In her lecture, Silke Schwandt examines the interplay between digital humanities and the field of history, advocating for a data-driven approach to historical narrative construction. While acknowledging the advantages of quantifiable data in elucidating historical patterns, Schwandt insists that it is imperative for historians to critically assess both the collection and interpretation of such data.

She draws on the work of Peter Turchin, particularly his book “Figuring Out the Past,” to illustrate how numerical data can inform our understanding of historical events, yet warns against the potential biases that data can introduce into historical discourse. Schwandt also engages with the challenge of integrating qualitative insights with quantitative analysis, arguing for a balanced approach that retains the depth of historical narratives while utilizing the precision of data analysis.

Furthermore, she emphasizes the role of visualizations in shaping historical understanding and the necessity for historians to remain vigilant regarding the tools and methodologies they employ. Ultimately, Schwandt posits that while data can effectively narrate stories about the past, historians must approach it with a critical lens that recognizes its limitations and the complexities of historical interpretation.

Dr. Silke Schwandt is a recognized figure in the field of digital humanities, focusing on the transformative impact of data in historical research. Her contributions highlight the essential dialogue between quantitative methods and qualitative understanding in the ongoing evolution of historical scholarship.

The current populist right-wing government in Italy is pushing for a constitutional reform aimed at introducing direct popular election of the prime minister, aligning the majority of MPs with the executive branch. Despite this proposal being in line with current populist tendencies, Lorenzo Spadacini’s lecture will illustrate that it is rooted in much older constitutional schemes. The Acerbo Law of 1923, promoted by Mussolini, followed a similar pattern, and comparable schemes have been reiterated over time, even during the republican period, as can be seen in the so-called Fraud Law of 1953, the law for municipalities of 1993, and the constitutional law for regions of 1999. Moreover, reform proposals similar to those advocated by the political right nowadays have been supported in the past by the centre and the left. In essence, the constitutional populism currently expressed by the right is more widely spread in Italian political culture and persists over time, arguably due to the weak liberal tradition of the country’s political system.

Prof. Lorenzo Spadacini is an esteemed Associate Professor at the University of Brescia, specializing in Italian and European constitutional law. He holds a PhD from the University of Verona and a Law degree from the University of Brescia. Prof. Spadacini has served as a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University Law School and held the position of Head of the Department for Institutional Reforms at the Office of the Prime Minister of Italy. His research focuses on democratic representation, electoral systems, and regional autonomy. Notable works include the monograph Decreto-legge e alterazione del quadro costituzionale (2022).

The event was organized in cooperation with Dr. Fabian Michl, Assistant Professor for Public Law and the Law of Politics at the Faculty of Law, Leipzig University.

This lecture discusses changes in the U.S. national strategy to prevent and counter extremist violence, including an embrace of public health style approaches to prevention. Dr. Miller-Idriss also reviews recent trends in U.S. political and hate-fueled violence and shares an emerging evidence base about the effectiveness of two core interventions: short form “prebunking” videos and community-based capacity building with parents, caregivers, youth mentors, faith leaders, mental health professionals, and educators. She also highlights key areas of transatlantic dialogue and cooperation about promising practices in each country.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an award-winning author and scholar of extremism and radicalization. She is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education. Dr. Miller-Idriss regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress or briefs policy, security, education and intelligence agencies in the U.S., the United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She serves on the international advisory board of the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) in Oslo, Norway and is a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s Tracking Hate and Extremism Advisory Committee.

This GlobeLecture was organized with Oliver Decker and the Else-Frenkel-Brunswik-Institute for Democracy in Saxony

Recorded on 3 November 2023

You can find the video recording of the lecture

Renewed political concern about geographical inequalities in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008 is raising questions about the ability of the prevalent pre-crisis model of development to generate more spatially balanced and inclusive economic development. This lecture provides the first assessment of this emergent post-2008 spatial policy in relation to the interaction of three key processes: neoliberalism; the rise of state capitalism; and, populism and the geography of discontent. Danny MacKinnon will discuss how the interactions between these three factors have shaped spatial policy in Europe and North America since 2008. This will be based on three main forms of spatial policy: metropolitanisation strategies to support the growth of large city-regions; the extension of competitiveness policies to smaller cities and towns; and, place-based industrial policies. MacKinnon argues that while these new spatial and industrial policies are focusing attention on ‘left behind places’ and rejecting elements of globalism and neoliberalism, they have not as yet dislodged the underlying emphasis on growth and competitiveness.

Danny MacKinnon is Professor of Regional Development & Governance and Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) at Newcastle University. He is a leading economic geographer with a long-standing interest in the institutions and politics of urban and regional development. He is a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association, the Royal Geographical Society and the Academy of Social Sciences. His recent work has focused on the creation of new regional growth paths and the development of spatial policies to address regional inequalities. He is currently leading an international research project on patterns of demographic and socio-economic change in ‘left behind places’ in the UK, Germany and France.

The GlobeLecture is a series of lectures held several times a semester in which outstanding researchers discuss global change, transnational interdependencies and regional transformations. It is organised by the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics in cooperation with partners inside and outside Leipzig University. This time, together with the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, we welcome the geographer Danny MacKinnon, Professor of Regional Development and Governance at Newcastle University.

The 20th century making of South Africa is a history of the conflict among multiple nationalisms, fuelled by rapacious racial capitalism. British imperialism, as nationalism writ large, provoked the rise of two contenders in the early 1910s: African nationalism and Afrikaner nationalism. Afrikaner nationalism imposed its vision of a purified volk, the ethnic and racial lynchpin of the updated set of colonial technologies called apartheid, which extended to the level of the subject. In contrast to apartheid stood the growing idea of an ever-more inclusive nation, ethnically and racially, particularly in the politics of the African National Congress. The end of official apartheid and the advent of constitutional democracy in 1994 unhinged Afrikaner whiteness. Applying the concept of ordentlikheid (respectability) in relation to gender, the paper probes what is left of ‘the Afrikaner’ and its intersectional production of external and internal others. Afrikaner nationalism is considered in its reduced, postapartheid enclaving mode. The focus is then turned to Afrikaner nationalism’s nemesis, African nationalism – in particular, the remains of race in currently resurgent populist forms.

Christi van der Westhuizen (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa), Associate Professor and Senior Researcher, is the head of the Research Programme at CANRAD. She was invited on a Visiting Professorship to Leipzig University, Germany, in 2022. As transdisciplinary scholar interested in identities, differences, ideologies and discourses with a focus on (post)apartheid South Africa, she has published widely, both academically and popularly.

She has served on several global initiatives, including as an expert on globalisation and gender on a project for the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Her working life started at the anti-apartheid weekly newspaper Vrye Weekblad and she worked as a Senior Political Correspondent in Parliament and as an Associate Editor for a not-for-profit global online news agency focusing on social justice.

(in German)

Überreichweiten.

Prof. Dr. Martin Mulsow (Universität Erfurt)

Recorded on 17.05.2023 at Tagungslounge Leipzig

In seinem Buch deutet Martin Mulsow die Frühe Neuzeit als eine Zeit der Überreichweiten, als eine Epoche, in der Quellen und Nachrichten aus nah und fern sich überlagerten, ohne dass man mit dieser Verdoppelung zurechtkam oder sie manchmal auch nur bemerkte.

Martin Mulsow ist Professor für Wissenskulturen der Neuzeit an der Universität Erfurt und Direktor des Forschungszentrums Gotha.

Die GlobeLecture ist eine mehrmals im Semester stattfindende Vortragsreihe, in der herausragende Wissenschaftler:innen über globalen Wandel, transnationale Verflechtungen und regionale Transformationen referieren. Sie wird vom ReCentGlobe in Kooperation mit Partnern innerhalb und außerhalb der Universität Leipzig organisiert.

Divided Nation, New States

Sebastian Gehrig (London)

Recorded on 12.04.2023 at Tagungslounge Leipzig

Historian Dr Sebastian Gehrig (University of Roehampton, London) was the guest of our first of three GlobeLectures in the summer semester 2023. His lecture explored the rise of new international conflicts over “divided nations” during the Cold War. In an era otherwise marked by colonial “partitions” at the end of empire, the ideological stand-off between the superpowers and their allies catapulted the issue of national division to the centre of international politics. Especially at the United Nations, this new problem connected European and Asian Cold War politics and the fate of Germany, China, Korea, and Vietnam directly. This lecture analyzed the impact of the global Cold War on the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic and traced the importance of conflicts over divided nations in Asia for both German governments and ordinary Germans alike.

The lecture was organised and moderated by assistant professor Dr. Fabian Michl (Leipzig University/ReCentGlobe). Thank you for the questions to Therese Mager, Prof. Dr. Matthias Middell and Prof. Dr. Michael Zwanzger.