Conferences

On 11 and 12 November the University of Groningen hosted the IXth U4 Rectors' Conference. The annual Rectors' Conference forms the setting for the yearly evaluation and planning of the U4 strategic partnership.

As in previouw editions the four rectors took the occasion to focus on the strategy of the network. At the conference also representatives of all academic clusters and working groups take part to report on their activities and to present their aims for the coming year.

The outcome of 2016 is very positive. Not only is the number of initiatives still increasing. Also within the existing projects the cooperation has been considerably intensified. In addition, there have never been more mobile students and staff within the U4 network.

The third conference of the U4 Network 'Reverberations of Revolution: Polical upheaval seen from afar' in cooperation with the early career research group 'Multiple Modernities' took place in Göttingen from 23 to 25 June 2016.

The conference 'Translation and Transformation in the Age of Revolution' addressed the responses to radical political transformations in the 'Age of Revolution' in a transnational perspective. In recent years, the research on revolutions has become less Eurocentric, for they are considered in view of their connections with other places. The presentations focused on revolutionary events and narratives as relying on translators' ability to connect political pamphlets, witness accounts and other material with transnational cultural contexts.

This conference focuses on the internationalization of the curricula – the integration of an international and intercultural dimension as well as a global perspective into the content of the curriculum and the learning and teaching processes.

We invite scholars and faculty, higher education staff members involved in curriculum development, such as program coordinators, staff members of International Offices, Teaching and Learning Centers, and Academic Program Development divisions, as well as students who share an interest in the topic to join us in exchanging ideas and elucidating future directions for German universities. 

The third conference of the U4 network 'Reverberations of Revolution: Polical upheaval seen from afar' in cooperation with the early career research group 'Multiple Modernities' will take place in Göttingen from 23 to 25 June 2016.

The category of revolution is itself a product of translation, from Latin to French, English, German etc. What is more, without translations the reception of revolutionary events would have been impossible in a transnational public sphere. In spite of this, the impact of translations has been largely ignored in standard historical accounts of the Atlantic revolutions. The reception of revolutionary events, based on the translation of eyewitness accounts and revolutionary pamphlets, inspired new upheavals on both sides of the Atlantic. The medial conditions involved transnational networks of translators, many of them female. Hence a transatlantic public sphere, in which revolutionary narratives were disseminated, emerged to a high degree through practices of translation.

SPEAKERS: Sarah Adams (Ghent), Elizabeth Amann (Ghent), Anja Bandau (Hannover), Michael Boyden (Uppsala), Malte Griesse (Konstanz), Raphael Hörmann (Lancashire), Alessa Johns (UC Davis), Marion Löffler (Aberystwyth), Alison E. Martin (Reading), Jeremy D. Popkin (Kentucky)

Please download the programme.

On 18 April the DAAD or German Academic Exchange Service ('Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst') hosted the conference 'Going Forward - Strategic Partnerships as a Driver for Internationalization' as one of the primary events in the context of the closing of the 1st funding period of the DAAD programme ‘Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks’.

The U4 network is one of 21 strategic partnerships and thematic networks to have received a project funding in the period 2013-2016. Not only the leading German partners were present, but also the international partners of the respective projects were invited to attend the conference and to share their experience.