Anti-colonial Discourses in Metropolises of Exile: Arab Student Networks from Geneva to Berlin (1908-1939)

 In my project I investigate networks of foremostly Arab students from the larger Mashreq region, who came to study in Switzerland and Germany right before, during and after World War 1. By closely analyzing a great variety of journals and newspapers as well as travelogues and memoires, the work examines the major intellectual debates about pressing cultural, political and social changes within these reformist intellectual circles. In doing so I wish to highlight, how inter- and transnational networks and discourses of Arabs across Europe and beyond influenced contemporary discussions on the formation of future Arab nation states, while likewise having an impact on the European politics of the pre- and post-World War 1 era.

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag