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Research on the Modern Arab World in the Federal Republic of Germany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2016
Extract
To present “who is working where and on what within the German academic world” was the task set for this article. The attempt to fulfill this requirement requires a few preliminary and urgent remarks. To draw a complete picture of research on the Modern Arab World in the FRG within the scope of a rather short article is impossible for various reasons. The German Research Foundation has just initiated the same project—a publication of around two hundred pages is forthcoming in 1991. Unlike the United States, where the concept of area studies has led to the creation of “Middle East Centers” at various universities, the FRG has no such institutional framework, with the exception of two projects of this kind in Berlin and Erlangen (see below). Research on the Modern Arab World thus takes place in various departments of various universities. The concluding remark made by Eckarf Ehlers in his article on “German geography of the Middle East” still holds true: “Thus, one may say that almost all activities are based on personal and individual engagement.” Yet, it is not only the institutional factor but also, interwoven with it, traditional historical factors within the academic disciplines as well as the foreign policy of the FRG itself which contribute to making research on the Modern Middle East a rather young discipline in the FRG.
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- Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1990
References
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4 The author is conscious of the fact that she uses the terms “Modern Arab World,” “Modern Middle East,” “Modern Islamic World” without defining them. Yet, for the purpose of this paper this differentiation seems to be unimportant.
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21 The author, not a geographer, relies on the information given to her about departments dealing with the Middle East by members of the Erlangen staff. For a bibliography, see Wirth, op. cit.; for further information, see also Ehlers, op. cit.
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