Potential of Transferring Knowledge to Host

This research project has high potential of transferring knowledge to the Center for German Studies that hosts it. Over the years of its implementation, this research project can establish and develop working relations between the Center for German Studies and Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin, Germany. In addition, this research project will acquire a trilateral dimension via collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy. This research can join forces with Prof. Mario Perniola's research projects, hosted at the Tor Vergata University, on German theorists of new aesthetics as they relate to art biennials, urban space, and global culture. Dr. Markin actively maintains his contacts with Prof. Rob Shields, a Tory Marshall Chair at the Departments of Art History and Sociology, and Prof. Massimo Verdicchio from the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, who served at his doctoral supervisory committee. With Prof. Shields, his doctoral supervisor, there is a possibility to conduct a joint research project on alternative global culture capitals that will transfer valuable knowlegde both to the hosting Center for German Studies and to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, since contacts between Israeli and Canadian academics continue to be rare and possible collaborative projects are a unique opportunity to mutually introduce to each other these different academic environments. These perspectives do not exclude avenues of multi-lateral cooperation since Dr. Markin has also established contacts with Prof. Richard Münch and Prof. Gerhard Schulze from the Sociology Department of Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg, Germany, who represent the more interesting directions of development of contemporary sociology. As he was finishing his doctoral degree, Dr. Markin has secured an invitation for a research stay at the University of Bamberg from Prof. Richard Münch that it will be possible to activate during his reintegration at the Center for German Studies.

The willingness of both Prof. Wolfgang Kaschuba from Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin, and Prof. Mario Perniola from the Tor Vergata University of Rome to take part in collaborative research projects, such as this research project, bodes well for the potential that it can have for its results. In the form of working papers, conference proceedings and inter-personal contacts, the results of this research project will not only serve the mission of the Center for German Studies of the Hebrew University but also promote the information and knowledge exchange between academics, artists and curators who are engaged in Israeli art scene. For example, Prof. Gannit Ankori from the Art History Department and Prof. Ruth Hacohen-Pinchover from the Music Studies Deparment of the Hebrew University have both expressed their interest in the works of Prof. Perniola since they offer philosophical perspectives that go beyond the Euro-centric project of Enlightnement towards the exploration of new forms of aesthetic sensibility. Likewise, Prof. Jeanette Malkin from the Theatre Studies Department of the Hebrew University finds that that re-reading of classical authors of German social and cultural theory, such as Georg Simmel, in light of contemproary sociology can lead to insightful perspectives on theatre and performance studies.