Archive - DAAD Letter

2024 | 2025 - Visions of Future

Issue 2024 | 2025 Keeping in touch

India – an important partner for the future

It is 65 years since the DAAD opened a Regional Office in New Delhi. A decision that laid a solid foundation for a joint future.

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Prof. Carmen Birkle (links) und Helena Hanneder (rechts)

Issue 2024 | 2025 In dialogue

“We should apply the gender lens”

Why gender-specific research should become the norm: Professor Carmen Birkle in conversation with the doctoral student Helena Hanneder from the Centre for Gender Studies and Feminist Futurology.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

Reaching for the stars

Grier Wilt is a spacewalk flight controller and astronaut instructor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

“Complex issues have to be considered from different perspectives”

Astronaut instructor Grier Wilt hasn’t given up her dream of flying into space. In our interview, she explains how Germany played a major part in her life and talks about training in swimming pools the size of soccer pitches.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

Innovations with the power to grow

Professor Luis Pocasangre Enamorado, in his capacity as Director of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, wants to improve the lives of smallholders through technical innovation.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

Following the path shown by nature

The Guatemalan artist Edgar Calel engages in his work with indigenous experiences

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

Tracking down works of art

Art historian and DAAD alumna Professor Bénédicte Savoy talks about looted art in European museums – and why she sees art history also as a discipline with relevance to the future.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Food for thought

“More cooperation, not less”

Dr Dagmar Pruin, DAAD alumna and president of German charity “Brot für die Welt”, firmly believes that anyone wanting to make the world a better place needs analytical skills, hope and a certain amount of courage.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Engaging in exchange

Energy justice in the Global South

Juan Pablo Cárdenas is involved in supplying energy to village communities.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Engaging in exchange

Effective early warning system for tuberculosis infections

Fortress Yayra Aku is conducting research in Ghana aimed at containing tuberculosis.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Engaging in exchange

Algae for a green future

How an interdisciplinary DAAD programme is fostering scientific research into green hydrogen.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Interview

“We must take targeted steps to foster innovation”

Dr Peter Schniering is the founder of the think tank Future Cleantech Architects. He talks about the potential offered by innovative technologies in the battle against climate change, about behavioural changes at individual level and about the importance of international cooperation.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Visions of Future

I have a dream

More sustainable, healthier and happier: contributors to this edition reveal their visions for the future.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Overview

“Prospects of a positive future”

For 100 years, the DAAD has been helping to shape change with its programmes and ideas. Why international academic exchange is particularly important in challenging times.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

Improving the rights of women all over the world

Human rights lawyer Dr Brenda Akia from Uganda is campaigning at the United Nations for women’s rights.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 In action

“Being able to influence important women’s rights issues is a unique experience”

Human rights lawyer Dr Brenda Akia from Uganda has been a member of the United Nations CEDAW Committee since 2022. The committee monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In our interview she explains why this work has become her life’s central purpose.

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Issue 2024 | 2025 Visions of Future | LETTER

Visions of Future

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1 | 2024 - The magic of film

Issue 1 | 2024 Keeping in touch

“Polish cinema is in a state of flux”

Radical and at times international: a delve into Poland’s current film landscape.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In dialogue

“DEFA films open up new perspectives”

The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the only research centre and archive of East German cinema outside Germany. A dialogue between the institute’s Academic Director Mariana Ivanova and her Associate Director Victoria Rizo Lenshyn about the importance of GDR films in the USA.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In action

“Film can be a form of activism”

Mehmood Ali Khan conducts research into Iranian and Pakistani cinema on a DAAD scholarship. As a filmmaker, he documents the Wakhi ethnic minority of which he is a member. In this interview he explains why that work is currently so important and what he hopes to achieve.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In action

Contemporary cinema: queer film culture

British researchers Leila Mukhida and Hongwei Bao study queer film culture in Germany and China.

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Issue 1 | 2024 Food for thought

The future of film

The seven lives of the seventh art: film and cinema between a postpandemic present and a digital future. An essay by film scholar Vinzenz Hediger.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In brief

Transatlantic film partnership: studying in Hamburg and Hollywood

How a German-American exchange programme enables young filmmakers to gain new experiences.

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Issue 1 | 2024 Engaging in exchange

“Many stories from Nigeria have not been told yet”

The University of Jos, in cooperation with Goethe University Frankfurt, has been running the first master’s degree in Film Culture and Archival Studies in Africa since 2019. The German-Nigerian cooperative programme brings together filmmakers from all over the world.

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Issue 1 | 2024 Overview

Aaand Action! Supporting filmmakers worldwide

How the DAAD runs scholarship programmes and the Artists-in-Berlin Program to help aspiring and established filmmakers gain international experience.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In action

“I would like to see films that take risks”

How the Cameroonian director and former fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program Jean-Pierre Bekolo creates alternative African futures with his films.

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Issue 1 | 2024 Close to their heart

Witty, intelligent and unconventional

We asked contributors to this issue for their favourite films – and we also give a few cinema tips ourselves.

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Issue 1 | 2024 In action

The shadows of the past

DAAD alumna Megumi Hayakawa studies the aesthetics of old animated films.

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Issue 1 | 2024 Interview

A silver bear for a talking hippopotamus

The protagonist in the film “Pepe” by Dominican director Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias is a hippopotamus with a fascinating history. The filmmaker and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program fellow talks about identity, inspiration and being different.

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Issue 1 | 2024 The magic of film | LETTER

The magic of film

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2 | 2023 - Science diplomacy

Issue 2 | 2023 Interview

“Science requires political support”

Political scientist and sociologist Dr Tim Flink conducts research on science diplomacy. Why realigning foreign science policy is so important for international research cooperation in view of global challenges.

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Issue 2 | 2023 In brief

Science diplomacy is. . .

Four quotes about the importance of science diplomacy.

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Issue 2 | 2023 Overview

Collaboration in a changed world

How the DAAD involves itself in foreign science policy – and why internationally networked research is now more important than ever.

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Issue 2 | 2023

“We must not be naive”

Dr Jan Marco Müller coordinates science diplomacy and multilateral relations at the European Commission. In our interview he reveals why it is crucial for the EU to have a joint strategy – and why science and technology have once again become pieces on the geopolitical chessboard.

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Collage of wind turbines, butterflies, solar panels, high-rise buildings

Issue 2 | 2023 Engaging in exchange

Science diplomacy on an equal footing

The considerable potential that closer collaboration between science and diplomacy offers is particularly evident in view of global crises. Read about the important role that the work of the German Centres for Research and Innovation (DWIH) plays in this context.

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Issue 2 | 2023 Engaging in exchange

Paths to freedom

Academic freedom is under pressure around the world. What can academic exchange achieve?

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Collage with puzzle pieces and industrial plants

Issue 2 | 2023 In brief

Jointly addressing global challenges

The Berlin Center for Global Engagement of the Berlin University Alliance supports research and science management with a view to making global cooperation successful.

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Issue 2 | 2023 Food for thought

Diplomacies in the plural

How much diplomatic power does science have? A guest article by Professor Maria Rentetzi

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43 / 5.000 Übersetzungsergebnisse Übersetzung Illustration with four scientists

Issue 2 | 2023 In action

Science diplomacy in international practice

Political responsibility and dialogue in challenging constellations: based on their current roles, four individuals with close connection to the DAAD offer insights into foreign science policy and science diplomacy in action.

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Issue 2 | 2023 In dialogue

“It is impossible to remain neutral, even for ethical reasons”

Nickey Diamond from Myanmar is doing his PhD in Konstanz and is the first scholarship holder of the Hilde Domin Programme, which since 2021 has been supporting students and doctoral candidates who are at risk. Together with his professor Judith Beyer, he talks about political engagement and science, the value of the programme and the situation in Myanmar.

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A water wheel in a courtyard at the German Jordanian University

Issue 2 | 2023 Keeping in touch

Bridge-building in the MENA region

How the Regional Office Amman contributes to science diplomacy.

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Issue 2 | 2023 Interview

“A best-practice model for cooperation”

What contribution can the German Centres for Research and Innovation (DWIH) make to science diplomacy? Dr Jan Lüdert, Head of Programs at the DWIH New York, talks about this in our interview.

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Issue 2 | 2023

“Project-based funding threatens academic freedom”

Dr Milica Popović researches the economics of academic freedom. In our interview she explains why she believes that not only governments but also the DAAD have a duty in this respect.

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Issue 2 | 2023 Science diplomacy | LETTER

Science diplomacy

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1 | 2023 - Language

Illustration of people with different hair and skin colours.

Issue 1 | 2023 In contact

Networking funding and research scholarships

Learn more about some of the DAAD’s wide range of funding opportunities for former scholarship holders.

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View of Fujiama, pink blossoming cherry trees on the right and left.

Issue 1 | 2023 Keeping in touch

Aesthetics, modernism and an echo of a bygone era

The Japanese script combines elements of Chinese with Japanese innovation. Axel Karpenstein, Director of the DAAD Regional Office in Tokyo, explains why this symbolises both identity and change at the same time.

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Issue 1 | 2023 In dialogue

“I feel as if I have been robbed of my language”

What role does language policy play in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine? A dialogue between Alla Paslavska from Lviv and Lilia Besugla from Kharkiv, Ukrainian Germanists, DAAD alumnae and university professors who are both currently working at German universities.

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Dr Cornelia Loos delivers her lecture in sign language.

Issue 1 | 2023 In action

Adventures in linguistics

New findings relating to sign language, support for the indigenous population in Mexico and the discovery of an unresearched language in the South Seas: DAAD alumnae and alumni give insights into their research areas.

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A woman holds up a speech bubble with the flag of Morocco.

Issue 1 | 2023

At home in two languages

Professor Naima Tahiri is studying how Moroccan migrants communicate and what influence the country in which they grow up has on their language.

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Issue 1 | 2023

“The new interpreting degree fills an important gap”

How professional interpreters of indigenous languages in Mexico are to strengthen the rights of the indigenous population.

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Professor Péter Maitz with a group of people who speak Unserdeutsch.

Issue 1 | 2023

A sensational discovery

How Professor Péter Maitz is researching the creole language Unserdeutsch.

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Illustrations of Grimm Prize winners in combination with buildings typical of their countries.

Issue 1 | 2023 In action

Language as a bridge between the past and present

With its Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize, the DAAD honours international researchers for outstanding work in the field of German studies. Four prize winners give insights into their current research.

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lllustration of people on a street talking to each other.

Issue 1 | 2023 Food for thought

When multilingualism is the norm

Why linguistic diversity in societies should be embraced: a guest article by Professor Heike Wiese from Humboldt-Universität in Berlin.

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A group of scholarship holders standing in front of a park.

Issue 1 | 2023 In brief

“Positive experiences”

For 40 years, the Language and Practical Experience in Japan programme has been training graduates to serve as bridge builders in bilateral relations.

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Ruth Schimanowski stands between two giant dragon figures.

Issue 1 | 2023 In brief

Valuable knowledge

The DAAD’s Language and Practical Experience in China programme provides participants not only with language skills but also application-oriented competencies.

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Issue 1 | 2023 Engaging in exchange

Multilingualism is the goal

Until recently, Dr Heiko F. Marten ran the DAAD Information Centre in Riga. In our interview he talks about the importance of the German language in the Baltic states following the invasion of Ukraine and why it is important to protect minority languages.

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Professsor Dr Gesine Lenore Schiewer sitting at a table, a bookshelf behind her.

Issue 1 | 2023 Engaging in exchange

German studies as a bridge to the world

German is widely spoken worldwide, and German studies is an international and transdisciplinary subject. Experts report on what they do to promote German around the world – and how Germany also profits from this.

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Illustration with people of different origins, speech bubbles floating above them.

Issue 1 | 2023 Overview

Getting to know the world a bit better

Languages play an important role in the DAAD’s work. It is a question of promoting not only German, but also multilingualism. This approach is supported by various programmes and grants.

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Illustration with the words 1 Augenweide, 2 ridubi, 3 Lies!, 4 nice, 5 looláankil, 6 Kusoma, 7 egal, 8 Wortkunst, 9 mamaput, 10 Konversation.

Issue 1 | 2023 In brief

Our favourite word

We asked this edition’s protagonists which words they like best – and why.

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Issue 1 | 2023 Interview

“Language is my life”

She is one of the leading voices in contemporary Belarusian literature: the poems by Volha Hapeyeva, a poet, author and translator with a doctorate in linguistics who was born in Minsk, have been translated into more than 15 languages. She has been living in exile since 2020 and is currently a fellow of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin program.

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Three gestures in sign language making the word "beginning".

Issue 1 | 2023 Getting started

Starting at the beginning

Without exchange we couldn’t live in a community. It is language that enables us to communicate and interact with one another, language contains our cultural, historical and ecological knowledge, and language shapes our identity.

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Issue 1 | 2023 Language | LETTER

Language

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2 | 2022 - Sustainable innovations

Issue 2 | 2022 Keeping in touch

Sustainability creates new opportunities

The urgency for and opportunities created by sustainable development are particularly visible in sub-Saharan Africa. Beate Schindler-Kovats, Director of the DAAD Regional Office Nairobi, talks about current goals and challenges.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In dialogue

Collective knowledge for glacier research

When groups of researchers measure glaciers in the mountains of Sweden or the Himalayas, it is important for them to work as a team, including with local people. A dialogue between the Indian glacier expert Dr Shaktiman Singh from the University of Aberdeen and his former German intern Martha Schuchardt.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In action

“And: Action!”

DAAD alumnus receives awards for two documentary films.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In action - In brief

The importance of the bison for North America

Bison play an important ecological and cultural role in North America.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In action - In brief

Green energy in the Amazon basin

Scattered throughout the rainforest, the villages of indigenous communities in the Amazon basin are difficult to access.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In action - In brief

Law and sustainability

Tamara Reiter has made environmental commitment her goal.

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Issue 2 | 2022 In action

The futurologist

Global megatrends such as the climate crisis or species extinction are her day-to-day business: Professor Anna-Katharina Hornidge, DAAD alumna and director of the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), is working for a more sustainable and fairer future.

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Illustration Klimafreundliche Stadt der Zukunft

Issue 2 | 2022 Food for thought

A complete reorientation

How water use, mobility and energy production could help rather than harm the environment – and why this would require a cultural revolution.

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Dr. Konstantin Scheihing forschte mit Unterstützung der DAAD-Stiftung in Delft.

Issue 2 | 2022 Engaging in exchange – In brief

Sponsoring scholarships in sustainability

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A discussion in Nuremberg about green hydrogen, the energy source of the future

Issue 2 | 2022 Engaging in exchange – In brief

The future for green hydrogen

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Issue 2 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

Answer to pressing issues

Jointly overcoming global challenges: the DAAD is funding Global Centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Two researchers share insights into their work.

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Issue 2 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

Centres for innovation

The German Centres for Research and Innovation bring science, business and politics together – this year’s focus is on the highly topical area of Sustainable Innovations.

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Issue 2 | 2022 Overview

Research for sustainability

Overcoming today’s ecological crises will be virtually impossible without the innovative impetus of international scientists. The DAAD is making an important contribution with its funding programmes – while reforming its own organisation at the same time.

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Issue 2 | 2022 Interview

Making cities crisis-resilient

At the University of Bonn, meteorologist and DAAD alumna Dr Lisa Schielicke studies how to mitigate the impacts of climate change on cities.

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Photobioreactor in lab algae fuel biofuel industry

Issue 2 | 2022 Sustainable innovations | LETTER

Sustainable innovations

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1 | 2022 - Remembrance

Dampfschiff mit Auswandernden. Abb.: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon, 1908.

Issue 1 | 2022 Keeping in touch

Traces of the past

The DAAD Regional Office Rio de Janeiro is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022. Its director, Dr Jochen Hellmann, recalls an event that even dates much further back: the start of German immigration to Brazil around 200 years ago.

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Issue 1 | 2022 In dialogue

“A better understanding of heritage management”

How can academic exchange influence a country’s remembrance culture? We recorded a dialogue between Dr Britta Rudolff, head of the international Master programme on heritage conservation and site management, and Mohamed Amer from Egypt, one of her former students.

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Issue 1 | 2022 In action

“Knowledge is like a baobab”

Religious objects, deities and icons: German studies specialist, colonial historian and DAAD alumnus Dr Ohiniko Mawussé Toffa aims to clarify where the items stored at GRASSI Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig stem from, who they were taken from and how they came to Germany.

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Issue 1 | 2022 In action - In brief

“Develop hope for the future”

“Untreated traumas can be passed from one generation to the next,” says Professor Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, Director of the Institute for Transcultural Health Science

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Issue 1 | 2022 In action - In brief

Gaps in German remembrance culture

Currently, with regard to the war in Ukraine, Dr Franziska Davies, a historian of Eastern Europe, feels strongly reminded of testimonies and documents from research on the Second World War.

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Issue 1 | 2022 In action

The wounds can still be felt to this day

In her guest contribution, Michaela Küchler explains why Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, together with its intermediary organisations like the DAAD, is committed to a future-oriented culture remembrance culture.

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Issue 1 | 2022 In action

Mission: To remember

The award-winning Korean-American poet and translator Don Mee Choi talks about sanctioned amnesia and a moving example of remembrance culture.

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People demonstrate against the war in Ukraine in front of the Old Town Hall in Münster (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Issue 1 | 2022 Just asking

Support for Ukraine

DAAD President Professor Joybrato Mukherjee on the historical responsibility for Ukraine and the commitment to free academic exchange.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Food for thought

Change of perspective

Professor Aleida Assmann responds to the question of how the view of colonial history is changing Western remembrance culture.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

Remembrance work for the sake of peace

The German-Colombian Peace Institute CAPAZ is committed to critically examining the decades-long conflict in the South American country.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

“A transformative experience”

Germany Close Up – North American Jews Meet Modern Germany offers an opportunity to experience the many facets of Germany. This transatlantic programme is aimed at Jewish students and young professionals from North America.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

Researching Germany’s colonial past

The impact of Germany’s colonial era is still evident in some parts of Africa. The Germanist Guy Armel Fogang Toyem from Cameroon, a scholarship holder on the DAAD’s German Colonial Rule programme, has been researching its effects.

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Teilnehmende aus Afrika und Europa tauschen sich Jahr für Jahr aus.

Issue 1 | 2022 Engaging in exchange

Shaping the future with museums

TheMuseumsLab brings experts from Africa and Europe together to engage in exchange on urgent issues.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Overview

The responsibility of remembrance

Germany must face up to its historical responsibility as a dictatorship and colonial power if global academic exchange is to take place on the basis of equality. New DAAD programmes are making an important contribution to this.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Interview

Lessons of the past

Professor Martin Schulze Wessel, DAAD alumnus and one of the most renowned German experts on Eastern European history, discusses the war in Ukraine.

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Issue 1 | 2022 Remembrance | LETTER

Remembrance

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2024 | 2025 - Visions of Future

India – an important partner for the future

“We should apply the gender lens”

Reaching for the stars

“Complex issues have to be considered from different perspectives”

Innovations with the power to grow

Following the path shown by nature

Tracking down works of art

“More cooperation, not less”

Energy justice in the Global South

Effective early warning system for tuberculosis infections

Algae for a green future

“We must take targeted steps to foster innovation”

I have a dream

“Prospects of a positive future”

Improving the rights of women all over the world

“Being able to influence important women’s rights issues is a unique experience”

Visions of Future

1 | 2024 - The magic of film

“Polish cinema is in a state of flux”

“DEFA films open up new perspectives”

“Film can be a form of activism”

Contemporary cinema: queer film culture

The future of film

Transatlantic film partnership: studying in Hamburg and Hollywood

“Many stories from Nigeria have not been told yet”

Aaand Action! Supporting filmmakers worldwide

“I would like to see films that take risks”

Witty, intelligent and unconventional

The shadows of the past

A silver bear for a talking hippopotamus

The magic of film

2 | 2023 - Science diplomacy

“Science requires political support”

Science diplomacy is. . .

Collaboration in a changed world

“We must not be naive”

Science diplomacy on an equal footing

Paths to freedom

Jointly addressing ­global challenges

Diplomacies in the plural

Science diplomacy in international practice

“It is impossible to remain neutral, even for ethical reasons”

Bridge-building in the MENA region

“A best-practice model for cooperation”

“Project-based funding threatens academic freedom”

Science diplomacy

1 | 2023 - Language

Networking funding and research scholarships

Aesthetics, modernism and an echo of a bygone era

“I feel as if I have been robbed of my language”

Adventures in linguistics

At home in two languages

“The new interpreting degree fills an important gap”

A sensational discovery

Language as a bridge between the past and present

When multilingualism is the norm

“Positive experiences”

Valuable knowledge

Multilingualism is the goal

German studies as a bridge to the world

Getting to know the world a bit better

Our favour­ite word

“Language is my life”

Starting at the beginning

Language

2 | 2022 - Sustainable innovations

Sustainability creates new opportunities

Collective knowledge for glacier research

“And: Action!”

The importance of the bison for North America

Green energy in the Amazon basin

Law and sustainability

The futurologist

A complete reorientation

Sponsoring scholarships in sustainability

The future for green hydrogen

Answer to pressing issues

Centres for innovation

Research for sustainability

Jointly addressing global challenges

Our favourite word

Researching Germany’s colonial past