We have launched a programme called “Media System and Public Sphere of Afghanistan” at the Research Centre for Communication for Social Change at the University of Leipzig. The programme is divided into three areas: research, teaching and transfer.
This programme will
- provide a scientific home for six researchers from Afghanistan
- synergize and use the scholar’s unique competencies to understand recent developments in Afghanistan from a communication studies perspective and to derive transformative options for action
- develop models and formats for public outreach
- equip the academics with targeted measures so that they may integrate into Germany’s academic landscape beyond the project’s timeline
- provide an interconnection point for other exiled academics, journalists and activists to be available to the German public as a body of experts
The six participants previously held professorships or lectureships in Afghanistan. Most of them also worked as journalists. Their perspectives combine media studies, communication studies, political science, sociology and practical journalism.
The project combines academic (i.e. the research team), journalistic (i.e. the journalists from Afghanistan) and activist (i.e. various exchange formats) perspectives, thus creating a qualitatively unique academic format that is highly topical and politically relevant. This is expected to enrich communication studies research in Germany with new insights from previously unknown perspectives.
The programme will help broaden and complement communication studies and their relevant disciplines in Germany, doing so thematically (i.e. Communication for Social Change), geographically (i.e. Afghanistan, Middle East) and geopolitically (i.e. Fragile States, Global South).