A new Leibniz ScienceCampus “Eastern Europe – Global Area” is funded by the Leibniz Community for the period 2016-2020. It brings together the following institutions:
Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig; Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies, Halle; Institute for Geography at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Feliks-Brückner Centre for the Study of Polish Culture at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, the Centre for Area Studies at the University Leipzig, the Fraunhofer Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, Leipzig; the Center for the History and Culture of East Central Europe, Leipzig, and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle.
The Campus aims at establishing a multi-disciplinary cluster of excellence by combining competencies in the field of Eastern European Studies currently spread over important basic and applied research facilities in Leipzig, Halle and Jena. The central research question is not limited to processes within the Eastern European region but targets the repositioning of the region in a changing world order. The Campus departs from the idea that a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted examination of processes of globalization is key to a better understanding of the actual societal development in this region. This goes along with the interest in the discussion of the relationship between area studies and global processes that has become the focus of one of Leipzig University’s research clusters.
Departing from the already close cooperation between the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography and the Centre for Area Studies at Leipzig University as expressed in the recently established Collaborative Research Cluster (SFB 1199) “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition” the Leibniz Science Campus serves as a highly visible platform for future interaction of a number of renowned research institutions and universities in the science-region Leipzig, Halle and Jena in research on Eastern Europe and processes of global (re-)positioning, in the dissemination of new knowledge to a wider audience via public events, workshops and open access publications, and in using it for further qualifying young researchers in the framework of the Graduate School Global and Area Studies as well as in interdisciplinary Master programs. The LSC therefore combines the advantages of a multi-disciplinary research network across a wide range of specialized institutions in the region of Central Germany (Mitteldeutschland) with those of a Centre for Advanced Studies which offers senior and junior researchers the necessary freedom and a cooperative atmosphere for innovative investigation, the connection with well-established training sites for PhD- and M.A.-students from Germany and abroad, and outreaching links to multipliers from the media.