Uncertain States - DISKURSE Michael Lüders: "Nahostverwirrungen"

Lecture by Michael Lüders, Political scientist, Islam expert

Michael Lüders is a researcher of politics and Islam and the President of the German-Arab Society. In his lecture "Nahostverwirrungen", Lüders will explain the current crisis in the Middle East in its complexity which has become hard to grasp for external observers.

Short biography:
Dr. Michael Lüders, born 1959 in Bremen, studied Arab literature in Damascus, and Islamic studies, political science and journalism in Berlin. He was awarded his Ph.D. for his work on Egyptian cinema. He has made documentary films for SWR and WDR, and spent many years as the Middle East correspondent for the DIE ZEIT weekly and a commentator on Middle East issues, the Arab world and Islam on German, Swiss and Austrian media (including ARD, ZDF, RTL, N24, n-tv). He has held teaching positions in Middle East Studies at, for example, the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies of the Philipps-University of Marburg (2008/2009) and the Sakarya University Middle East Institute, Turkey (2015/2016). He is now a Berlin-based policy consultant, economic advisor, journalist and author.

DISKURSE, a series of lectures and discussions, addresses today's key issues. Europe is facing challenges such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. What are the causes of this new fundamentalism? How can the growth of right-wing populism and racism be curbed and overcome? How can immigration policies be improved? And what role does art have to play in coping with the crisis?

The 12 lectures by prominent representatives of migration studies, political science, sociology, philosophy, and art scholarship will be accompanied and commented on by the young team from Polis180, the grassroots think tank for foreign and European policy. The series will be available online at www.adk.de/uncertain-states.

In cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and Polis180. All dates of the series can be found here.