This strategic research field is dedicated to the study of globalisation processes such as global connections and the exchange between world religions and the development of human orders. Scholars from regional, cultural, social and historical sciences conduct research in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO).
Global Connections and Comparisons
The Global Connections and Comparisons research profile area focuses on the emergence and effects of the “global condition”, which is bringing about material and cultural connections between all societies and at the same time constantly gives rise to new inequalities. In this profile area, scholars from regional, cultural, social and historical sciences conduct research in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO). The research activities in this profile area are based on the work of the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe), whose spokesperson is Professor Matthias Middell. ReCentGlobe is a central institution of Leipzig University and is dedicated to the investigation of past and present globalisation projects in a broad interdisciplinary cooperation. The Graduate School Global and Area Studies supports more than 120 doctoral candidates from over 30 countries in their research work.
The profile area benefits from externally funded research alliances such as the Collaborative Research Centre 1199, Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition, and the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies 2344, Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities. Through the Forum for the Study of the Global Condition, it also has close links with the nearby Universities of Erfurt, Halle-Wittenberg and Jena as well as the Max Planck and Leibniz Institutes at these locations.
The successful cooperation is also founded on interdisciplinary master’s programmes in Global Studies, European Studies and the proposed bachelor’s elective in Transregional Studies. Some of these degree programmes are also offered abroad, such as the master’s programme Global Studies: Peace and Security in Africa at Addis Ababa University, and the international master’s in Small Enterprise Promotion and Training which can be completed at Leipzig and in the home country.
The acquisition of major collaborative projects, coupled with the excellent level of collaboration between the participating university and non-university researchers, ensures that the Global Connections and Comparisons profile area has a wide-ranging platform for comparing globalisations. As part of its research strategy, our university is pursuing the further development of this field into an integrated centre. To this end, we have successfully applied to the German Science Council for the research building “Global Hub” that combines interdisciplinary cooperation under one roof, brings together the internationalised doctoral training of the many relatively small disciplines involved, provides technical and methodological support for new digital humanities processes, and establishes the best conditions for interaction between research and the general public.
- Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of History, Arts and Area Studies
- Faculty of Physics and Earth System Sciences
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy
- Faculty of Law website
- Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO)
- Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL)
- Leibniz-Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow
- Faculty of Philology
- Faculty of Theology
CRC 199: Spatialization under the Global Condition
Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Matthias Middell (Global and Area Studies Institute, Leipzig Research Center Global Dynamics)
Firstly, the Spatialization under the Global Condition Collaborative Research Centre examines the emergence of spatial formats – the results of spatial action of individual stakeholder groups, such as territories, networks, chains, enclaves, corridors and (special) zones. Secondly, this Collaborative Research Centre aims to understand how these spatial formats are combined into complex spatial orders, and their evolution since the 18th century under the global condition.
FOR 2344: Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities
Spokespersons: Prof. Dr. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (Institute for Cultural Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy), Prof. Dr. Christoph Kleine (Institute for the Study of Religion, Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies)
The Multiple Secularities Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies examines different arrangements of secularity – the separation of the “religious” from the “secular” – in cultural circles beyond today’s Western world. In this way, the researchers working here want to understand the associated conflicts surrounding the power of interpretation and claims to validity in different world regions.
On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere (SPP 2361)
Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Christoph Zielhofer (Institute of Geography, Faculty for Physics and Earth System Sciences)
Priority Programme 2361, On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere, explores the interactions between human societies and pre-industrial floodplains in Central Europe. The core research question of this Priority Programme is the extent to which humans have had an influence on changes to floodplains, and since when. Leipzig University, the University of Tübingen and the Technical University of Darmstadt developed the framework programme together.
GRK 2899 Belongings
Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Yfaat Weiss (Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies and Leibniz-Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow)
Co-Spokesperson: Prof. Benjamin Pollock (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
The interdisciplinary International Research Training Group IRTG 2899 “Belongings:Jewish Material Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe and Beyond” explores modern Jewish history and culture through the approach of objects and materiality. The IRTG, supported by a cooperation between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Leipzig University and the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture - Simon Dubnow, will offer an ambitious qualification program for outstanding international doctoral students. Five research clusters (Practice, Ownership, Text, Memory, Stage), each led by PIs from both locations and representing different disciplines, are to be brought into a fruitful dialog within the framework of the IRTG in order to research Jewish material cultures in Europe and in the countries of (forced) Jewish emigration from the 19th to the 21st century as comprehensively and multifacetedly as possible.
Emmy Noether Junior Research Group: African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in global politics
Group leader: Dr. Jens Herpolsheimer (Leipzig Research Center Global Dynamics)
The junior research group investigates the role of African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the negotiation and implementation of complex interlinked and securitized regional/global policies.
Heisenberg Programme
- Heisenberg Professorship: Modern Turkology
Professor Markus Dre?ler (Institute for the Study of Religion, Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies) - Heisenberg Professorship: Blended Legitimacy: Non-State Authority Groups and the Changing Political Order in Post-Conflict Societies
Professor Solveig Richter (Institute for Political Science, Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies) - Heisenberg Program: Digitisation and Mental Health
PD Dr. Claudia Lang (Department of Anthropology, Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies) - Heisenberg Program: New social norms and moral dilemmas as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
PD Dr. Ivar Krumpal (Institute for Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy) - Heisenberg Program: stablishing Confessional Cultures in 18th Century Poland-Lithuania 2) Religious Conversion as Statements
PD Dr. Sebastian Rimestad (Institute for the Study of Religion, Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies)
- Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ)
Project director: Professor Matthias Middell (Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics and Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Global and European Studies Institute)
Term: 2020–2024
Learn more - The Controversial Legacy of 1989: Appropriations Between Politicisation, Popularisation and the Historical-Political Conveyance of History
Project director: Professor Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Institute for the Study of Culture)
Term: 2018–2022
Learn more - RIRA – Radical Islam versus radical anti-Islam. Social polarization and perceived threats as driving factors of radicalization and co-radicalization processes in adolescents and post-adolescents
Project director: Professor Gert Pickel (Faculty for Theology, Institute of Practical Theology)
Term: 2020 – 2024
learn more - World knowledge - The production of world knowledge transformed
Project director: Matthias Middell (Global and European Studies Institute / ReCentGlobe)
Term: 2021 – 2025
learn more - MECAM: Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb
Project director: Professor J?rg Gertel (Faculty of Physics and Earth System Sciences, Institute for Geography)
Term: 2020–2023
LEARN MORE - Re-Act – Rule of Law in Eastern Central Europe
Project director: Prof. Dr. Astrid Lorenz (Faculty for Social Sciences and Philosophy and ReCentGlobe)
Term: 2021–2024
learn more - ANCIP – African non-military conflict intervention practices
Project director: Prof. Dr. Ulf Engel (Faculty of History, Arts and Regional Studies; Institute of African Studies and ReCentGlobe).
Term: 2022 – 2026
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Federal Ministry of the Interior
- Racism as a threat to social cohesion in the context of selected social and institutional areas
Project director: Professor Gert Pickel (ReCentGlobe)
Term: 2022 – 2024
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Federal Office of Administration
- InRa-Study — Racism as a threat to social cohesion in the context of selected social and institutional areas
Project director: Professor Gert Pickel (Faculty of Theology, Institute for Practical Theology)
Term: 2021 – 2024
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The Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Germany
- Elitenmonitor – Underrepresentation of East Germans in central management positions: Development over time, mechanisms, options for action
Project directors: Dr. Lars Vogel and Professor Astrid Lorenz (Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Institute of Political Science)
Term: 2022 – 2025
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Saxon State Ministry of Justice and for Democracy, Europe and Equality
- Else Frenkel-Brunswik Institute
Project director: Prof. Dr. Oliver Decker (Leipzig Resesarch Center for Global Dynamics - ReCentGlobe)
Termin: 2020 – 2024
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The scholars working together at the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Eastern Europe – Global Area” (EEGA) pose the question of how societies in Eastern Europe position themselves in global processes and conflicts. They aim to spread new knowledge beyond the academic sphere. In addition, they combine the training of junior academics with international and interdisciplinary study programmes. Particular attention is paid to the communication of research results in the media and to the general public.
The Forum for the Study of the Global Condition investigates how different stakeholders deal with cross-border migration, trade, financial flows and the transfer of ideas, and in doing so, create and determine what can be called “the global”. Founded as a joint initiative by the Universities of Halle-Wittenberg, Jena, Erfurt and Leipzig, it pools and links research in the humanities and social sciences across all these locations.
As part of the Leipzig Way, our university’s research strategy is unlocking opportunities for transdisciplinary research. Issues of globalisation can be linked to the natural and life sciences in the areas of global health, biodiversity and climate research.