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The Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) is the only German research institute devoted to an interdisciplinary and comparative study of the Middle East, Africa, South, Southeast and Central Asia from a historical perspective. Current research focuses on the interaction between predominantly Muslim societies and their relations with non-Muslim neighbours. ZMO was founded in 1996 as one of six independent, non-profit research centres. Its current director is Prof. Ulrike Freitag, a Modern Middle East historian
Research Programme
The Centre's research programme currently comprises 3 interdisciplinary projects, with 30 researchers working on different historical and cultural aspects of the "Modern Orient" since the 18th century.
The central research programme “Muslim Worlds – World of Islam?” (2008-2013) aims at investigating a broad spectrum of historical and contemporary dynamics within and between the mostly Muslim societies since the eighteenth century, and their links with Europe. The interdisciplinary cooperation of historians, anthropologists, economists, psychologists and experts from other areas transcends the standard disciplinal and regional fields of knowledge. The Centre focuses on cooperative and interdisciplinary research based on a combination of intensive archival work and field research, thereby breaking with the disciplinary and regional limitationsof traditional fields of knowledge. While basic research remains the centre of attention, recent events have highlighted the need to investigate and better understand non-Western modernity.
The BMBF funded research project “Muslims in Europe and Their Societies of Origin in Asia and Africa” investigates the life worlds of Muslims in Europe in connection with their countries of origin.
Furthermore the ZMO heads a project on “Memory work in Morocco and Iraq”, which is part of the SFB 640 “Representations of Changing Social Orders. Intercultural and Intertemporal comparisons”. Here, it also participates in the project ‚Transnational Public Spheres in Comparison - Europe, the Arab World and Russia.
"Europe in the Middle East - the Middle East in Europe" is a five-year multi-disciplinary research program of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. This research program seeks to rethink key concepts and premises that divide Europe from the Middle East. Within the framework of four research fields in the disciplines of Literature, Political Philosophy, Urban History, Philology-cum-Late Antiquity, and Islamic Studies, the program will attempt to recollect the legacies of Europe in the Middle East and of the Middle East in Europe in an inclusive way that aims to do justice to their entanglements. The program draws on the international expertise of scholars in and outside of Germany and is embedded in university and extra-university research institutions in Berlin. ZMO takes part with the project "Cities Compared: Cosmopolitanism in the Mediterranean and Adjacent Regions" - directed by Ulrike Freitag and Nora Lafi. A summary of the resulting seminar "Transnational History in Ottoman Perspective: The Experience of the Ottoman Urban Studies Seminar at ZMO Berlin" can be found in the Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History.
Further more ZMO is participating in the inter-institutional project "Ways of Knowledge. Transregional Studies" at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Publications
ZMO publishes a refereed series entitled Studien (Studies), which consists of monographs submitted by internal and external researchers, as well as conference volumes. In addition, fellows publish articles and monographs in the relevant international journals and series. All fellows are working according the Rules for Safeguarding Good Academic Practice.
Events
On the last Thursday of each month, ZMO hosts a public lecture followed by a discussion. In this lecture series, German and international colleagues are invited to present their most recent work. ZMO project groups set up workshops and international conferences related to their individual topics. In addition, the Centre organizes sporadic debates and lectures on current events as well as key political and academic topics, frequently in cooperation with other institutions.
Cooperation and academic networks
The director of ZMO is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Free University, Berlin. A number of researchers lecture in various faculties in and outside of Germany, thus contributing to a regular interchange between research and teaching. ZMO researchers who are working on their PhD or post-doctoral theses (Habilitation) receive regular tutoring at the Centre.
ZMO invites international scholars connected with its projects for periods of one or three months to Berlin and facilitates contact to other scholars. In addition, it annually hosts a guest fellow of the Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies: Unity and Diversity.
ZMO supports networks of individual researchers and institutions on the regional, national and international level. It entertains both formal and informal links with a wide range of institutions.
Library
The ZMO library is closely linked to the Centre's research programme and currently holds approx. 50 000 volumes and 90 periodicals. Further valuable sources and rare books are contained in the collections of Fritz and Gertraud Steppat, African historian Jürgen Herzog, Middle East historian Gerhard Höpp und Indologist Horst Krüger, all of which were donated to the Centre. Holdings can be consulted in the reading room, photocopying facilities are available.
Opening hours: Monday 9.00-15.30, Tuesday to Thursday 9.00-17.00, Friday 9.00-13.00. Students may borrow books over the weekend.
Database ber-waal
The integrated database ber-waal was created at the request of the Berlin Senate Department of Sciences, Research and Culture. It contains over 900 entries referring to institutions and individuals well versed in the different regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Here you will find
- Institutions specialized in research and teaching on the societies and states of Asia, Africa and Latin America;
- Libraries, museums and archives;
- Centres, foundations and other institutions that regularly publish academic work on these regions;
- Academics with medium-term projects (minimum of two years) working in or on Asia, Africa or Latin America;
- Scholars and experts with long-term regional and thematic experience.
Public Relations
The aim of ZMO public relations is to deconstruct the image of "the other". The Centre rejects the academic and journalistic culturalization of global conflicts, and makes a point of contributing to a more discerning view of the "Islamic world" by offering advice to the media, for example, or providing expert interview partners. The results of basic research on non-Western history and culture provide the necessary depth to understand current affairs, and it is our aim to present them for discussion to a wider public. Our virtual press folder, which we are happy to extend to you, contains texts and photographs reflecting this intention. Apart from scholarly publications, ZMO makes its findings available as follows:
- Orient-Bulletin (in English), bi-annual;
- annual reports of the three Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren Berlin e.V.;
- press statements and information to the media;
- participation in "Dialogue with the Muslim World”;
- meetings with foreign delegations;
- open days;
- participation in the "Berliner Asien-Pazifik-Wochen";
- lectures on the Islamic world for schools;
- Internet services under www.zmo.de
Organization
The origins of ZMO go back to research centres at the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic. In 1992, the "Wissenschaftsrat" recommended the establishment of a "Moderner Orient" research centre, which was finally incorporated in the "Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren Berlin e.V." in 1996. The Centre’s running costs are financed by the State of Berlin (1/3 of the total budget), while current research projects are for the most part evaluated and funded by the German Research Council.
Mission Statement
ZMO and its associated Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren were founded with the explicit intention of introducing an innovative element to the German academic system, i.e., a progressive instrument for promoting research in the humanities. Their task was to develop interdisciplinary, cooperative and project-oriented research with an international outlook.
(Recommendations of Wissenschaftsrat Drs. 1751/94, Köln 1994)
Last revised: October 2008 |
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