IZO Early Career Researcher Network (ECRN)
Events of the ECR Network
Regular Network Meetings on Campus
Since the 2021/22 winter semester, we have been organising regular informal meetings to exchange ideas concerning our research and teaching activities as well as to plan new network activities.
All ECRN members are also invited to present their own projects or project ideas at these working lunches and to receive inspiring feedback from people with other professional backgrounds and regional focus areas. Joint ideas can be further developed into project applications within the framework of the IZO's ECRN Fund.
IZO Early Career Researcher Network Workshop with Prof. William A. Callahan, 27 January 2023
The IZO ECRN was honoured to welcome William A. Callahan, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science for an exclusive workshop at Goethe University Frankfurt on 27 January 2023. During the three-hour workshop, titled "How to understand China and understand the world: mixed methods approach", Prof. Callahan shared and discussed his essay on China's statecraft from the Ming Dynasty to the current Xi Jinping era and the role of imperialism/nationalism discourses through a cartographic approach.
The workshop participants raised a wide range of questions regarding Prof. Callahan's thoughts on studying China's foreign policy and related empirical research methods. We discussed conceptualising cultural implications into politics through Tianxia 天下 and explaining the concepts of civilisation vs nation. Prof. Callahan conceptualised his “imperial gaze" framework and exchanged ideas with the participants regarding China's claims in the South China Sea. In terms of discussing China's international role from an International Relations perspective, we discussed how to reconcile mainstream concepts like balancing, bandwagoning and hedging with the Chinese Communist Party's own specific United Front Work framework, and with its notion of “friendship" and identification of political enemies. Lastly, Prof. Callahan shared his mixed-methods approach to researching Chinese foreign policy strategy and some foreseeable challenges when China re-opens for scholars to conduct field research.
We thank Prof. Callahan again for the fruitful and lively discussion and thoughtful inspirations for our own research. We look forward to organising further ECRN events in the coming months.
Background Discussion with Prof. Barry Naughton (UCSD) at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, 29 October 2021
