Encounter #2: PD Dr. Steffen Wippel, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Our second Erkner Encounter took place on 19 October 2018. This time we came together with our guest Steffen Wippel, who is a senior research fellow at the research network Re-Configurations at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) in Marburg.

Photo: Jana M. Kleibert

As his academic work revolves – among other topics – around questions related to processes of (trans)regionalisation and urban development in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region, he offered us valuable insights related to our research topic. Hence, we debated the role that different geographical scales play for the transnationalisation of higher education and how it is possible to conceptualise the often blurry spatiality of IBCs. Regarding the matter of the urban dimension of IBCs in the WANA region, he shared some of his ideas on neoliberal urban development and we discussed to what extent Dubai can be understood as a role model for urban and economic strategies.

For some more information on Steffen’s work, here are two of his most recent publications:

  • Wippel, Steffen; Andrea Fischer Tahir (Ed.) (2018): Jenseits etablierter Meta-Geographien: Der Nahe Osten und Nordafrika in transregionaler Perspektive. Schriftenreihe “Nahoststudien”. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
  • Wippel, Steffen (2017): Sindbad the Sailor revived? Oman and its Indian Ocean Links; in: Leïla Vignal (Ed.), The Transnational Middle East: Places, People, Borders, Abingdon/New York: Routledge 2017, S. 122-147.