De Gruyter Brill Conversations

What are new avenues to write an intellectual history of the far right in Europe from a global perspective? Martin Hamre and Christian Jacobs talk about their research in the broader field of far-right history and about how historical developments such as the Holocaust, World War 2, the Cold War or decolonization change the global history of the far right. They also discuss how their studies in fa...

Was heißt Menschsein im Zeitalter kreativer Maschinen? Wie politisch ist Kalorienzählen? Darf Medizin alles, was sie kann? Wir wollen es wissen – also fragen wir bei denen nach, die sich am besten damit auskennen. In unserem Podcast WAGNIS WISSEN spricht Journalistin Nadine Kreuzahler mit Expertinnen und Experten aus der Wissenschaft über drängende Fragen der Gegenwart. ► https://open.spotify.com/...

Wie verabschiedet man sich (in einem Trauerprozess) nicht nur von liebgewonnenen Dingen, sondern auch von sozialem Gerümpel und alten emotionalen Mustern? Dorothea Rohde spricht mit Dorothee Emsel (Lektorin im Programmbereich Psychologie, Psychotherapie und Beratung) über ihr neues Buch "Die Magie der Dinge und die Kunst des Loslassens" , erschienen bei Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht/De Gruy...

Gib Hedstrom speaks with Jennifer Mason (Chief Sustainability Officer and EVP EHS&S at J.M. Huber Corporation) about his new book "Navigating Sustainable Growth: A Roadmap for Boards and Corporate Leaders." Gib Hedstrom has 30 years’ experience advising boards of directors on sustainable growth at the intersection of environment, strategy, and governance. His book explores how compan...

In her book, Women of Chinese Modern Art, Doris Sung talks about how women artists shaped the terrain of the modern art world. In the book talk she also talks with Senior Acquisitions Editor History Rabea Rittgerodt about how she, as an artist, got into academia, how important art history is to understanding the change of a society fro empire to republic and how education and art can help empower...

In this Book Talk Dr. Tremblay tells us what personal situations during his early academic career made him consider writing about the Pink Triangle in the first place and how looking at the topic in global and transregional perspective helped shape his research and understanding of history. In the following discussion he and the series editors Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier and Dr. Bodie Ashton discuss l...

Ruhig statt hektisch, lang statt kurz, wort- statt bildlastig, langsam statt schnell, diskursiv statt plakativ: Podcasts sind das ideale Format, um geisteswissenschaftliche Fragen und Thesen zeitgemäß zu kommunizieren — aber wie?! Podcast-Macher*innen aus den Geisteswissenschaften sehen sich einer Reihe ähnlicher Herausforderungen gegenüber: Der Podcast-Markt ist übersättigt. Die Aufwände sind hoc...

Dr. Na Li is associated researcher and chair of Public History at the University of Vienna. She is a public historian and urban planning scholar. Her research focuses on public history and urban preservation. During her decade-long work in China, Na Li has pioneered the field of public history in China. In this book talk, she and De Gruyter's history acquisitions editor Rabea Rittgerodt talk a...

Today, more than twenty oligarchs serve as heads of state or government in countries such as Russia, South Africa, Lebanon and El Salvador. Many have a net worth in excess of $1 billion, and they all – whether directly or indirectly – impact our daily lives.   Who are the oligarchs and how have they come to dominate our world? What difference does gender make? Is there something “good” to be found...

How do we produce knowledge? How do we present it? How can we better understand our societies, past and present? And, ultimately, what is it that makes us us? The study of Modern Languages tackles nothing short of these fundamental questions, exploring the very foundations of what it means to be human. Moreover, the field is inherently dynamic. Artificial Intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, have...

Grün stimmt hoffnungsvoll, ein kühles Blau lässt uns frösteln. Farben beeinflussen unsere Stimmung, unser Verhalten und sogar körperliche Empfindungen. Die Welt durch unsere Augen ist bunt, doch welche Eindrücke entstehen im Sehapparat und welche im Gehirn? Sind Farben überhaupt „real“? Nicht immer können wir unseren Augen trauen, sagt der Chemiker und Autolackdesigner Werner Rudolf Cramer. In sei...

Wie wäre es, wenn Software-Pionierin Ada Lovelace aus dem 19. Jahrhundert in der Jetztzeit landet und ihrem Freund Charles Babbage, einem Computer-Vorreiter aus England, Briefe schreibt? Darin erklärt sie alles, was man über das Thema Digitalisierung wissen muss – verständlich für jede und jeden. Es geht um Nullen und Einsen, um Verschlüsselung und virtuelle Realität, um Bitcoin und Blockchain, um...

„Gesund beginnt im Mund“ besagt eine bekannte Volksweisheit, der wir in unserem neusten Book Talk mit Dr. Diana Kessler auf den Grund gehen wollten. Im Interview fühlten wir der Expertin auf den Zahn und sprachen mit ihr über die „Milliardenstadt“ in unserem Mund ­– das orale Mikrobiom – sowie über Zahnarztangst und vieles mehr. Dr. Kessler ist seit 1991 in Mannheim als Zahnärztin tätig und beschä...

Early on in the Arab Spring, a blog that had already existed for several years went viral: A Gay Girl in Damascus by Amina Arraf, a Syrian-American Muslim woman, who wrote about the uprisings in Syria and her life as a lesbian in Damascus. In June 2011, the world was shocked to learn that Amina had allegedly been abducted by the secret police. But the real surprise was yet to come. Not long after,...

One of the first professional women authors of the Middle Ages, Italian-French writer, strategist and historian Christine de Pizan (1364–c.1429) possessed extensive knowledge of military tactics and advocated for women’s equality centuries before the feminist movement. Last year, De Gruyter published her highly influential military and warfare treatise, “ Le livre de faiz d’armes et de chevallerie...

Nanomaterials are an emerging technology increasingly portrayed in science fiction. But what are these mysterious materials in reality about? How are they made? And what are they used for? To answer these questions and more we invited co-editors Prof. Xuan Grace Wang, Prof. Sajid Bashir, and Prof. Jingbo Louise Liu to chat about their new book, “Nanochemistry: From Theory to Application for In-Dep...

Digital humanities are a hot topic nowadays, but what about digital linguistics? How can digital language data be used in other areas of research? To tackle these complex questions, we invited Prof. Andreas Witt and Dr. Darja Fišer to talk to us about De Gruyter’s new series “Digital Linguistics” and its first volume “CLARIN. The Infrastructure for Language Resources,” which the two co-edited. And...

Films not only entertain – they also probe social injustices and tell  marginalized stories. Against a backdrop of increasing economic  inequality, more and more people today are experiencing precarious  living situations, poverty, and social exclusion. The book “Precarity in  European Film: Depictions and Discourses” is a major new contribution  to research into the repre...

Over the last few years, the misuse of contested terms such as “critical race theory” and “white privilege” have exacerbated social rifts – especially since these terms are often misunderstood or not clearly defined in the first place. What’s to be done? Can we counteract polarization by creating a better understanding of these concepts? Perhaps the answers lurk behind the doors of a historic town...

For two decades, Rockstar Games have been making games that interrogate and represent the idea of America, past and present. Commercially successful, fan-beloved, and a frequent source of media attention, Rockstar’s franchises are positioned as not only game-changing, ground-breaking interventions in the games industry, but also as critical, cultural histories on America and its excesses. In an in...

Why do decent people in positions of power do dreadful things in certain circumstances? Why do some leaders carve out a different moral path when faced with challenging situations? Why do some people become ethical leaders in morally challenging and complex social environments? Aidan McQuade, who consults on ethical leadership and campaigns against modern slavery, explores these important question...

Wie geht man ein derart komplexes und tabuisiertes Thema, wie die vielfältigen Verbindungen von Gewalt und Sexualität, an? Warum ist es notwendig, ein Buch darüber zu schreiben? Gibt es tatsächlich einen Unterschied zwischen "sexueller Gewalt" und "sexualisierter Gewalt"?  Dr. Gerhard Schreiber ist Akademischer Rat am Institut für Theologie und Sozialethik der TU Darmstadt und hat zurzeit die...

Kann Mathematik Spaß machen? Für Norbert Herrmann ist das überhaupt keine Frage. In unserem Book Talk sprechen wir mit ihm über rechnende Hunde, Ziegen in Spielshows, das Interesse von Geheimdiensten an Primzahlen und noch vieles mehr. Dr. Dr. h.c. Norbert Herrmann lehrte von 1970 bis 2007 Angewandte Mathematik an der Leibniz Universität Hannover, 2002 erhielt er die Ehrendoktorwürde der britische...

What does it mean to be a digital scholar? The answers to this seemingly simple question are probably as diverse as the interdisciplinary field of digital humanities itself. To learn more about the ins and outs of the emerging research area, we invited Prof. Valérie Schafer from the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) for an interview. Valérie Schafer has been a Professor...

In his latest book, Phil De Luna, PhD, delves into the complexity of Automated Discovery. To learn more about the future of scientific development, we sat down with Phil for a book talk. What role do computer simulations, data analysis, and robots have in the future of scientific development? How are scientists currently utilizing these resources to push scientific discovery forward? Phil De Luna,...