Let the new academic year begin!

We hope you spent a wonderful summer, recharging your batteries and now either starting your MA program at GESI or joining us for the second year in Leipzig. This year’s Venice art biennale motto “Foreigners everywhere” shall not become true for you. Regardless from where you arrive, we will do our best that you can feel at home at GESI.

Writing these words after the recent federal elections in the states of Saxony and Thuringia, in which right-wing and populist parties received a considerable share of votes, and looking ahead to US elections that are driven by a new dynamic, there cannot be a doubt that we are in dire need of people, who are able to moderate, navigate and provide opportunities to learn about and deal with the demanding complexities of a globalizing, deeply entangled world – in contrast to those who offer the easy way out via populist promises. While the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, or Sudan still destroy the lives of countless people of different ages, gender, class, religion or ethnicity, we do not only deeply empathize with the victims, but shall be provoked to think about our position and contribution as scholars and students in Global and European Studies in this complex and crises-ridden world. There is certainly a lot to learn and to listen, as well as to study and articulate.

All the more, we warmly welcome the new first and second year students in the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Program as well as the second cohort in our Double Master in Global Studies and Economic History, which GESI offers together with the London School of Economics. We thus do not only continue a long-standing and successful cooperation with our colleagues in London from the Global Studies Consortium, but can build on the experiences of the first group that has started the new Master program last fall.

We also look very much forward to get to know the new group of students in the M.A. Global Studies – Peace and Security in Africa, who begin the program this fall in Ethiopia, being taught by Leipzig colleagues online and onsite. Therefore, we foster the transregional experience of teaching and learning in a Global Studies context, specifically in the introductory courses.

Not only our Global Studies family is vibrant, but also our Arqus Joint Master in European Studies starts its second round this fall together with the universities of Granada, Graz and Vilnius. We look forward to getting to know this committed group of students both on site in Leipzig and across the different study places online.

As you will soon notice, GESI is embedded in a vital landscape of research centres and excellent scholarship on global and European matters in Leipzig. Most specifically, this includes the Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe), under whose roof a multitude of innovative research projects and centres dealing with globalization processes in the past and presents come together. ReCentGlobe offers a diversity of guest lecturers, colloquia and conferences which you are also invited to join and be inspired by. Keep in touch and up to date either through the EMGS or GESI websites or through the ReCentGlobe Bulletin (subscribe here: (https://www.recentglobe.uni-leipzig.de/index.php?id=12702). To keep up to date with information regarding ongoing and future events in Leipzig/ online, we’d recommend to subscribe to the Bulletin of ReCentGlobe, follow it on twitter (@ReCentGlobe), check out GESI Twitter (@GESIUniLeipzig) as well as RISC (@fgz_risc). 

Closely connected to these university initiatives are the extra-university Leibniz Institutes for the History and Culture of East Central Europe (GWZO) and for Regional Geography (IfL). Scholars working at these centres and institutes are joined by many area studies experts at the institutes of Leipzig University. Many of them you will get to know as your lecturers or supervisors and you will certainly profit from their advice and expertise. 

You have the opportunity to become part of this vivid community in Leipzig e.g. at major international conferences and events. From 24 to 26 October 2024, e.g., the Globe24 Festival invites its guests to discuss with scholars from all over the world, how societies deal with a world of interconnected and multiple crises, this year focusing on the fragility of freedom. Check the updates of the program here: https://www.globe-festival.de

We are also looking forward to a number of events, which connects us as a community of students and lecturers more specifically, including e.g. the Graduation Ceremony for Global Studies students 9 November in Ghent, or the Global Studies Winter School in Tulln (Austria) from 5 December to 9 December. For second year students of all programs the respective MA thesis colloquia will provide a helpful forum to develop their projects. 

We will organize throughout the term events at GESI and with partners, including book launches, roundtable discussions, or guest lectures – and last but not least we will find occasions to celebrate together. If you have ideas and would like to contribute to our community, do not hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to a productive winter term and wish you all an excellent start in Leipzig.

Steffi Marung

Director GESI