Dr. Nils Riecken
Affiliierter

Positions
Education
Publications
2016, “Relational Difference and the Grounds of Comparison: Abdallah Laroui's Critique of Centrism.” ReOrient 2, no. 1: 12–30.
2015, “History, Time, and Temporality in a Global Frame: Abdallah Laroui's Historical Epistemology of History.” History and Theory 54, no. 4 (Special Issue: History and Theory in a Global Frame): 5–26.
2014, “Frames of Time: Periodization and Universals in the Works of Abdallah Laroui.” Der Islam 91, no. 1: 115–134.
(Accepted) “Modernity, Ḥadātha, and Modernité in the Works of Abdallah Laroui: Conceptual Translation and the Politics of Historicity.” Contributions to the History of Concepts.
2016, “Interdisciplinarity, Disciplines and Temporalities – Continuity or Discontinuity?”. In Interdisciplinarity in World History. Continuity and Change, edited by Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Mahjoob Zweiri. 1-28. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
(Submitted) “Intellektuelle Praktiken aus transregionaler Perspektive. Zur Übersetzung von Moderne und Historismus bei Abdallah Laroui.” In Area Histories Transregional, edited by Birgit Schäbler.
2017, “How to Read German State Archives Differently: the Case of ‘the Iraqi traveler’ Yūnis Baḥrī (ca. 1901-1979) in a Global Frame.” In: ZMO Working Papers 18. 14 pages. http://www.zmo.de/publikationen/WorkingPapers/riecken_2017.pdf.
2012, “Periodization and the Political: Abdallah Laroui's Analysis of Temporalities in a Postcolonial Context.” In ZMO Working Papers 6.
(Accepted) Art.: Abdallah Laroui, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie: Bd. IV „Geschichte der Philosophie in der islamischen Welt des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts,“edited by Anke von Kügelgen and Ulrich Rudolph, Schwabe: Basel, 2020.
Monograph “Abdallah Laroui and the Location of History” (under contract with Routledge, submission of manuscript in June 2019).
Article “On Tragic Temporality: Abdallah Laroui’s Reading of Tradition”, special issue “History and Theory” (peer-reviewed, invited, to be published in December 2019).
Review Article “Conceptual History of the Arabic Maghreb and the Mashreq—A Critical Appraisal”, in: Contributions to the History of Concepts (peer-reviewed, invited).
09/10/18, “Islam” as an Epistemic Field: Imperial Entanglements and Orientalism in the German-Speaking World since 1870 – Interview with Nils Riecken, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research.
13/4/2015, „Die Umklammerung. Die islamistische Idee von der Einheit von Staat und Religion verstört säkulare Gesellschaften.“ In: Das Parlament, no. 16-17, p. 5, Berlin.
28/1/2015, „Raus aus dem Containerdenken. ‚Der‘ Islam, ‚der‘ Westen: Die Suche nach einem ‚wahren Kern‘ verschleiert komplexe Zusammenhänge.“ In: Der Tagesspiegel, no. 22, p. 18, Berlin.
16/1/2016, „Berichterstattung über Charlie Hebdo: Islam, Gewalt und das Problem der Kontextualisierung.“ In: Al-Sharq. Berlin.
7/12/2015, „Wiederkehrder Religionen“, In Tag für Tag, 6:47 minutes, Deutschlandfunk, [interview with Marie Wildermann].
2016, “Review Article: National Socialism, Islam and the Middle East: Questioning Intellectual Continuities, Conceptual Stakes and Methodology". Review of: Stefan Ihrig, Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination (Cambridge, Mass. and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014), David Motadel, Islam and Nazi Germany's War (Cambridge, Mass. and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014), Francis R. Nicosia, Nazi Germany and the Arab World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014).” In: German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol. XXXVIII, no. 2: 63–76.
2009, “Review of: H. Bock, J. Feuchter, M. Knecht (eds.): Religion and Its Other. Secular and Sacral Concepts in Interaction. Frankfurt am Main 2008.“ In: H-Soz-u-Kult.
2003, “Review of: C. Jordan, Kaderschmiede Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Aufbegehren, Säuberungen und Militarisierung 1945-1989, Berlin 2001. H.-P. Schmiedebach, K.-H. Spieß (Hg.), Studentisches Aufbegehren in der DDR. Der Widerstand gegen die Umwandlung der Greifswalder Medizinischen Fakultät in eine militärisch-medizinische Ausbildungsstätte im Jahr 1955, Stuttgart 2001.“ In: Die Politische Meinung 48, pp. 65–66.
12/12/18, “’Islam’ as an Epistemic Field. Imperial Entanglements and Orientalism in the German-Speaking World Since 1870.” 11.10.2018–12.10.2018, Berlin. In: H-Soz-Kult.
03/09/15, “Provincializing the Social Sciences. International Workshop." 04.06.2015 – 06.06.2015 Berlin. In:H-Soz-Kult.
20/06/17, “1917 im Nahen Osten: Die Balfour-Deklaration, Palästina und die Entstehung des Nahostkonflikts”, Ringvorlesung “Das Jahr 1917. Auftakt zum kurzen 20. Jahrhundert?”, Technische Universität Darmstadt (invited).
21/07/16, “Eine andere Kritik des Eurozentrismus: Abdallah Larouis situierter Universalismus“, Ringvorlesung “Ander(e)s Wissen: Kritische Betrachtungen globaler Wissensproduktion”, organized by Prof Dr Schirin Amir-Moazami and Ruth Streicher, Freie Universität Berlin/Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (invited).
2019, “Translating modernity: Abdallah Laroui on the politics of historicity and situated universalism”, International conference “Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds: Across and Between the Local and Global”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, 3-5 April 2019.
2018, “On Tragic Temporality: Abdallah Laroui’s Reading of Tradition”, Annual Conference of “Islam and the Humanities, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 20-21 April 2018 (invited).
2018, “Temporalité, historicité et la politique chez Abdallah Laroui,” Conference in honor of Abdallah Laroui, organized by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Mohammed-V-University, Rabat, and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, Rabat, 18. January 2018, (invited).
2016, “Relational Difference, Time and the Refracted Grounds of Comparison: Abdallah Laroui’s Critique of Centrism,” Workshop “Time(s) in Comparison: Transregional Approaches to Contemporary Philosophical Thought in the Middle East and South Asia”, Freie Universität Berlin/Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies/ZMO, 3-4 June 2016.
2015, „Moderne und Islam provinzialisieren: Abdallah Laroui und die Dialektik von profaner und theo-logischer Zeit“, Jahrestagung des Zentrums für Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft „Die Wiederkehr der Religionen und die Kulturwissenschaften“, Berlin, 29-31 October 2015 (invited).
2015, “Modernity as rupture: analyzing Abdallah Laroui's epistemology of history as a postcolonial intellectual practice”, International Conference “History and Historiography in the 20th century”, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of Peloponnese, International Network for the Theory of History, Historein, Athens, 18-20 June 2015.
2015, “Historicizing difference. Abdallah Laroui’s epistemology of history and the critique of culturalist knowledge production”, Workshop “Tolerance in Contemporary Muslim Thought and Practice”, King’s College London, 16-17 March 2015 (invited).
2015, “Abdallah Laroui’s epistemology of history and the critique of culturalist knowledge production”, Workshop “(De-)Colonizing Knowledge: Figures, Narratives, and Practices”, Freie Universität Berlin, Research Area Global History, 16-17 February 2015.
2014, “Interdisciplinarity, disciplines and temporalities – continuity or discontinuity?”, Conference “Interdisciplinarity in History: An Old Method in a New World Context”, Qatar University, Doha, 5-6 March 2014.
2014, „Intellektuelle Praktiken aus globaler Perspektive. Methodische Überlegungen am Beispiel des Begriffs des Historizismus bei Abdallah Laroui“, Tagung „Area Histories Transregional“, organized by Prof. Birgit Schäbler, Lehrstuhl für Geschichte Westasiens, Universität Erfurt, Erfurt 28 February-1 March 2014 (invited).
2013, „Zeit und Zeitlichkeit in Abdallah Larouis historischer Epistemologie“, Panel: Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Wissenschaft und Ideologie, 32. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, 23-27 September 2013.
2013, “Experiences of violence, tağāwuz/dépassement and universalism. Abdallah Laroui and the dialectic of memory and critique”, Workshop “Trauma, Memory and History: A Comparative Reflection between Morocco and Lebanon”, Mohammed V University of Rabat, 18-24 April 2013 (invited).
2012, “Frames of time: universals and periodization”, Workshop Arabic Pasts: Histories and Historiography. Special theme: “What is in a Period? ‘Jāhiliyya’, ‘ʿAbbāsid’, and ‘Arab Spring’ in Arabic Historical Writing”, ISMC, Aga Khan University/SOAS, University of London, London, 28 September 2012.
2011, “Abdallah Laroui’s concept of historicism, modernity and the times of history”, International Graduate Conference “Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Contestations: Decolonizing the social sciences and the humanities”, Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Panel 15: Postcolonial Thought and the Problem of Periodization, Frankfurt a.M., 16-18 June 2011.
Teaching Activities
Awards
- Scholarship from the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin, 2008-2011, funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments and by Freie Universität Berlin
- Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a six-month language course in Cairo, Egypt, winter term 2002-2003
- Wafedin-scholarship from the Egyptian government, summer term 2003
- Merit-based governmental scholarship from the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, 2001-2006
Memberships
- Member of the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA), since 2014
- Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient (DAVO), since 2004
Languages
- German: native speaker
- English: fluent
- Arabic: fluent
- French: fluent
- Spanish: basic
- Latin proficiency certificate
- Ancient Hebrew proficiency certificate