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Relations between Europe and both North and South America are currently undergoing dramatic transformations. It is thus all the more important to explore the complex entanglements of multiple regions on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the main objective of the interdisciplinary Leibniz ScienceCampus “Europe and America in the Modern World”.

Find out more here about the broader goals of the Leibniz Association's ScienceCampus programme, the broader aims of the Regensburg project, its key themes, activities and partners.

 

What is a ScienceCampus?

ScienceCampi are an initiative of the Leibniz Association that aims to facilitate research collaboration between Leibniz Institutes and universities in particular academic centres, enhancing the visibility and innovation of research and outreach measures while strengthening national and international networks.

The Leibniz ScienceCampus Europe and America is a joint research project of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) and the University of Regensburg, including several area studies institutions based there. It is supported by a grant from the Leibniz Association. The ScienceCampus seeks to strengthen collaboration between the Leibniz Institute and the University by creating a visible research cluster and an interdisciplinary platform for scholarly exchange in Area Studies. It was launched in September 2019 and extended for a second funding period running for four years from October 2024.

 

Our Project

Relations between Europe and America are currently undergoing dramatic shifts. At the same time, it is evident that these continental entities exist, and have existed in plural forms, both fragmented and connected along multiple geographical, cultural, social, economic and political boundaries. The ScienceCampus considers such past and present shifts as indicators of frictions of globality. These frictions create forces transforming the relations between the different parts of Europe and America. The ScienceCampus explores the macroscale of “European-American” relations as well as their effects across smaller-scale regions and socio-cultural stratifications; its links the global present with the historical trajectory of globalization.

It is the concept of frictions that inspires the outlook of the Frictions blog|journal that is developing as an open access hybrid of peer-reviewed journal and discussion forum.

A showcase of the research taking place in Regensburg and in conjunction with our partners around the world is evident in the Online Lecture Series: European-American Entanglements in the Modern World. The series is hosted at the virtuelle hochschule bayerns (vhb)/ Bavarian virtual university, and was produced in collaboration with the Centre for University and Academic Teaching (ZHW) at UR. The themes covered include current and historical migration, environmental issues, Cold War history and its political legacies, Québec's independence movement and postcolonial linguistic and literary entanglements of the Francophone world, and the transatlantic circulations of popular culture. It is available to the public and for use in blended learning around the world.

 

Key Themes

The activities of the ScienceCampus are focused around five thematic interdisciplinary research trajectories and modules, coordinated by specialists from different disciplines in collaboration with participating doctoral researchers. These themes mark areas in which frictions of globality are particularly evident, while demarcating crucial fields for exploring relations between the multiple regional configurations of Europe and America. The fifth module provides a space for critical reflection on developments in the field of Area Studies. The themes of the first funding period evolved and provided the foundation for consolidated research trajectores in the second phase.

  1. Transatlantic Political Transformations | (In)Security and Sovereignty.
  2. Cultures and Hierarchies of Translations | Translating Knowledge and Cultures 
  3. Trade and Institutions | Uneven Economic Flows
  4. Practices of Belonging – Verheimatlichung | Refugee Worldmaking
  5. Towards Multi-Polar and Multi-Scalar Area Studies | AreasLab: Towards Augmented Area Studies

The modules are coordinated by faculty members, with the ideas and activities conceived and developed in close collaboration with doctoral researchers, partner institutions and visiting fellows.

The work of the modules is supplemented by two ScienceCampus-funded early career research networks. Margins of Memory started in 2025 while another exploring the Legal Construction of Borders will run for two years from 2026.

 

Our Research and Public Outreach Activities

The ScienceCampus is oriented towards producing new research and disseminating it to scholars, policymakers and the general public. Its scholarly work adopts a multi-polar Area Studies perspective that combines perspectives from multiple regions and standpoints in order to examine relation between locales and globality. This is complemented by a multi-scalar Area Studies approach reflecting the intersection of different levels, temporalities and geographies of interaction and communication. The problems and potential of a global and complex world can be addressed more fruitfully from the kinds of manifold perspectives proposed in the ScienceCampus. This is furthered by the clustering of disciplinary expertise and epistemic frameworks of different regionally specialized area studies within the project. This opens up new comparative angles on social and cultural processes salient to inter-connected developments in the multiple Europes and Americas – Eastern, Southeastern, Central and Western Europe; North and South America.

The Frictions blog|journal is developing into a significant platform for scholarly output and for communication involving policymakers and the general public. It will disseminate knowledge and encourage debates on the relations between Europe and America, as well as their place in the contemporary world.

The Lecture Series also serves a cross-cutting objective, bringing leading scholars in Regensburg and beyond into conversation with faculty and the public here. It is also part of the aim of further integrating area studies into the broader curriculum at UR.

The Prize for Outstanding Master's Theses in area studies is now an established part of the landscape in Regensburg and rewards students who have produceed excellent work at UR.

 

Our Partners

A significant feature of the Campus is the extensive international network of partners involved. They are based across North and South America, and Eastern and Western Europe. We offer incoming and outgoing fellowships, with a deadline of 31 May and 30 November each year for both programmes, as well as a visiting professorship programme. Details of our visiting researchers can be found here.

IOS and the University of Regensburg are the leading institutions on the ScienceCampus project. The University of Regensburg has an extensive number of existing area studies initiatives with established regional expertise and competence in the theory and methods of area studies. Several initiatives collaborate closely with the ScienceCampus.

 

ScienceCampus Flyer English (Phase I) | WissenschaftsCampus Flyer Deutsch (Phase I)