Organizers

Prof. Burkhard Schnepel (Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies, MLU Halle-Wittenberg)
Dr. Hanne Schönig (Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies, MLU Halle-Wittenberg)
Prof. Tansen Sen (Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai)
Prof. Duane Corpis (Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai)

International Summer School

The landmass extending from the Mongolian grasslands to the Black Sea is usually portrayed as the conduit for Eurasian interactions and exchanges. However even more of the links across Eurasia were initiated by sea. The summer schools will concentrate on demonstrating that the Indian Ocean has been an integral and essential aspect of trans-Eurasian connections from the early historical period to contemporary times. These innovative and collaborative summer schools will bring together leading scholars from various parts of the world, with multiple disciplinary backgrounds, to impart knowledge on and promote exploration in the commercial, diplomatic, religious, technological, and migratory exchanges across the Indian Ocean world that linked the far eastern regions of Asia with the heartland of Europe and many areas in between. Specific themes to be examined will include the movement of products such as porcelain, spices, tea, and incense; the transmission of ideas, including those associated with Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity; archaeological evidence for sea travel; the contestations over and interior working of maritime hubs; the creation of and contestations over cultural heritage sites; and the use of history for contemporary geopolitical agendas. Organized as a collaborative project between the Centre for Interdisciplinary Regional Studies at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, and the Center for Global Asia, NYU Shanghai, two of these summer schools will take place in Halle (July 2016 and July 2017) and the third will be held in Shanghai (August 2018). These schools will involve participants from Germany as well as from the NYU Global Network University who will learn about the dynamics of the Indian Ocean world through rigorous analysis of texts, archaeological evidence, secondary sources, and ethnographic data. The overall aim of these summer schools is to stimulate an understanding of the importance of Indian Ocean “connectivities” and Eurasian exchanges in global history.