International Workshop “Culture and Conflict: Exploring cultural concepts and methodologies in analyses of conflicts and security with exemplary foci on East Asia and Eastern Europe”
Workshop
“Culture and conflict: Exploring cultural concepts and methodologies in analyses of conflicts and security with exemplary foci on East Asia and Eastern Europe”
Justus Liebig University Giessen and Macquarie University Sydney
14–15 July 2025
International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Otto-Behaghel-Str. 12, 35394 Gießen
Macquarie University and Justus Liebig University both dedicate significant parts of their interdisciplinary research endeavors in the social sciences and the humanities to questions of international and societal conflicts and security from a theoretical and methodological perspective that foregrounds the role of culture in conflicts, conflict management, and the crystallization of security issues and agendas. Our joint workshop seeks to explore potential for collaboration in this research area. Its focus lies on the discussion of methodologies and conceptual strategies that may inform a cultural analysis of conflicts, bringing into dialogue concept-oriented and interpretive methodologies from disciplines such as political science, International Relations, political and cultural sociology, anthropology, literary studies, media studies, and Cultural Studies.
Thereby, the respective focus of the two universities on two world regions – East Asia and the western Pacific on the one hand, Eastern Europe in a broad definition on the other hand – figures as a stimulus to reflect on methodological and conceptual avenues in their area-related contextualization in the cultural study of conflicts and security. Moving beyond a classical inter-area comparison, this approach is suited to identifying shared grounds, complementarities, and common challenges in the conceptual and methodological design of an international collaboration on conflict and security with a virtually global horizon.
Programme
Monday, July 14, 2025
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Slot 1
9 am – 12:45 pm
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9:00-10:30 Panel 1: Culture, Conflict, and China (Macquarie U) - A/Prof. Shirley Chan: Culture or coercion? Early Chinese approaches to conflict and their contemporary relevance - Dr. Mei-Fen Kou: Reframing the Taiwan Strait crisis in Australia - Dr. Dalbir Ahlawat: China’s strategic culture and grey zone activities
10:45-12:45 Panel 2: Conceptual perspectives on culture and conflict I (JLU) - Prof. Stefan Peters (Director CAPAZ): Transformative justice in Colombia? Insights from the recent Truth Commission - Dr. Nina Boy (Sociology): Security guarantees: Political or legal promise of protection? Promises and constraints of a cultural studies perspective - Prof. Julian Ernst (Media pedagogy): Digital propaganda as challenge for media education and society - Dr. Oleksandr Chertenko (Slavic Studies): „The War Has No Gender?” Models of femininity-in-crisis in Ukrainian culture after 2014
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Slot 2
1:30 – 6 pm
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1:30 -3 pm Panel 3: Culture, Conflict, and the Pacific (Macquarie) - Prof. Stephanie Lawson: Geopolitical conflict in the Pacific world: Culture, values, and interests - Dr. Maren Tomford: Blue Pacific realities: Culture, conflict, and the quest for security - Prof. Julian Droogan: Cultural coercion in the Pacific: Wielding culture to influence
3:15 – 4:45 pm Panel 4: Conceptual perspectives on culture and conflict II (JLU) - Concept “Communities of conflict” (Prof. Andreas Langenohl, Prof. Monika Wingender, Prof. Peter Haslinger) - Concept “Cultural security” (Prof. Valeria Korablyova and Sofia Nyblom, Charles University Prague, online) - Comment by Prof. Maksym Yakovlyev (National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy)
5:00 to 6:00 pm Roundtable on areas of cooperation
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Programme
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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Slot 3
9 am – 1 pm
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Presentation of the institutional units involved in the exchange at both universities
Justus Liebig University: - Prof. Monika Wingender: Giessen Centre of Eastern European Studies (GiZo) - Prof. Andreas Langenohl: International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) - Indira Murillo, M.A., LL.M., and Prof. Stefan Peters: German Colombian Peace Research Institute (CAPAZ)
Macquarie University: - Prof. Stephanie Lawson: The Department of Politics and International Relations - Dr. Dalbir Ahlawat: The Department of Security Studies - A/Prof. Shirley Chan: The Department of Global Cultures and Languages
Roundtable
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Slot 4
2 – 4 pm
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Team for International Integration with a Focus on Eastern Europe (Prof. Andrea Gawrich, Dr. Murad Nasibov, Lea Konrad and students of the political science M.A. programme)
Macquarie University’s School of International Studies: Research, Programs, HDR, and student mobility (Prof. Julian Droogan and Dr. Mei-Fen Kou)
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Slot 5
4 – 5:30 pm
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Doctoral candidates and postdocs presenting their projects
- Dr. Regina Guzaerova (GiZo, JLU): Culture wars: Political correctness and language change in Russia - Marina Iaroslavtseva (GCSC, JLU): Spectacles of force: How contemporary Russian cinema and TV frame gendered violence in an authoritarian state - Zekiye Gürün-Ücem (GCSC, JLU): Unravelling the 'German Dream': An analysis of the increasing trend of Turkish asylum seekers in Germany and the role of evolving legal frameworks (online)
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