In this co-authored working paper for the Shaping Asia Research Network of Bielefeld and Heidelberg Universities, International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Director Philippe Peycam and HAB Academic Director Aarti Kawlra share their thoughts on implementing HAB as an initiative of the IIAS, with the goal of invigorating the Humanities with civic-minded pedagogies grounded in local experience, alongside university partners from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the USA.

They reflect on the economisation and technologisation of higher education together with the growing dominance of a singular model of knowledge production and dissemination the world over. From there, they discuss their approach of learning in situ, i.e. combining the situational context – people’s memories, expressions, motives, practices and, physical surroundings – with text-based, disciplinary articulations. In visualising the university as a site of meaning-making, they call for the rehabilitation of the public role of the university even as they build a trans-regional, inter-institutional, intersectional space for collaborative teaching and learning.

To download a copy of the paper, click here.