‘ZMO kitchen talks’ is a collaborative podcast 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.
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 a researcher. The episode is moderated by Lena Herzog-Sounaye, ZMO’s former knowledge transfer officer.
Stefan Kirmse is currently researching legality, law and minorities in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. His research can be located in both history and cultural anthropology and his geographical focus is mainly on Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucasus. In the podcast, he talks about his diverse experiences in archives in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. How do the archives differ from one another in terms of accessibility and what has changed over the last few decades? He also presents his new ERC project “In Pursuit of ‘Legality’ and ‘Justice’ Minority Struggles in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union” (JUSTIMINO).