In the summer of 1914, just months before the outbreak of the First World War, the first comparative exhibition of ‘world art history’ opened at an international trade fair in Leipzig. Curated by the historian Karl Lamprecht, this ‘Hall of Culture’ was an unusually cosmopolitan affair that showcased photographic reproductions of artworks from ancient Greece, India, China, Japan, Mesoamerica, and prehistoric Europe. Yet all of this was organized around an unlikely core: Lamprecht’s prodigious collection of drawings by children from all over the globe, intended to serve as comparative indices of ethnic or national mental ‘development’. Taking this long-overlooked exhibition as its focus, this talk sites the origins of the discourse on ‘world art’ at the perilous convergence of universal history, child psychology and the imperial politics of the late Wilhelmine Empire. The 1914 exhibition was not only rooted in paternalistic colonial imaginaries but also in Lamprecht’s concrete policies for cultural imperialism abroad, which carried the covert support by the Foreign Office. Ultimately the forgotten history of the ‘Hall of Culture’ exhibition offers an alternative genealogy of global art history that emerges from the conflicted encounter between Enlightenment ideals and colonial relations.

Professor El Guabli and our doctoral candidate Alessia Colonnelli will discuss the dynamics of conflict and bottom-up empowerment of the Amazigh identity movement in Morocco, by addressing the politics of identity in contemporary North Africa. Different patterns of conflict between the state and Moroccan indigenous Amazigh communities, as well as repertoires of soft power that Amazigh communities have resorted to exert pressure for a progressive recognition of Amazigh linguistic, cultural, and indigenous rights, will be discussed.

Derek J. Penslar is William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University. He is known for his comparative and transnational approaches. He is currently working on a book on the worldwide reactions to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The jazz pianist Dan Popek will provide the musical programme.

Registration with registration(at)hfjs.eu is required.

You can find the full programme here.

28 November 2023, 14:15 CET
Seminar Room S4, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Landfriedstraße 12

Registration with registration(at)hfjs.eu is required.

We congratulate our Principal Investigator Monica Juneja on being honored for her lifelong academic achievements!

She is to receive this year’s Meyer-Struckmann Prize, which is awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and acknowledges Monica’s accomplishments as an expert on Global Art History and theoretician in the field of Transcultural Studies. The award is granted annually for research achievements that transcend disciplinary boundaries. The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros.

Read the full press release of Heidelberg University here.

Registration with registration(at)hfjs.eu is required.
The event can also be followed via live stream on request.

The Research Training Group “Ambivalent Enmity” started its work on 1 October 2023 with 12 doctoral students, two postdocs, a coordinator and 11 principal investigators.

We welcome everyone to Heidelberg and look forward to stimulating talks and discussions!

The Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies convened a workshop on “Jewish-Arab Transculturation” on February 7–9, 2023.

Calls for applications for 12 doctoral and 2 postdoctoral positions in Ambivalent Enmity’s research training group (RTG) are now open.

The application deadline is April 15, 2023.