This research group considers the alternating perceptions between Europe and the Islamic shaped societies in the Middle East, in which Muslims who live in Europe are also included.

Our focus lies in the analysis of images of self and of the “other” as found in academic and educational media.

The research group’s explorations thematize narrative structures that have remained stabile over long periods of time and outlasted narrative modulations (scripts). We trace their genesis and explore to what extent “institutionalized” images of self and images of the other act as a semantic reservoir for current image production, i.e. also how current narratives reference them.

The transfer area serves the integration of sciences and subject didactics. Thus one research group project develops innovative and respectful teaching materials for German speaking countries with the goal of broadening the view of Islamic societies and Muslim ways of life. In the Middle East one project examines history and social studies textbooks and curricula that until now have only been marginally discussed and compared at an international level, and is establishing a network of textbook research.

The research group currently has two thematic concentrations, which are being attended to in three projects:

Concentration I: The Islamic World in European Focus

a) 1001 Ideas: Islamic Cultures and Histories

b) The Exploration of European Perceptions

Concentration II: Europe in Mirror of Images of Self and Images of the Other in Middle Eastern Educational Media

Textbook Research and Revision in the Middle East

More in the long version

 

Completed projects:

Textbook Research and Revision in the Middle East (2006-2009)

• 1001 Ideas: Islamic Cultures and Histories
• The Exploration of European Perceptions

Chair
Susanne Kröhnert-Othman

Fellows
Samira Alayan-Beck
Inse Böhmig
Gerdien Jonker
Felicitas Iris Klingler
Ines Rülling
Matthias Schwerendt

Ute Achilles-Klotz (Library)