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~Waves~ Interdisciplinary Dialogue in the Research Focus Point on Ocean, Polar and Climate Sciences at University of Bremen
Hybrid Lecture Series: Every second Tuesday, 18:15–20:00 hours, Rotunde, Cartesium, University of Bremen
For the first time, this lecture series is intended to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion on the oceans - or more precisely on the topic of “waves” - across all faculties at the University of Bremen. The wave can be examined from many perspectives. Oceanography, meteorology and mathematics, for example, show how the interaction of turbulence, waves and eddies in the ocean and the atmosphere help to determine the Earth's climate and temperature. Our climatic future is measured in waves of different sizes, speeds and orders, in tsunamis, rogue waves or regular waves.
But in addition to measurements, computer simulations and future forecasts in ocean wave science, waves can also be understood in other ways. For example, economics and sociology are familiar with wave-like phenomena. Art is full of iconic depictions of waves, from the paintings of Rembrandt, who depicted “Christ in a Storm” on a huge wave in 1633, to the famous TheGreat Wave of Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Then, of course, there are waves of a completely different kind: sound waves, gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves, or even the wave as an aquatic metaphor for political movements and literary and cinematic trends.
This lecture series aims to shed light on different aspects of waves and thus bring our disciplines into conversation with each other. How do we measure, describe, understand and comprehend waves in the various disciplines? And where and how do interdisciplinary interferences and points of contact arise?
Organisation: Kerstin Knopf (department 10), Andrea Muehlebach (department 9)
The lecture series takes place in a hybrid format in German and English. To request online access, please contactnoellenprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de.
Dates
12.11.2024:
Stefan Helmreich (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)): Inaugural Lecture: A Book of Waves: Ocean Waves, Ocean Science, Ocean Media.
26.11.2024:
Johannes Kiefer (Fachbereich 4): Technische Thermodynamik: Welleninterferenz – von der Badewanne bis ins Optiklabor
Kerstin Knopf (Fachbereich 10): North American and Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies: Fluten und Wellen in Amerikanischer Literatur
3.12.2024:
Alice Lefebvre (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Sediment waves in rivers and estuaries: What underwater dunes tell us about water currents and sand transport, and how can we manage them?
Raimund Bleischwitz (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Wellenreiten für den Klimaschutz – Bausteine einer Theorie des Wandels und zur Rolle der Politik
17.12.2024:
Andreas Rademacher (Fachbereich 3): Mathematical Models of Waves and their Analysis
Jana Jürgs (Fachbereich 10): Germanistische Mediavistik: Wellen sind weiblich – Undine und ihre Schwestern
7.1.2025:
Elda Miramontes García (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Brandung in der Tiefsee
Torben Klarl (Fachbereich 7): (Lange) Wellen in der Ökonomik
21.1.2025:
Marie Fujitani (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Waves to and from our shores: reflecting on the future of coastal tourism
Sarina Niedzwiedz (Fachbereich 2): Die Folgen mariner Hitzewellen auf Kelpwald-Gemeinschaften
28.1.2025
Till Markus (Fachbereich 6 und Helmholtz-Zentrum Leipzig für Umweltforschung): Titel TBD
Andrea Muehlebach (Fachbereich 9): Haben Wellen Rechte?
Samoa – “Jewel of Germany’s Pacific?”
Guest Lecture by Tony Brunt (Auckland) and Dr. Nicole Perry (U Auckland)
On 27 June, 2024, 12-14 hours, we will have our INPUTS lecture Bremer Denkanstösse with Tony Brunt (Auckland) and Dr. Nicole Perry (U Auckland) on German colonialism in Samoa: Samoa – “Jewel of Germany’s Pacific?”. The lecture is in English. All are welcome.
INPUTS Writer-in-Residence
Anthony Brunt (Samoa, New Zealand)
In the summer semester of 2024, NZ/Samoan historian Anthony Brunt will be a guest at the University of Bremen for two months as an INPUTS writer-in-residence (13 May – 7 July 2024). Tony Brunt is a historian and photo historian specialising in colonial era photography from the South Pacific, especially from the former German colony of Samoa. For many years he has researched and archived images from private collections and moved them into public access and visibility. Tony Brunt has been a consultant and volunteer photo archivist to the Museum of Samoa since 2012 and created the museum’s long-running online photo exhibition on the German colonial period “To Walk Under Palm Trees”, which ran from 2013 - 2019 and featured over 400 images from private collections. He has spearheaded the museum’s public outreach through social media in relation to historical photography. He has written two illustrated books on early Samoa, including a 2020 study of the recently discovered Karl Hanssen Album of historical photography.
During his stay Anthony Brunt will engage in the following activities:
- co-teach the course “German Colonialism in the Pacific” (with Kerstin Knopf, Wednesdays, 16-18 hours);
- give the lecture “The Legacy of Scientist Otto Tetens: German Samoa’s most important documentarian photographer” within the framework of the exhibition and lecture series “Points of View” (Wednesday 15 May, 18-20 hours, Hafenmuseum, Am Speicher XI 1, Bremen);
- engage in cooperative research at the Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum, incl. Panel Discussion “Traces of Samoan Colonial Past in the Collections of the German Maritime Museum”, Monday 3 June, 16-18 hours, Research Depository, with online access;
- give INPUTS Bremer Denkanstösse lecture (with Dr. Nicole Perry, U Auckland) “Samoa – Jewel of Germany’s Pacific?” (Thursday 27 June, 12-14 hours, MZH 1460).
Organisation: Kerstin Knopf
Everybody is welcome to single classes, lectures and panel discussion (pls send inquiries to kknopfprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de).
Points of View: The Legacy of Scientist Otto Tetens
May 15, 2024, Hafenmuseum Bremen
The Legacy of Scientist Otto Tetens: German Samoa’s most important documentarian photographer
Lecture by Anthony Brunt (Samoa/New Zealand), in English
There were three commercial photographers operating in Samoa during the German colonial period and also a number of amateur photographers among the settler community. Arguably, none can match the body of work of Otto Tetens, the astronomer who came to Apia in 1902 and spent several years setting up the Samoa geophysical observatory at Mulinu'u. His collection, most of it unrelated to his scientific endeavours, reflects a bold, even adventurous intrusion into Samoan and settler life to get the shots he wanted, clearly driven by a wide-eyed curiosity and fascination with his exotic new home in the South Seas. Photo historian Tony Brunt examines Tetens' large collection - much of it still unseen and held privately in Germany - and mines it for its enduring historical and cultural insights.
In the context of the exhibition Pointsof View_ Artistic and Scientific Perspectives on German Colonial History in the Western pacific (April 14 - August 18, 2024)
Tickets: 8 € / 6 €
HAFENMUSEUM BREMEN
Am Speicher XI 1 // 28217 Bremen
WAYS OF WATER: Aquatic Poetics and Politics in North American Literatures
Summer Term 2024 | Lecture Series | Wednesdays 18:00—20:00
BLUE HUMANITIES – SUMMER SCHOOL
SCIENCEHUMANITIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH FICTION MEETS SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
HWK Institute for Advanced Study (Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg) | Delmenhorst GERMANY
MONDAY 3 JUNE – FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2024
Keynote Speaker: Steve Mentz (St John’s University)
Seminars by leading figures from: Environmental Humanities, Literature and Science, History of Science, History of Medicine, Philosophy of Science
Workshops on: Publishing; Academic Careers
The ScienceHumanities Summer School: Postgraduate, International, and Free
See https://cardiffsciencehumanities.org/summer-school/sciencehumanities-in-association-with-fictions-meets-science-international-summer-school/ for further details
In 2024, the Cardiff ScienceHumanities group partners with the Fiction Meets Science Program and Bremen Blue Humanities Research Group to host the Summer School at their home base in Germany. The theme for 2024 is the “Blue Humanities.”
The ScienceHumanities Summer School features a week of workshops with leading scholars who have trained in a diverse array of disciplines—literature, history, philosophy, sociology, environmental science—and are doing research at the cross-section of the humanities and sciences. Students have the opportunity to engage with experienced researchers and a select cohort of peers from around the world, attending workshops on current research topics and career issues (publishing, professional network-building, etc.). Anna-Katharina Hornidge (Bonn) will give the keynote address. Other speakers include Steve Mentz (New York) and Kerstin Knopf (Bremen).
In addition, you will have the opportunity to share ideas, concepts and methods with other doctoral students and begin to build a network of global contacts. The Summer School also incorporates a cultural programme focussed on the rich heritage of Bremen and the region.
The Summer School is open only to doctoral students located in universities and research centres worldwide. There are only 12 places available.
It is free to attend, but participants must be able to meet the cost of their own transport, accommodation and part of their subsistence during their stay at the HWK Institute for Advanced Study (Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg), Delmenhorst. Advice will be given on accommodation and transport and meals will be included during the Summer School.
Two bursaries of £400 are available for students from nations with limited resources.
To express initial interest and receive an application form please email Professor Keir Waddington on waddingtonkprotect me ?!cardiff.acprotect me ?!.uk.
The closing date for expressions of interest is 23 February 2024. Applications must be submitted by 23 March 2024 and decisions will be communicated by early April 2024. Participating doctoral students must be able to commit to the full 5 days of the Summer School.
Interview with Dr. Mohammed Muharram
Dr. Mohammed Muharram gave an interview for Jadaliyya's Scholars in Context series about his research.
"By weaving together postcolonial studies, the blue humanities, and Arabic literature and culture, my research can shed light on novel narratives and interpretations that are at once ecocritical, postcolonial, and deeply rooted in Arabic traditions and histories. This nuanced approach can provide a more holistic understanding of Arabic literature, emphasizing both the historical struggles of postcolonialism and the intricate relationship between people, culture, and the marine environment."
Read the full interview here.
Out Now: Postcolonial Oceans: Contradictions, Heterogeneities, Knowledges, Materialities
edited by Sukla Chatterjee, Joanna Chojnicka, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, and Kerstin Knopf
This book contributes to the study of oceans, seas, coastal waters, and rivers in the context of the Blue Humanities by approaching the topic of water from different epistemological, narratological, geographical, cultural, and disciplinary perspectives and connecting them.
The contributors from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and the Pacific deal with the entanglements between oceans, coastal areas, rivers, humans, animals, plants, organisms, and landscapes in the fields of cultural history and cultural studies, critical race theory and postcolonial studies, marine and environmental studies, linguistics, literature, film and media studies.
Heidelberg University Press published the edited volume both as a hardcover (60 Euros) and as an open access e-book.
Lecture Series - Blue Humanities: Histories, Cultures, Literatures, and Media
The newly formed Bremen Blue Humanities Research Group is pleased to announce our first lecture series this winter term 2023-24, Wednesdays 6-8 pm in the Cartesium.