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Involving the consequences of the political and social upheavals in Europe since 1989 quite new forms of communication came in evidence at all levels where individuals and people meet who represent different origins. In Germany frightening eruptions of xenophobia and the return of exaggerated nationalism and even racism which seemed to be totally overcome led to an increasing scientific discussion about „foreigners” or „strangers” which focused on the negative concomitants of this phenomenon. A quite different vision is produced when looking at the Baltic Sea Region that formed – in spite of all wars and political segregations – a region of fruitful interchanges from its early history till today. Therefore this region is optimally suited for a program of studies and research that brings together different scientific disciplines oriented to the arts. This program is to gather and analyze forms and effects of the contact to the foreigners – from exclusion to integration – at the background of the specific social and political conditions.
The old Hanseatic town Greifswald, that has to be perceived as a product of the overlapping and integration of Slavonic, Danish, German and Swedish influences, and its university with its various relations to other universities in the Baltic Sea Region and its unique combination of scientific disciplines (studies in Scandinavian, Baltic, Fennic and Slavonic languages and literatures, history of North and East Europe, history of the Hanseatic league, focuses in the Baltic Sea regions in Political and Juridical studies) provide a particular appropriate place for such a focus that shows its regional references in the individual subjects of the Graduates.
In the third stage of the Graduate College in Greifswald there is planned to emphasize the Eastern part of the „Mare Balticum region of contacts” which shows its relevance to the current situation related to the accession of Poland and the Baltic States into EU and to the relationship between Russia and Europe, which forms a topic that recently emerged on the occasion of the presidential elections in Ukraine. The problems of transformation have been studied in terms of law, economy and political systems mostly, but the Graduate College in Greifswald will make them subjects of discussion in the context of its (inter-)cultural studies.
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Prof. Dr. Michael North
Dr. Alexander Drost
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Information and Communication...
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