Forum Transregionale Studien | Veranstaltungen

European Times of a Palestinian Anti-Fascist: The Secret Life of Najati Sidqi

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0200

As a young communist activist, Najati Sidqi (1905-1979) was both energetic and unlucky enough to live through many of the early twentieth century’s upheavals. He experienced the first decade of Stalin’s Soviet Union, the violence of 1929 in Palestine, and the Spanish Civil War. He served time in Jerusalem’s British prisons, ran an underground newspaper in interwar Paris, and drank vodka with Muslim bureaucrats in Tashkent. He crossed borders and broke taboos. In 1940, during the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, he was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly calling Nazism incompatible with Islam. Sidqi’s memoir, now available in English for the first time, narrates this dizzyingly eventful life with intelligence, wit—and a strange emotional detachment. This talk will explore both his adventures and the darker stories he chooses not to tell. And it will ask: one hundred years later, why does Sidqi’s ultimately unsuccessful work with the global Left seem both so far away and yet so eerily contemporary?

Margaret Litvin is associate professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Boston University (USA) and the author, most recently, of Red Mecca: The Life and Afterlives of the Arab-Soviet Romance (Princeton University Press, forthcoming). Her co-translation of Najati Sidqi’s memoir (University of Texas Press, 2025) is part of an ongoing research project on Najati Sidqi, his wife Lotka Lorberbaum Sidqi, and their daughter Dawlieh Saadi. Margaret was a EUME Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2017/18.

Zeynep Türkyılmaz received her PhD from the Department of History at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2009. After holding many fellowship and teaching positions, she is currently an associated EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien. Her research and teaching interests include state formation, gender, nationalism, colonialism, and religion with a focus on religious non-conformity and missionary work in the Middle East from 1800 to the present.

Pleaser register in advance via eume(at)trafo-berlin.de. Depending on approval by the speaker(s), the Berliner Seminar will be recorded. All audio recordings of the Berliner Seminar are available on SoundCloud.

Gendered Retirement - Women in the Shadows of Illiberal Constitutionalism

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0200

This project investigates how the constitutional value of gender equality is strategically reinterpreted in illiberal contexts within the EU, using a comparative analysis of Austria and Poland. While equality, democracy, and the rule of law are nominally co-equal under Article 2 TEU, equality often receives less substantive attention in EU governance and scholarship. Drawing on constitutional theory and empirical fieldwork, the project conceptualizes “instrumentalized equality discourse” – a phenomenon in which illiberal actors invoke gender equality rhetorically to justify regressive reforms, especially in family and labor law, while simultaneously hollowing out its emancipatory meaning. Focusing on retirement age regulation, a policy area both gendered and constitutionally significant, the study reveals how formal equality rhetoric may in practice reinforce structural inequality and hinder women’s democratic agency. The project employs a mixed-methods approach, combining doctrinal legal analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Poland and Austria. By connecting legal norms to their implementation and effects on the ground, this research advances a more context-sensitive, substantive reading of equality. My goal is to generate empirically informed, legally grounded insights that respond to the selective enforcement of EU equality norms and contribute to more inclusive democratic and constitutional frameworks within the EU.

Defending Democracy through EU Media Regulation: A Constitutional Appraisal

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0200

The EU faces growing threats to democracy, including the rise of far-right governments and foreign political interferences. The media sector is particularly vulnerable to global disinformation, and journalists have faced legal harassment, or even assassination, as seen in Malta, Slovakia or Greece. In response, the EU has taken an increasingly interventionist role, adopting media legislation aimed at defending the value of democracy enshrined in Article 2 TEU. The adoption of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), the Political Advertising Regulation, and the Anti-SLAPP Directive epitomises this shift. This project examines whether these recent EU legislation on media can be conceptualised as “militant democracy”, broadly defined as democratic self-defence, and assesses the balance struck between the EU’s defence of democracy through media regulation and its constitutional principles. From a conceptual standpoint, this research would reassess the militant democracy applied to the EU by reflecting on the democratic self-defence nature of EU media legislation. Furthermore, it aims to highlight the specificity of these legislation, in comparison with the EU protection of the rule of law within Member States. Finally, this project aims at assessing the constitutional tensions surrounding EU media regulation.

Cultural Capital of a Minoritized Elite: The Intersection of Class and Ethnonational Identities of the Emerging Palestinian Elite in Israel

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Aliens in Palestine – The Conspiracy Trope of the Collaborator in Cold War Middle Eastern Literature & Media

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0200

In this talk, Aya Labanieh presents her research on conspiracy tropes in twentieth-century Middle Eastern literature and media, developing “conspiracy” as a critical tool to explore how colonized people theorize and imagine political power, and to trace the dialectical relationship between real imperial conspiracies and popular conspiracy tropes. Drawing on historical records of spy rings, psyops, and scandals, alongside the scholarship of Peter Knight, Hillel Cohen, and Ghassan Kanafani, Labanieh zeroes in on the particular conspiracy trope of the “collaborator” (‘ameel) within the context of the Cold War in the Arab world, and how the trope was produced in dialogue with the real conspiracies and proxy wars of its time. Lastly, she presents the case-study of Emile Habibi, an Arab Israeli Communist politician and author, along with his semi-autobiographical novel, The Secret Life of Saeed, The Pessoptimist (1974), as a satire of the political agency of both the resistance writer and his antithesis, the collaborator, in Cold War Palestine.

Aya Labanieh is a scholar of empire, conspiracy, media, and memory culture. She received her Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, with a dissertation entitled “One Thousand and One Nightmares: Colonial Conspiracies and Their Afterlives in Modern Middle Eastern Media” (2025). She is presently a researcher at EUME and SYRASP at the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin, and this August she will be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar. Her work contends with the intertwinement of conspiracy, memory, and power in Anglophone and Arabophone literatures and mediaspheres—spanning genres of dystopian science fiction, radical Internet subcultures, and the memoirs of agents and spies. She has published in, among others, the Journal of Arabic Literature, Journal of Medical Humanities, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, alongside public-facing venues such as Aeon and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

This event is part of the ZMO Summer Colloquium 2026 and will take place in a hybid format. More information and the registration link for online attendance can be found here.

Palestine in Berlin

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Defending EU Values Through Strategic Litigation: An Assessment of New Avenues for Enforcement

Wed, 06 May 2026 14:00:00 +0200

Over the past decade, values-related litigation before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has emerged as a response to increasing threats to the rule of law within Member States. However, judicial avenues currently available – primarily preliminary ruling requests, infringement proceedings, and more marginally annulment actions - have proven structurally limited and often ineffective in providing redress. This research argues that strategic litigation faces serious obstacles due to the CJEU’s narrow interpretation of Treaty provisions, and limited access to judicial remedies. The project seeks to answer two core questions: why have existing remedies failed, and how can strategic litigation better enforce EU values? It explores two potential solutions: greater member state participation in infringement proceedings, and expanded legal standing for civil society actors in annulment actions. Drawing on recent developments in ECtHR jurisprudence and engagement with key advocacy groups such as Reclaim and the CEU Rule of Law Clinic, the project combines doctrinal analysis with practical insights. By advocating for a broader interpretation of EU legal instruments, this research contributes to debates on democratic participation, institutional accountability, and the future of rule of law enforcement in the EU.

“The Whole World Knows Our Struggle”: Music, Memory, and Palestinian Resistance in Berlin

Wed, 13 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

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Digital Evidence and Advocacy of Human Rights-Based Arms and Technology Treaties

Wed, 20 May 2026 14:00:00 +0200

The growing availability of digital evidence has transformed the monitoring of arms transfers and the use of emerging military technologies. From conventional weapons and surveillance tools to artificial intelligence–driven systems and lethal autonomous weapons, today’s conflicts require new approaches to documentation and advocacy. From AI-driven surveillance and predictive policing to autonomous weapons and algorithmic targeting, these technologies raise profound legal and ethical concerns. Civil society, investigative journalists, and legal practitioners increasingly turn to open-source intelligence and digital forensics to expose violations, trace weapons flows, and demand accountability. This research examines how digital methodologies—capable of geolocating attacks, verifying weapons deployment, and detecting AI-enabled targeting or surveillance—can enhance treaty enforcement, bridge evidentiary gaps, and strengthen advocacy for human rights-centered arms and technology regulation. It considers both traditional arms and emerging technologies as subjects of governance, with particular attention to their implications for international humanitarian law. Using a mixed-methods approach—combining case studies, expert interviews, and methodological review—it assesses how cross-sector collaborations can translate complex technical findings into policy change, with a focus on strengthening European Union frameworks on arms control, AI governance, and the rule of law.

Colonial Subjects to Surveilled Citizens: Depictions of the Regime Informant in the Cultural Memory of Baathist Syria and Iraq

Wed, 20 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Rules Under Pressure: How Radical Right Populists Are Reshaping Europe’s Parliaments

Wed, 27 May 2026 14:00:00 +0200

Europe’s legislatures are under increasing pressure from radical right populist parties that claim to embody the unfiltered “will of the people” and challenge the legitimacy of parliamentary institutions. Historically, once in office, mainstream parties have relied on procedural mechanisms, many dating to the 19th century, that favour swift government business. This project examines whether the entry of radical right populist parties in European parliaments prompts systematic alterations to these procedures, thereby either restricting or expanding individual MPs’ rights to speak, propose legislation, and scrutinise the executive. Methodologically, the project will integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches within a comparative framework. First, it adopts the ParlRulesData method to track textual amendments in parliamentary rules of procedure over time, capturing macro-level (broad textual shifts), meso-level (specific policy areas), and micro-level (individual rule clauses) changes. Second, it draws on archival materials, semi-structured interviews with MPs and parliamentary staff, and direct observations of parliamentary sessions to clarify how radical right party entry interacts with legislative reform.

State, Citizenship, and Law in Crisis

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:20:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Schools and Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: What Implications for Democracy in Europe?

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0200

Schools are crucial institutions in democracy. They are hubs of community togetherness, often the first place where children experience the power of the state, and crucial places of academic learning and socialisation vital for downstream rights and the ability to participate in democratic society. Equally, positive obligations have long been considered the “hallmark” of the European Court of Human Rights, which defines minimum obligations to comply with the ECHR, including what Council of Europe member states must do to secure respect for human rights in schools. Yet, no scholars have looked comprehensively at what positive obligations exist in relation to schooling in the member states of the Council of Europe. This is surprising as a brief survey of the case-law indicates that positive obligations actually play a significant role in defining the rights and obligations that exist vis-à-vis schools in a number of diverse areas, from keeping children safe in school to undoing histories of racial discrimination in schools to reasonably accommodating schoolchildren with disabilities. In line with this, this project seeks to typologise, conceptualise and theorise regarding the link between positive obligations and schools under the ECHR, utilising Amy Guttman’s pioneering book Democratic Education as a frame.

Indigenous Affinities: Toward Solidarity Across the Global South

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:30:00 +0200

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Gaza’s Children Write Back: Child-Authored Writing, War, and Political Agency

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0200

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Constitutional Democracy and Its Capacity for Self-Preservation in a Multipolar World: The Concept of Defensive Democracy in Germany, Ukraine, and the Broader European Experience

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:00:00 +0200

After the full-scale invasion, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine characterized Ukraine as a "self-defending democracy." This notion, close to militant democracy, means that despite martial law, restrictions on human rights must remain proportionate and justified to ensure the preservation of statehood. Germany was the first European country to embed the idea of a democracy capable of defending itself against anti-democratic forces. Drawing on the Basic Law of 1949, the German model rests on a commitment to democratic values, defensive capacity, and the promotion of democracy’s protection. Yet a fundamental concern follows: are these mechanisms enough? What if a party that complies with the constitution gains total control over the state? For Ukraine, the preservation of statehood should not be understood narrowly or instrumentally, and the limits of militant democracy’s toolbox must be carefully studied. As democratic states increasingly rely on national legal frameworks, Ukraine must harmonize its constitutional doctrine with the jurisprudence and constitutional principles of the European Union—while ensuring that defensive democracy does not become a threat itself. The research asks how democracies can defend themselves without undermining fundamental rights—and whether Ukraine’s constitutional framework is ready for this challenge under and after martial law.

Translate and Rule: Justice, Arabic Literature, and the Colonial Archive

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Feminist Comics in Arab and Latin American Protest Cultures

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0200

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Bi-Nationalism and the Future of Israel

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0200

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Narratives of Female Criminality in Turkish Literature and the Press: A Comparative Analysis (1870-1935)

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0200

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Queer Temporalities and Cultural Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This workshop addresses questions of time and temporality in Central and Eastern European literatures from queer perspectives, with a focus on Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Russia. Organized within the framework of EUTIM project, it explores how questions of time, sexuality, and literary form intersect across different historical moments and cultural settings.

Over the past decades, queer temporality—developed and articulated in literary and cultural theory by scholars such as Elizabeth Freeman, Jack Halberstam, Lee Edelman, and José Esteban Muñoz—has provided a way to describe and analyze literary conceptualizations of time in relation to queer experience, desire, and intimacy. Rather than treating time as linear or developmental, this scholarship has emphasized temporal phenomena such as delay, belatedness, interruption, repetition, and alternative temporal horizons. While approaches to queer temporality differ in their political implications and theoretical commitments, they share a concern with how dominant temporal regimes structure belonging, futurity, inclusion, and exclusion.

In the literary contexts of Central and Eastern Europe of the 20th and 21st centuries, questions of queer time intersect with particular historical conditions, including censorship, displacement, the fragmentation and uneven transmission of literary heritage, and shifting regimes of visibility, as well as with culturally specific ways of articulating same-sex desire. Against this background, the workshop brings together work on different literary traditions and languages to explore how literary texts engage with temporal structures through representations of sexuality, attachment, and non-aligned life trajectories shaped by political rupture, social transformation, and migration.

The workshop foregrounds literary analysis of a wide range of textual materials, including poetry, prose, drama, essays, diaries, correspondence, and other forms of life writing, in which temporal experience becomes narratively legible. Special attention is given to problems of archival absence, fragmentary textual survival, and locally situated narrative practices, understood not only as methodological challenges but also as constitutive elements of queer temporal experience.

Alongside research on lesser-known or understudied authors and corpora, the workshop also invites renewed engagement with more established figures commonly associated with queer literary history. In such cases, the emphasis lies on re-examining their temporal configurations and literary forms, rather than on reaffirming their canonical status.

The workshop will result in an edited volume featuring contributions from participants.

- more information follows -

Global Hijra: A Modern History of Muslim Refugee Migration

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.

Something is Passing in the Night: Iranian Hyphenates in the World

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0200

More information will follow soon.