International Days 2024

Known worldwide for his work in cultural theory, Homi Bhabha held a talk titled “The Fragility of Democracy: Is Understanding Racial Trauma the Key to Resiliency?,” which met with major interest. Some 650 people attended the keynote lecture with subsequent discussion in Lecture Hall 10, which was packed to capacity.

In his keynote, Bhabha looked at various crises and conflicts that are currently posing a threat to global democracy, citing the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, racist police violence in the United States and the conflict in the Middle East. “And universities are no haven from the world’s ills,” he pointed out, observing how the humanities and the arts can play an important role in resolving conflicts. This is because they validate the feelings that are important to the process: doubt and vulnerability. Following the keynote address, the Harvard professor discussed his thoughts and theories with the audience.

A workshop titled “Third Space Turns 30: Revisit. Reflect. React?” was held to take a deeper dive into Bhabha’s work. At the workshop, the cultural theorist talked with University of Bonn researchers and students about the influence of his book The Location of Culture, published 30 years ago, which brought about a paradigm shift in the humanities.

Discussions centered on what things have remained unchanged, what narratives have evolved, and what the consequences of this will be. More than 100 people attended—from first-year students to emeritus professors and everyone in between—to talk about Bhabha's postcolonial theory and its relevance today in such divergent fields as geography, history, law, literature, art history and theology. Five discussion tables were organized and chaired by noteworthy academics including from the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, the Center for Reconciliation Research, the Department of English, American and Celtic Studies (IAAK), the Center for Development Research (ZEF), the Émile Durkheim Research Unit and the Department of Intercultural Theology. Similar to a chess grandmaster playing a simultaneous exhibition, Bhabha circulated around to the various tables to discuss his theories with attendees from differing academic perspectives, before concluding the workshop with a panel discussion.

The Bonn University Ambassadors workshop was again an integral part of the International Days this year, held by scholars who worked as researchers at the University of Bonn for a considerable period of time and now serve as its foreign ambassadors. The Ambassadors come from all over the world, and as part of representing their German alma mater in their home countries, they inform interested students and researchers about opportunities to study and work in Bonn, establish contacts abroad and maintain regular contact with Bonn researchers, partly through collaborative teaching, joint courses and research partnerships. These annual get-togethers are indicative of how strong their close ties to Bonn are, where they get to network with others at the University and launch teaching and research initiatives that keep the program’s content growing over the longer term.

This time around ambassadors traveled to Bonn to attend from universities in Jordan, Ghana, India, Brazil, Canada, the US, the UK and other countries. What was originally a project became established as a long-term program, and now the Bonn University Ambassadors are seen as an integral part of the University of Bonn’s Internationalization Strategy.

Follow the link to the project page to watch short videos by our Bonn University Ambassadors in which they introduce themselves and their home universities. There you will also find information on select international projects and initiatives of the University of Bonn.