senate. Art Histories has recently called for new applications for the academic year 2014/15.

The stipends of the research programs EUME,Rechtskulturen and <link revisiting-the-canons-of-textual-scholarship profil allgemeines.html external-link-new-window externen link in neuem>Zukunftsphilologie are secured for the current academic year. Moreover, EUME will be continued throughout the academic year of 2014/15 due to the support of three German private foundations. There is a new call for applications for the next fellow-year of 2014/15.
The financing of the program Global Prayers is due to expire on 31 December 2013. The originally planned term was therefore shortened by 3 months.

Support of the Forum

This is a first success with regard to the continuation of the Forum. Above all, the broad support of scholars and politicians played a great part in this success. Also the <link en forum press.html external-link-new-window externen link in neuem>media reported detailed and critically about the cutting plans of the Senate.

Fellows of the program Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME) had composed an <link fileadmin pdf forum download>open letter to Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin, as an initial response to the announced cost-cutting measures. In a petition of the research program Rechtskulturen, more than five hundred legal scholars are protesting against the Berlin Senate’s savings proposals.

In over <link fileadmin pdf forum fts-testimonials-130910-web.pdf download>fifty individual statements, scholars from Germany and throughout the world have described the importance of EUME, Rechtskulturen and <link en revisiting-the-canons-of-textual-scholarship zur-situation-von-zukunftsphilologie referenzen.html external-link-new-window externen link in neuem>Zukunftsphilologie for both themselves personally and for development of their respective scholarly disciplines. In these texts the innovative character and international appeal of the Forum becomes very clear, illustrating that there is more at stake for Berlin than its reputation as an international center of scholarship.