News & events

The Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies and the Asian Studies Centre are jointly hosting a guest lecture by Prof. Dr Giulia Falato from the University of Parma as part of the "Sinological Lectures Münster" series, on the topic "Aesop and Mediterranean Wisdom in China: Processes of Circulation and Transformation". The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, at 6 PM c.t., in seminar room RS 23 of the Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies. All interested parties are very welcome!

The new article in the "Cooperation in focus" series is dedicated to the cooperation between German Studies and partner universities in Uzbekistan, which has been in place for over 15 years and now encompasses a broad network in Central Asia. Albina Haas talks about regional networking, promoting young talents, exchange formats for students of German as a foreign language, and the further development of joint digital teaching and publication structures.

The new issue of the "Cooperation in focus" series looks at academic cooperation with partner universities in Turkey. Jun.-Prof. Dr. Philip Bockholt (Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies) talks about international cooperation in historical research, translation processes in the Ottoman context, and the importance of personal encounters for sustainable academic exchange.

The latest article in the "Cooperation in focus" section takes us to East Timor. In conversation with Prof. Dr. Thomas Stodulka (Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology), we discuss cooperation with the grassroots organisation Permatil – an international network that combines ecological education, sustainable agriculture and social justice.

The international conference "Intercultural Knowledge Transfer in (Transregional) Asian Religious Contexts" was held successfully from 13th to 15th November 2025. Of the 51 participants 34 held presentations on topic related issues covering the wide cultural areas of and in-between India, Persia, South and Southeast Asia. Three magnificent keynotes were held by PD Dr. Thoralf Klein, Prof. em. Cho Kwang and Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Speziale. The event was arranged by the Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies and the Institute for Missiology and the Study of Theologies Beyond Europe in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" and the Asian Studies Centre.

In the section "Focus on Cooperation", we present one of the Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies' key partnerships: its collaboration with National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei. NTNU is one of Taiwan's most prestigious universities – its Mandarin Training Centre in particular attracts over 1,700 international students every year and is regarded worldwide as one of the best places to learn Chinese.

To kick off the new "Cooperation in focus" series, we present the German-Japanese research network RE-CARE, which explores the role of technology in crises and takes a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach to strengthening social resilience.