News
PACS scholars to Shape the Future of Humanitarian Studies in Germany
The Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg is set to play a central role in the newly established Humanitarian Studies Research Network, funded with one million euros by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Over the next three years, PD Dr. Kristina Roepstorff together with Prof. Dr. Joël Glasman (University of Bayreuth) and Prof. Dr. Dennis Dijkzeul (Ruhr University Bochum) coordinates the network. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, international partnerships, and greater academic visibility, the new network seeks to build a robust foundation for Humanitarian Studies in Germany.
Each partner contributes a distinct research focus. At Magdeburg, a research team examines how humanitarian imaginaries in the Global South are expressed in language, images, and concrete practices, and asks how they legitimise, organise, and challenge global aid relationships. The aim is to provide a better understanding of how crises and aid relationships are discursively and visually constructed, how their causes and appropriate responses are negotiated, how this translates into aid practices, and how these relate to dominant discourses and practices in the humanitarian sector. At Bayreuth, Prof. Glasman investigates the historical formation of social indifference and the erosion of humanitarian knowledge practices. Prof. Dijkzeul’s work at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Security (IFHV) focuses on the vulnerabilities of LGBTIQ+ persons in humanitarian crises.
The initiative will be developed in close cooperation with key partners in the international humanitarian research community, including the Centre for Humanitarian Action (CHA) in Berlin, the International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA), University College Dublin (UCD), the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) at the University of Manchester, and the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Studies. These collaborations will firmly anchor the German initiative within the Humanitarian Studies landscape and ensure sustained international exchange.
The Gerda Henkel Foundation, one of Germany’s most respected supporters of the humanities, promotes research that situates contemporary global challenges within broader historical and societal contexts. For nearly five decades, it has supported thousands of projects worldwide, with a strong commitment to topics such as democracy, cultural heritage, and societies in crisis. Its investment in the new network highlights the growing need for independent, critically grounded humanitarian research."
New Publication: Culture is a lens that helps us understand not just how we act, but how we perceive one another
Our professor Kristina Roepstorff has published her latest contribution in Alternatives Humanitaires https://www.alternatives-humanitaires.org/
Check out the article from here
Brown Bottle Talk - Event Series: "Rethinking Resistance in the Anthropocene: Catastrophic Biopolitics and Nomadic Methodologies"
With the topic "Rethinking Resistance in the Anthropocene: Catastrophic Biopolitics and Nomadic Methodologies", the second round of talks will be held by Prof. Julian Reid (University of Lapland) and Dr. Srishti Malaviya (Visiting Researcher at OvGU).
📆 When: 20th of November
⏰Time: from 17:00 until 18:30 (ST).
📍Where: G40 Room 414
In the face of climate crisis and escalating global instability, much of contemporary political thought is shaped by catastrophic narratives that frame governance through the lens of impending collapse.
Our first guest speaker, Julian Reid, critiques this catastrophic biopolitics - a framework that treats planetary survival as a management problem centered on 'saving life.' Rather than seeking more expansive or inclusive biopolitical models, Julian Reid proposes an alternative approach that abandons 'life' as the central referent of politics. Drawing on political eschatology, nomadic imagination, and contemporary cinema, his presentation outlines the conditions for a political subject capable of resisting biopolitical reason and its hold on Anthropocene thinking.
Building on this, our second speaker, Srishti Malaviya, invites us to think with nomadic methodologies of resistance - those that do not solidify into clear narratives or enduring movements. What forms of resistance emerge when we let go of the need for meaning, coherence, or institutional recognition? Through this lens, resistance becomes a moment of rupture and reinvention rather than consolidation. Following these moments of nomadic imagination may allow insight into methodologies of resistance that appear outside of institutional framings of resilience.
You can prepare yourself for the event with: https://www.academia.edu/120147887/Resistance - Not mandatory!
We will provide beer, soft drinks and some snacks. It is a great possibility to have a chat in an informal setting.
We very much look forward to seeing you all there!
PACS is present at the World Conference of Humanitarian Studies in Istanbul, Turkey
Our PD Dr. rer. pol. habil. Kristina Roepstorff, has taken an active role in the organisation of two panels at the recent Conference on Humanitarian Studies, titled “Humanitarianism in Crisis: New Realities in Practices and Knowledges”
The first panel, “Book Launch: An Introduction to Humanitarian Action”, explores a new textbook focused on the workings of the humanitarian sector and current debates around it.
The second panel, “The politics of humanitarian negotiations”, investigates how negotiations in humanitarian contexts are embedded in political, economic and military dynamics.
The Conference on Humanitarian Studies addresses how current global crises—such as wars in Gaza and Ukraine, neglected conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, and the DRC, and widespread disasters—challenge the foundations of humanitarianism. As political interests, inequality, and isolationist attitudes undermine humanitarian principles, the moral legitimacy of aid is increasingly at risk. The conference explores how humanitarian actors navigate these shifts amid geopolitical tensions, economic disparities, and technological change, including the rise of AI and decolonial perspectives. It calls for rethinking humanitarian action and knowledge production to foster more just, effective, and inclusive responses to an increasingly complex world.
You can find more information here:
• Panel 1: https://conference.ihsa.info/proposed-panels/view/5810/
• Panel 2: https://conference.ihsa.info/proposed-panels/view/5714/
• Conference overview: https://conference.ihsa.info/about/
