As a form of human mobility, migration can be within or across borders, regular or irregular, voluntary or forced, as well as temporary or permanent. These categories do not have clear-cut boundaries, since migrants challenge and re-create the socio-economic, cultural and political conditions of any urban space they dwell within. Berlin and Istanbul have remarkable examples of these transformations in relation to their experiences of migration and intermixing. These two metropoles, with a degree of similarity, have been the centers of migration flows that derived from wars, international conflicts and regional unrest throughout their histories. Recently, the migrants, who have been on the move from Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and even from Europe due to various discontents since the last decade, have triggered off a common challenge for Berlin and Istanbul.

Within a broader framework, Germany (among the member states of the European Union) and Turkey (among the Southeastern Europe and Middle Eastern countries) have become the leading countries in terms of the recipients of asylum applications over the last four years (UNCHR 2014). While Turkey has the largest number of Syrian refugees (close to 2.2 million people) that could benefit from the Government’s Temporary Protection Regime, Germany has the highest number of new asylum applications (approximately 160.000) in 2015 (UNCHR 2015). Additionally, after arriving to Turkey, some of the migrants have been able to go to Germany and hence create a new transnational migration route between Turkey and Germany. Although this recent migration flow has completely different features than the one that took place fifty-five years ago - the bilateral labor recruitment agreement between Germany and Turkey in 1961 – it urges to bring these two countries together for understanding migrants’ long-term needs, sharing experiences and resources, generating sustainable common policies and developing universal human values.

Therefore, the Berlin-Istanbul Lecture Series particularly aims to explore the impact of the so-called refugee crisis on Berlin and Istanbul in a comparative perspective, keeping in mind the complex set of linkages between these two metropoles. The linkages of the two cities go back to the late nineteenth century in the fields of education, business, engineering, technology, architecture, urban planning and culture. The topics that are related to the focus of the lecture series include (but are not limited to) discrimination, housing, education, gender, health, food, political participation, solidarity, civil society, informality, mobility and temporality.

To investigate these topics with prominent scholars, we would like to invite graduate students and postdoctoral scholars of anthropology, architecture, cultural studies, geography, history, international relations, law, philosophy, political science, sociology and urban studies. The lecture series will take place on the 27th and 28th of October in Istanbul and 24th and 25th of November in Berlin, 2016. The lecture series in each city is organized as a two-day workshop (open to the public) by the BAU International Berlin and Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Technical University of Berlin. Funds will be available for the accommodation and travel costs of the participating graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in both cities.

Application materials: CV and abstract (max. 250 words). Please email your application documents to berlin-istanbul[at]lecture-series.com