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Cluster 'Asia and Europe' Liaison Office New Delhi  LogoVJCSAI

The Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context - Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows' is part of the 'Initiative for Excellence' of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science and Research Council (Wissenschaftsrat), financed by the Federal Government. The scientific objective of the Cluster is the examination of processes of cultural exchange focusing on the asymmetries in cultural flows between Asia and Europe.

The Cluster aims at interdisciplinary research and involves three focal disciplines:

Emphasis is placed on the international and global dimension of processes of cultural exchange. The Cluster aims at developing new concepts and methodologies on a transcultural basis, promoting the use of new sources and methologies by taking into account many visual, textual and aural sources that have previously been neglected.
International cooperation comprises various institutions in the USA, Europe and Asia (https://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/partners), with special attention to fostering the participation of Asian scholars in research projects.

Research is organised in four research areas:
A: Government and Administration
B: Media and Public Spheres
C: Health and Environment
D. Historicities and Heritages

The Cluster runs a Graduate Programme offering full-time scholarship to 16 doctoral students per year for a period of three years. 50% of these positions are reserved for students from Asia.

Main partners of the Cluster in India are Sarai, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and Tasveer Ghar.


Local affiliated Projects:

    Emerging Urbanisms (Sarai)
    Sarai is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. Sarai researches the urban experience, the city, the publics and practice of old and new media, "information and society", free & open source software, language and digital cultures. One of its research projects on urban environmentalism is affiliated to Project B11 of the Cluster.
    Muslim Iconography around the Nizamuddin Sufi Shrine (Tasveer Ghar)
    Tasveer Ghar is a transnational virtual ''home'' for collecting, digitizing, and documenting various materials produced by South Asia's exciting popular visual sphere including posters, calendar art, pilgrimage maps and paraphernalia, cinema hoardings, advertisements, and other forms of street and bazaar art. Some of the key fields of exploration within the network are:
      (a) the social and performative life of images;
      (b) the histories and everyday lives and voices of producers, disseminators and 'consumers';
      (c) various techniques of visuality/media of visualisation (for instance, ritual or theatrical performance, or political spectacle).
    Tasveer Ghar is an independent project, but is supported financially by the Cluster through a three years funding grant. The research on Muslim Iconography conducted by the Delhi office is integrated in Research Area B of the Cluster.

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