The Socio-Cultural Life of Sociological Concepts

The "Einstein Visiting Fellowship for Mohammed Bamyeh" project explores the historical development and contemporary uses of key social and political concepts in the Arab region. It investigates how terms in Arabic, English, and French have been coined, translated, and renegotiated—whether through colonial encounters or by local actors. The project’s aim is to produce a comparative lexicon of 60 core concepts, developed collectively in three international workshops (Berlin, Beirut, Berlin; 2026–2029). In doing so, it makes Arab intellectual contributions more visible within global theoretical debates.

Violence, Displacement, and Memory. Arab Feminist Conceptualizations of Home.

In this context, the Einstein-funded postdoctoral project of Dr. Nayera Abdelrahman Soliman (BGSMCS) traces the socio-cultural life of the concept of home through available Arab digital oral history archives in four countries (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt) about revolutions, displacements and wars since the 1950s, focusing mainly on the accounts of women. The aim of this project is to define the concepts based on the narratives and definitions of people in the Arab world who lived them and who witnessed the loss of their homes, not just the scholars and archivists who studied them.

Photography (c) Sabry Khaled