Leibniz ScienceCampus “Europe and America in the Modern World”

The Leibniz ScienceCampus “Europe and America in the Modern World: Transformations and Frictions of Globality in Past and Present” is a joint institution of the IOS and the University of Regensburg (UR). Launched in September 2019, the ScienceCampus’ first period of Leibniz Association funding now runs to August 2025.

The ScienceCampus provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange in area studies. In cooperation with the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies (GS OSES^UR) it offers an excellent doctoral studies program. The Campus also coordinates a visiting fellowship scheme that draws on a particularly extensive international network of partner institutions in North and South America and in Eastern and Western Europe. In pursuing an interdisciplinary model of area studies, “Europe and America in the Modern World” brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines, including History, Cultural and Literary Studies, Linguistics, Social Sciences, Politics, and Economics. A key objective of the ScienceCampus is to strengthen Regensburg’s position as a leading center of transregional area studies. Furthermore, the ScienceCampus works collaboratively with other Leibniz Institutes.

The ScienceCampus explores the complex entanglements between and within Europe and North and South America. The relationship between Europe and Ame­rica has been constitutive of globalization, its inherent tensions, and its fault lines sin­ce the late eighteenth century. The research program of the Regensburg Science­Campus therefore focuses on the key sites of globalization and resistance to it, such as the tensions between migration and nati­vism. The Campus thus seeks to contribute to improving the understanding of the history of globalization, while also tracing current developments in transatlantic relations and encounters. These regionally and disciplinarily diverse perspectives on globalization processes also form the guiding principle of the ScienceCampus’ blog journal Frictions. This open access publication offers a hybrid format, combining peer-reviewed journal articles with discussion pieces in a variety of media.

ScienceCampi are an initiative of the Leibniz Association which aims to facilitate regional research collaboration between Leibniz Institutes and universities. The Campi contribute to the development of national and international networks, while enhancing the visibility and innovation of research and outreach measures in particular fields. The Regensburg ScienceCampus is the first in Bavaria.