Exchange of knowledge and ideas in research and teaching in the field of Historical Cultural Studies
7 November 2024
Professor Jörg Rogge of the Department of History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany has been in contact with colleagues at South Africa's North-West University (NWU) for about a decade. Their first encounter dates back to the Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History in Johannesburg in 2014. In 2021, Mainz University and NWU signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing their collaboration, and the partners have since intensified their exchange. "It is our intention to expand this cooperation at various levels – both in research and teaching," emphasized Rogge.
The Mainz-based historians and their colleagues at the three NWU campuses convene online on several occasions each year to discuss current research topics in social and cultural history. This exchange of information is of considerable value as it brings together German and European research traditions – i.e., methodologies, theories, fields of research – with specific South African approaches to studying the past. The researchers have started to explore the differences and distinctive aspects of the history of the two countries. "Significant disparities come to light in this connection," said Professor Jörg Rogge. While early modern nation-states began to develop in Europe in the Middle Ages, the African continent was subjected to the colonialist ambitions and dominance of European superpowers for centuries. South Africa's political and social history was shaped by the colonial period under British and Boer rule in the 19th century as well as the period of apartheid from 1948 to 1989/1990. "But precisely because of these obviously very different historical developments in our countries, it is very interesting and informative to look for similarities in the organization of everyday life in villages, cities, and townships across regions and time," said Rogge.
Community building in Europe and South Africa
Against this background, the researchers in South Africa and Mainz are planning to undertake a joint project dealing with the subject of community building. They will be looking for parallels in the evolvement of historical village communities in Europe and modern townships in South Africa. They will discuss the sort of sources available for their research, whether certain stages of historical European and (South) African community building can be compared and set in relation to each other, and whether there were and are comparable practices. "At Mainz University, we span a large arc of historical periods that we study, from ancient to medieval through to modern and contemporary history. This is of particular interest to our colleagues in South Africa, who are specifically concerned with state- and nation-building in Europe prior to 1900," stated Rogge. The research team aims for medium-term funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for their German-South African joint research project.
Moreover, the NWU and JGU intend to implement joint teaching initiatives, in which students can obtain academic credits. "We want to engage our students in our collaboration as direct exchange and interaction are of immense value for all parties involved – in research as well as in learning and teaching, in the fields of history and cultural studies and far beyond," concluded Rogge.