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Languages as Hubs of National Imagining within the Arsenal of ‘Total War’: Critically Comparing the Teaching of ‘Enemy’ Language and Culture in Britain and Germany, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945
German Historical Institute London Blog Since its emergence in the nineteenth century, the concept of the nation has been at the heart of language teaching, with terms such as ‘native’ and ‘target language countries’ presupposing semi-essential boundaries between cultures and naturalizing fixed, bounded notions of national identity.1 This intrinsic link…
Coexpression, colexification, cogrammification: Three new terms of comparative linguistics and what they (might) mean
Everyone knows that linguistic forms often (seem to) have multiple meanings: Sentences may be ambiguous, words often exhibit polysemy, they may be homonymous, and grammatical markers can have a range of uses. But more recently, two additional terms have become widespread in comparative approaches: colexification (the possibility of using a…
How to Quench my Thirst!
Searching for Drinking Water in Tirana In Germany, drinking water flows from almost every tap. It is clean and fresh, day and night and every minute. This convenience has made me forget how fortunate we are when it comes to water. Turn on the tap and drink as much as…
The Ambiguity of the Colexification Term
The term colexification has become an important concept in lexical typology in particular and linguistic typology in general. Surprisingly, it is not consistenly used by all scholars in the field. Instead, two main interpretations have emerged, a broad version that uses colexification as a cover term for polysemy, vagueness, and…
Even at the End of the Earth: Ruth Behar on Memory, Storytelling, and Child Migration
“Even at the end of the earth, I will remember where I came from.” – Ruth Behar, Across So Many...
Hype or Not? Why Sustainability Education Is Here to Stay
Another educational fashion? The sign on the door has changed for five decades; the building stands because its problems do. Fads swap, fields develop. This entry tells the two apart.
Decolonizing Mediterranean History: Between Deconstruction and Redemption
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research By Nora Lafi Introduction In 1965, Mohamed Chérif Sahli (1906–1989) published the seminal book Décoloniser l’histoire (Sahli, 1965). A longtime activist of the Algerian national movement, Sahli, a historian, journalist, diplomat and philosopher, became the director of the Algerian national archives when the country…
Memories Remembered Episode 2: Memorials and the Active Act of Remembrance
This podcast episode explores the meaning and evolution of memorials, with reflections anchored in site visits to Berlin, Bergen-Belsen, and Stalag 326. Participants discuss the tension between historical memory and daily life, balancing respect for sites of death with the need to keep them active through education and community participation.…
Henry Schjærven’s Exlibris Drafts
Of the Norwegian mid-century exlibris artists, Henry Schjærven is one of the greatest. Not necessarily by numbers, however; his œuvre is by no means small, but by reach and representation. And Who Was He? We don’t know very much about Schjærven; there are no articles about him in the Store…
A Privilege That can be Withdrawn: Ukrainian Refugee Women Between Welcome and its Limits
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research By Maria Grynevych One of the women I interviewed – a stand-up performer who left Odesa for Berlin – described the German reception system with real admiration and then, in the same breath, declined it: “the financial support, of course, how the social system…
A problem of the present – a conference for the future? The 1943 Bermuda Conference on the “Refugee Problem” re-read from the perspective of a Migration Historian
Even supposedly well-researched objects of history can generate new knowledge if considered from a new perspective. But how far can a researcher go in this regard while still valueing the established historiography? The following essay is an experiment of thought that explores two questions: First, how far can I go…
Empires Drifting Apart: South Africa and the Emergence of British–German Public Alienation (1894–1907)
German Historical Institute London Blog Introduction: An ‘Unwritten’ Anglo-German Alignment In 1890, Britain and Germany signed the Treaty of Heligoland, which regulated their respective colonial claims in sub-Saharan Africa. Members of the British press celebrated it as constituting a colonial marriage between the two nations. The notion of an ‘unwritten’…
Vanishing Donkeys in Northern Ghana: Global Demand, Local Struggles, and the Erosion of Rural Livelihoods
Introduction For generations, donkeys have been an indispensable part of everyday life in Northern Ghana. They transport water, firewood, manure, farm inputs, and harvested crops. They plough fields, support agricultural production, and reduce the...
Pedagogy Under Fire: Teaching Archaeology with WhatsApp during Sudan’s Civil War
TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research By Ahmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam This article was first published here on the 18th of June, 2026. On April 11, 2019, the then President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan was ousted in a revolution. In September 2019, the Transitional Sovereignty Council was established. Tensions in…
Opening up academia for some unexpected friends — Bregt Lameris, Daniëlle Amelsbeek and Lesley Verbeek on inclusive research
Image by Hannah Busing from Unsplash Von Bregt Lameris, Daniëlle Amelsbeek and Lesley Verbeek Introduction In this contribution, we elaborate on the idea of opening the university to people with an intellectual disability (ID), which aligns with UNESCO’s recommendation to open academia «to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community»…
Between Faith and Fortress: The Templars and Crusader Jerusalem
Sophia Menache (University of Haifa) doi: https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00038442 Jerusalem was the center and alma mater of the Templars for sixty–seven consecutive years, namely, from the founding of the Order (c. 1119–1120) until Saladin’s conquest (3 October 1187). Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, provided the knights with quarters in a wing of…