Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

Dear students and colleagues, 

You are cordially invited to participate in the guest lecture of Dr. Beril Ocaklı during the BRI seminar on 02.06.2023: “Re/searching connections. Geopolitics and poetics of the BRI infrastructure in Eurasia”

Dr. Beril Ocaklı is Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)

A decade on, China through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) continues to occupy minds and political geographies. Unveiled a decade ago at the Nazarbayev University Campus in Astana, Kazakhstan, the BRI remains an unprecedented undertaking for seamlessly interconnecting people and places in Asia with Africa and Europe through multifarious large-scale infrastructure. Drawing on published work and reflections on ongoing research, Beril Ocaklı situates linear takes on the BRI as both mystical and alarmist, and lays bare the initiative’s shapeshifting nature in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Informed by the interdisciplines of critical geography, anthropology and political economy, the talk grounds and demystifies the geopolitical ‘giant’ in two specific geographical sites and political contexts along the Middle Corridor: (1) the re/construction of the 51 km of the Rikoti Highway in Georgia, literally constituting the Corridor, and (2) the 100 MW Zhanatas Wind Park in Kazakhstan, the largest to date in Central Asia. Juxtaposing the (geo)politics and poetics of the BRI infrastructure with lived dis/connections, the lecture proposes a conversation around infrastructure and democratic governance within and beyond the BRI.

You are cordially invited to participate in BCCN/LMRG's monthly online series “China – The New Science Superpower?”:

Infinite Expanses? The Politics of China’s Space Science and Technology

Speaker: Maximilian Mayer (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) 

Online via Zoom: Please register for the event here: https://zoom.us/j/93125029289?pwd=K0s1M1Vsdm1pazBNeTVWRDRwQXZ4UT09 

Over the past two decades, China's space program has flourished. In June 2021, China successfully sent three taikonauts to Tianhe, a newly launched space station module. The Chinese space station could potentially be the only station in low Earth orbit for years to come. China's National Space Administration aims to establish an autonomous lunar habitat by 2030. Although a latecomer compared to the United States, Russia, or Europe, China is rapidly developing a strong presence in space through a number of key assets, including launch vehicles and a satellite navigation network. China's space program must be examined against the backdrop of an increasingly competitive international geopolitical system and an evolving treaty system governing outer space—China's fledgling space capabilities, both civilian and military, are emerging in the context of commercialization, militarization, and geopolitical rivalry in space. 

Spread the word and register for more lectures in this series on our BCCN-website

Kind regards

Anna Ahlers, Sarah Eaton

Please join our next BCCN roundtable to discuss China‘s climate fight in the context of rising global tensions. Roundtable participants will be:

Denise Van der Kamp (Oxford University),

Deborah Seligsohn (Villanova University),

Kai Wegrich (Hertie School) and

Genia Kostka (Freie Universität Berlin).

Wednesday 3 May 2023, 14:30 –16:00 (CEST)

Online on Webex. Please register here:
https://fu-berlin.webex.com/weblink/register/r5cad54aaed01bb45b444bcbcc4c9fbd1

Spread the word and register for more events on our BCCN-website

You are cordially invited to participate in the BCCN Talk:

Beijing's Banking Balloon: China's Core Economic Challenge in the New Era

Speaker: Adam Yao Liu (National University of Singapore)

The event will take place in room 301 of the Seminar for East Asian Studies.

Adam Yao Liu is an Assistant Professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He is a political scientist trained at Stanford University, though he doesn't believe in disciplinary and methodological boundaries. He studies Chinese politics and political economy. His dissertation, "Building Markets within Authoritarian Institutions: The Political Economy of Banking Development in China," won the 2020 BRICS Economic Research Award. 

Spread the word and register for more events on our BCCN-website

You are cordially invited to participate in the first roundtable in the BCCN Online Lecture Series 2022/23 "China – The New Science Superpower?": 

Global Perspectives on China’s Scientific Rise and Reach

Sari Hanafi (American University of Beirut),

Daniel Murphy (Harvard Kennedy School),

Maria Elena Rodriguez (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro),

Anastas Vangeli (School of Economics and Business, Ljubljana)

April 19, 2023, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (CET)

Register for the event here: https://zoom.us/j/96109417018?pwd=djZ5cC9uM1dhS2pzRmVwVlhjZkZHdz09 

How have international academic exchanges and science relations with China developed over the past decades? What status do these relations have in different countries? And how do scholars from around the globe assess the impact of Chinese science and scholarship, and China’s (apparently) growing engagement in academic structures abroad? In this roundtable, we will openly and informally discuss these developments. Participating scholars are not expected to represent national or official views on these topics, we are inviting them to speak from an analytical standpoint and as experts on different regions.

Spread the word and register for more lectures in this series on our BCCN-website