Chair for Global History

From December 15 to 16, 2025, the workshop "Unsilenced Voices. Women's Voluntary Activism in (Post)Colonial Societies“ took place. It focused on women's voluntary work and activism in Ghana and other (post)colonial contexts. The event was organized by Gifty Nyame Tabiri, a project collaborator in the subproject ”Volunatriness, Decolonization, and Gender."

The workshop explored women’s voluntary political activism in (post)colonial societies. Women, throughout history, have challenged their marginalization by actively  forging their own paths of social and political change. How did these endeavors look like? What forms did they take, especially during the transitional (post-)colonial periods? How did voluntariness reinforce or challenge these endeavors? Both the documentary film and our workshop will explore oral history, (un)conventional historical resources and recent research perspectives to discuss these questions, in postcolonial West African history as well as other global contexts.

On Monday, December 15, 2025, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Kate Skinner, Professor of African History at the University of Bristol, and Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Professor of African and Gender Studies at the University of Ghana, introduced participants to the questions raised in the workshop about the documentary film “When Women Speak”. Both initiated the research project on which the film is based. On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., the discussion was deepened with perspectives on further research projects and insightful sources under the theme “Voluntariness, Women's Activism and (Post) Colonial Narratives.”

From June 22 to 29, 2025, we welcomed Dr Takele Merid Afessa, Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University , to the University of Erfurt.

On June 24 2025, a workshop and an evening lecture with Takele Merid Afessa took place at the Centre for Transcultural Studies.The workshop, which took place in cooperation with SCIFA Science Facilitation and the collaborative project "Kulturtechniken des Sammelns", was dedicated to the topic "The Ethiopian Pillow: Towards a New Cultural Mapping of Headrests - An Interventionist Approach".

In his lecture "Rethinking the Ethnological Collection of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies: Questions, Challenges and Suggestions", Takele Merid Afessa addressed the ethnographic collections of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa. He discussed not only the historical and cultural dimensions of these collections, but also the challenges associated with their preservation and presentation. In this context, he also raised the question of possible approaches and new ways of dealing with the collections.

The event was organised in cooperation with SCIFA Science Facilitation (Berlin-Gotha), KOLUMBA, the Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne and the cooperation project "Kulturtechniken des Sammelns" (Erfurt-Gotha).

Report on the workshop

The 13th Colloquium on the History of Cartography took place on May 9 and 10 2025 at the Centre for Transcultural Studies in Gotha. The regularly held event offers academics, especially those in the qualification phase, a forum to present projects on cultural-historical cartography from the Middle Ages to contemporary history and to discuss methodological concepts of ongoing work. The two-day, interdisciplinary and transepochal colloquium included discussions and a visit to the Gotha Perthes Collection (Gotha Research Library). The event was organised by Ingrid Baumgärtner (Kassel), Christoph Mauntel (Osnabrück), Ute Schneider (Essen), Martina Stercken (Zurich) and Iris Schröder (Erfurt).

The event was sponsored by the Freundeskreis der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha e.V. and the Research and Graduate Services Department of the University of Erfurt.

From March 5 to 7, 2025, a workshop on "Trust and Distrust in the Un/Mapping of Africa" took place at the Centre for Transcultural Studies. The workshop brought together international scholars to critically scrutinise and reassess the European practice of "unmapping" the African continent. A visit to the Gotha Perthes Collection was also planned, whose valuable holdings of letters, sketches and hand-drawn maps were to be integrated into the discussion. These materials were meant to help to better define historical mapping practices and their connection to "unmapping". Scholars from various disciplines and institutions discussed the role of authentication and credibility practices in the context of the "unmapping" of Africa. The aim of the workshop was to initiate a dialogue between European and African researchers.

The workshop was organised by Iris Schröder (University of Erfurt), Dominic Keyßner (University of Erfurt) and Petter Hellström (University of Uppsala). It was supported by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for the promotion of the humanities and social sciences and by Professor Michael Wildt, who promotes academic exchange between African and European researchers, in particular between the University of Erfurt and the University of Mekelle.