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Dr Maria-Magdalena Pruß is a research fellow at ZMO and a historian of modern South Asia. She received her PhD at Princeton University in 2019. In this episode, Maria talks about doing research in Pakistan and her resulting forthcoming book, titled "Islamic Modernism and Religious Identity in Colonial Punjab" (McGill-Queen's University Press). The episode takes a look behind the scenes of archival work in Pakistan, how to gain access to records and source material while keeping in mind research methodology and ethics. It also focuses on the question of "What is Islamic modernism", the role of the Ahmadiyya movement, as...

Robin Schmahl is a research fellow at ZMO and a PhD-candidate at Freie Universität Berlin. Being part of the international research network 'Historicity of Democracy in the Arab and Muslim Worlds' (HISDEMAB), his main research focus is Ottoman Egypt. Which deliberation practices during the French occupation can be traced back and what does deliberation mean in this context? What makes the approach of “historicity” unique as opposed to simply looking at the history of democracy in the region? Robin also shares his archival research experiences in Europe and the Middle East, reflecting on the material’s languages and his positionality as...

Prof Olutayo Adesina, a visiting fellow at ZMO, teaches history at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. His research focuses mainly on African and especially Nigerian history. In this episode, he reflects on the meanings of anthropology and history in the context of what he calls an “African experience”. What does it mean to be a historian today? Which questions are asked in the classroom, and how has it changed over time? He also introduces his project “The First Frontier? Exploring the Ramifications of Hidden Histories from the Backs of Women in Southwest Nigeria” and his contribution to the “Remoboko”...

Stefan Kirmse forscht gegenwärtig zu Legalität, Recht und Minderheiten im Russischen Kaiserreich und der Sowjetunion. Seine Forschung lässt sich in sowohl in der Geschichtswissenschaft als auch der Kulturanthropologie verorten und er beschäftigt sich geographisch hauptsächlich mit Russland, der Ukraine, Zentralasien und dem Kaukasus. Im Podcast spricht er über seine vielfältigen Erfahrungen in Archiven in Russland, der Ukraine, Armenien und weiteren Ländern der ehemaligen Sowjetunion. Wie unterscheiden sich die Archive in ihrer Zugänglichkeit voneinander und was hat sich im Laufe der letzten Jahrzehnte verändert? Außerdem stellt er sein neues ERC-Projekt 'Der Kampf um „Gerechtigkeit“ und „Legalität“: Minderheiten im Zarenreich und der...

Anthropologist Hilal Alkan looks at plants from an angle of displacement and care. She works with Turkish migrants who have come to Germany from the 1960s until now. What do their plants mean to them? How do they care for them? How does planting influence migrants' experiences of making Berlin their home? Through her ethnographic fieldwork, she wants to find out whether the relationships between people and their plants have any effects on their sense of belonging.

This monthly podcast is produced by ZMO members and alumni. In each episode, a ZMO-fellow and one of our hosts meet in our institute’s kitchen – the heart of ZMO – to talk about their academic fieldwork, methodology, and the most recent research trends at our institute.

Meet Noura Chalati and Lena Herzog-Sounaye, the hosts of the first episodes and stay tuned for more!