[Discussion] Experts and Mediators of Knowledge in the 20th Century

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*Experts and Mediators of Knowledge in the 20th Century. Transregional
Perspectives*
*Location:* 	Germany
<http://www.h-net.org/announce/geography.cgi?geography=Germany>

	

	

	

Call for Papers

Summer Academy
'Experts and Mediators of Knowledge in the 20th Century:
Transregional Perspectives'

To be held in Schmoeckwitz, Berlin, September 4-11, 2005
Convenors: Andreas Eckert, Professor of African History, University of
Hamburg, Germany; Marianne Braig, Professor of Political Sciences,
Institute for Latin American Studies, Free University, Berlin, Germany;
Shalini Randeria, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of
Zurich, Switzerland
In conjunction with the research project 'Ways of Knowledge' at the
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

Participants in this Summer Academy will discuss the circulation of
knowledge and cultural transfer processes in the tensile field of mutual
relations and interconnectivity. Particular emphasis will be placed on
interaction among non-European societies, Europe and the United States,
as well as on interactions between non-European societies. We will
proceed from the assumption that these contacts exerted a formative
influence on all interacting parties, and that they are embedded in the
process of social and cultural globalization. The aim of the Summer
Academy is to examine and debate these processes without reproducing
Eurocentric assumptions about the linear transfer of knowledge.

The Summer Academy will focus on experts, translators and mediators of
knowledge. These individuals and groups, including local teachers,
government employees, mission catechists, traders and journalists, had
to mediate and translate between different worlds in colonial and
post-colonial societies. In the colonial period, these experts and
mediators were able to gain a new authority as representatives of
knowledge, and they increasingly benefited from the order of knowledge
established by colonialism.

In the process, they entered into competition with other, often
religiously rooted orders of knowledge and their representatives--and
with European experts who claimed the exclusive monopoly on the 'right
knowledge' and tried to push it through. In this way, competing expert
cultures and knowledge orders emerged that interacted in manifold ways.
Thus more recently the 'experts' in international development agencies
increasingly refer to 'local knowledge' and 'local experts.' In this
process, however, local experts and knowledge are often only just
'constructed' as 'local.'

A closer look at experts and mediators of knowledge will enable us to
reveal complex, 'interactive' networks of competing orders of knowledge,
orders which resulted not only from an often hierarchical communication
between representatives of European and non-European societies, but also
from communication among non-European societies only. Moreover, we seek
to provide impulses for cooperation between regional research and the
systematic disciplines.

Candidates
We welcome candidates from the disciplines of history, anthropology,
literature, sociology, political sciences as well as area studies.
Applicants should be at the doctoral or postdoctoral level. Ph.D.
holders should have received their doctorate in the last five years.
Proposed projects should employ a historical perspective and emphasize
connections beyond the national state. Travel expenses and costs
incurred during the stay in Berlin will be covered (pending the definite
confirmation of funding).

Application procedure:
To apply, please send the following documents in English:

   1. A curriculum vitae
   2. A statement about current research relevant to the Summer
      Academy's theme; length: up to 1,000 words (not counting cited
      references)
   3. The names and addresses (incl. e-mail) of two references

Application deadline: *30 April 2005*

Candidates will be informed in mid-May whether they have been accepted.
Participants will be asked to submit a full paper (10,000 words) in
English by end of July to be distributed to the other participants.

Please send your application to:

	Dr. Felicitas Hentschke
Ways of Knowledge. Transregional Studies
Institute for Advanced Studies
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin#
Wallotstr. 19
D - 14193 Berlin
Germany
Email: fh@wiko-berlin.de <mailto:fh@wiko-berlin.de>
Visit the website at http://www.wiko-berlin.de/kolleg/projekte/wegedw?hpl=1