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offuniversity.bsky.social
Off University
@offuniversity.bsky.social
220 followers 210 following 68 posts
Self-organization of displaced and persecuted scholars. Visit us on offuniversity.org #universitywithoutborders #onlineseminars
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offuniversity.bsky.social
Off University @offuniversity.bsky.social · 16d
We are a partner of the universities in #Rojava. Our thoughts and solidarity are with the students and scholars in the region who are facing escalating violence and deteriorating humanitarian conditions. Please read this statement of solidarity here: drive.google.com/file/d/1aEdK...
offuniversity.bsky.social
In the next-to-last session of our lecture series Cities at War, we are welcoming Aimal Formolly speaking on "Spatial Justice and Everyday Resilience: Navigating Post-Conflict Urbanism in Kabul". Join us on January 28th, 4pm CET time: offuniversity.org/current-cour...
#universitywithoutborders
This lecture examines the lived experiences of Kabul’s residents amid the enduring legacies of conflict, emphasizing the intersections of spatial justice, social cohesion, and participatory urban planning. By integrating gamified urban design models with ethnographic insights and geospatial analysis, it outlines pathways for strengthening resilience, equity, and collective memory in fragile urban environments.
January 27, 2026 at 8:31 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
We are a partner of the universities in #Rojava. Our thoughts and solidarity are with the students and scholars in the region who are facing escalating violence and deteriorating humanitarian conditions. Please read this statement of solidarity here: drive.google.com/file/d/1aEdK...
January 23, 2026 at 12:38 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Scholars and students at the universities in Rojava are part of our Online Lecture Series Cities at War. Their education is disrupted, they had to flee the approaching violence and now live under deteriorating and dangerous conditions. Stop the War now!
offuniversity.bsky.social Off University @offuniversity.bsky.social · Nov 3
Join the third session of our Cities at War Lecture Series: "Kobanê — Between The Ashes of War and The Dawn of Reconstruction" by Aras Hiso this Wednesday at 4pm CET.

You can visit our website offuniversity.org/current-cour... for more information and registration.
Kobanê — Between The Ashes of War and The Dawn of Reconstruction by Aras Hiso - Cities at War Lectures Series - 3, 05.11.2025, 16:00 CET After the liberation of Kobanê in 2015, the residents of Kobane undertook the task of rebuilding their city despite ongoing warfare and the constraints of a severe embargo. As part of this reconstruction, they made the decision to establish the city’s first university now serving over 1000 students. What motivated the founding of the university? How was the city rebuilt? And how does the ever-present threat of renewed violence continue to shape the reconstruction? Aras Hiso, who experienced this period first as a student and now as a faculty member at the University of Kobanê, offers a first-hand account.
January 23, 2026 at 12:22 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Scholars and students at the universities in Rojava are part of our Online Lecture Series Cities at War. Their education is disrupted, they had to flee the approaching violence and now live under deteriorating and dangerous conditions. Stop the War now!
offuniversity.bsky.social Off University @offuniversity.bsky.social · Nov 4
Join the third session of our Cities at War Lecture Series: "Teaching 300 Metres Beyond the Border" by Luqman Guldivê this Wednesday at 5 pm CET.

You can visit our website offuniversity.org/current-cour... for more information and registration.
#universitywithoutborders
Teaching 300 Metres Beyond the Border by Luqman Guldivê - Cities at War Lectures Series - 3 During the 1990s, paramilitary operations systematically eliminated the artisans and emerging middle class in the town of Nisêbin just a few hundred meters north of Qamislo, across the border. The renewed destruction in late 2015 erased urban space, left inhabitants with deeply fragmented memories and a dislocated sense of place. The subsequent reconstruction further severed these connections, erasing the sites of collective memory once embedded in the urban fabric. As an educator at the University of Rojava, Luqman Guldiv narrates the emotional and intellectual challenges of working within sight of a place so violently transformed.
January 23, 2026 at 12:21 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join us for Batoul Yassine and Mariam Bazzi's lecture "From Archiving to People-Centred, Heritage-Led Urban Recovery. The Cases of Gaza and Nabatieh" this Wednesday, January 21st at 4pm CET.
-> more offuniversity.org/current-cour...

#universitywithoutborders
Thanks to @urbanstudiesfoundation.org
This lecture advances the argument that urban recovery can start during war in many forms and practices, one of which is the act of archiving. Archiving the city does not only preserve but also enable the emergence of multiple narratives through unarchiving, a process that disrupts and re-organizes the archival collection, leading to the formation of future imaginaries tied to the recovery of sites of urbicide. This proposition is explored through two cases: Gaza, Palestine, and Nabatieh, Southern Lebanon, where a team of the Beirut Urban Lab has engaged in planning amid complex conditions of war.
January 20, 2026 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Off University
urbanstudiesfoundation.org
⏰ Reminder: Urban Urgencies funding call now open

There’s still time to apply for the Urban Urgencies grant from the Urban Studies Foundation — supporting rapid, collaborative research on pressing urban challenges worldwide.

🗓️ Deadline: 23 March 2026 (23:59 UTC).

🔗 ow.ly/FUIn50XGtgz
USF flyer with USF logo for the Call for Applications "Urban Urgencies" Grant on a picture via Flickr by Hanif Omar, and the quote "The Urban Studies Foundation is launching a major new grant to support rapid-response collaborative research on the world’s most pressing urban challenges." USF flyer with USF logo for the Call for Applications "Urban Urgencies" Grant on a picture via Flickr by Hanif Omar, and the quote "The Urban Studies Foundation is launching a major new grant to support rapid-response collaborative research on the world’s most pressing urban challenges."
January 7, 2026 at 9:45 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
We are happy to welcome Nevin Soyukaya this week in our Lecture Series "Cities at War". She will speak on "Diyarbakır/Suriçi: Conflict and Urbicide as the Erasure of Collective Memory" on January 14th at 4pm CET.

register here -> offuniversity.org/current-cour...

#universitywithoutborders
Dating back to the 5th millennium B.C., Diyarbakır is one of the rare urban centers where the evolution of urban history and the cumulative layers of the past can be observed in all phases up to the twenty-first century. Between October 2015 and March 2016, however, this deeply layered urban fabric was violently disrupted. Following declarations of self-governance in twenty Kurdish cities, intense armed clashes broke out between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Turkish state security forces, involving heavy weaponry leading to widespread urban destruction. This paper examines the dynamics of armed urban conflict and the subsequent practices of urbicide through the case of Diyarbakır’s historic core, Suriçi. It analyzes the socio-spatial consequences of this violence, with particular attention to its erasure of historical layers, transformation of the urban fabric, and displacement of local communities.
January 13, 2026 at 8:19 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
The first session in the Cities at War Lecture Series in 2026 will be given by Viktoriia Grivina on #Kharkiv is a Dream. Planning a Future During War". Join her timely talk on Wednesday, 07.01.2026 at 4 pm CET.
offuniversity.org/current-cour...

@urbanstudiesfoundation.org
#universitywithoutborders
In 2022, Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine withstood months of relentless Russian artillery strikes that razed entire residential districts of the city, with its population dropping from 1.6 million to 800 000. A short Ukrainian counteroffensive in summer 2022 eliminated the fears of occupation. People started to return, and grand plans involving foreign architectural bureaus for rebuilding have appeared. But are we allowed to think of the future when Kharkiv continues to be attacked by drones, guided bombs, and missiles every day? During this lecture, I invite you to dream and think of the future of a war city with me.
January 5, 2026 at 1:11 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Enthusiastic about history and between 14 and 25? Join our History Textbook Workshop to learn how and by whom history is written, engage with history textbooks from different parts of the world and understande the uses of history in political narratives.
ℹ️ offuniversity.org/call-for-par...
You Can Rewrite History!
You Can Rewrite History! Learn How! Apply to participate in the History Textbook Workshop
offuniversity.org
December 19, 2025 at 8:32 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
This week we have Sarah Husein with a talk on "Water Practices in Conflict-Torn Damascus: Distressing Memories to Overlook or Coping Strategies for Climate Resilience" in our Cities at War Lecture Series.
Join us December 17th, 4 pm CET. Everyone is welcome: moodle.offuniversity.org/course/view....
This lecture examines how decades of conflict have profoundly affected the daily lives of Damascus's inhabitants by limiting access to running water. The massive destruction of infrastructure during the armed conflict has exacerbated a water scarcity already evident at the turn of the century, forcing residents to reinvent everyday practices around water use. Drawing on NGOs reports, media accounts and testimonies of residents’ coping strategies, this lecture reflects on how memories of these coping strategies can inform future approaches to water management, both at individual and political levels, in a city marked by chronic scarcity and still bearing the scars of war.
December 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
We are looking forward to Naman Agrawal's lecture Beyond the Golden Walls: Memory, Survival, and Everyday Life in Jaisalmer’s Borderlands" in our Cities at War Lectures Series on
📅 10.12.2025 🕓 16:00 CET

Join us here: offuniversity.org/current-cour...
@urbanstudiesfoundation.org
The lecture examines how militarization, tourism, and cycles of violence shape everyday life in Jaisalmer, a city on India’s western frontier. By focusing on the strategies of adaptation and resilience employed by local communities facing displacement, heritage commodification, and the blurring of war–peace boundaries, it highlights the agency of ordinary people in sustaining memory and cultural continuity. Drawing on ethnographic insights, the session situates Jaisalmer within comparative discussions on cities negotiating survival amidst conflict and globalization.
December 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
We are looking forward to Shada Bokir's lecture "The Other War: Economic Occupation and Civic Resistance in Hadhramout" in our Cities at War Lectures Series on
📅 03.12.2025 🕓 16:00 CET

Join us here: offuniversity.org/current-cour...
This lecture explores how the eastern Yemeni region of Hadhramout has become a frontline of a different kind of war, not through military confrontation, but through resource extraction, infrastructural collapse, and sustained foreign intervention. Deeply entangled in geopolitical competition and economic exploitation, Hadhramout has since 2021 experienced waves of protest fueled by electricity blackouts, inflation, and the collapse of public services. This unrest has unfolded in a region that is among the most resource-rich in Yemen, yet these benefits rarely reach the population.
December 1, 2025 at 8:33 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
This week in our lecture series "Cities at War": Emotional Landscapes of Ukrainian Cities in Times of War
by Olena Kononenko and Oleksandra Nenko.
📆 26.11.2025

⏰16:00 CET
-> offuniversity.org/current-cour...
War leaves deep and visible scars on the urban landscape, but it also profoundly transforms how residents emotionally perceive their city. In this lecture, we will explore the concept of the emotional landscape and emotional places in wartime cities, and present the types of emotional places identified in contemporary Kyiv and Kharkiv.
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
In our panel "Common Struggles, Unequal Terms." @ygmarshall.bsky.social, Aslı Vatansever and Felicia Kompio discussed the latest developments in US academia and what they mean for precariousness, abuse of power and academic freedom in Germany.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY00...
Common Struggles, Unequal Terms. Towards Fair Working Conditions for All Scholars
YouTube video by Off University
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:32 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Good news: We have extended the deadline for ten days until November 28th, 2025.
offuniversity.bsky.social Off University @offuniversity.bsky.social · Nov 6
The @neweuropeu.bsky.social and @offuniversity.bsky.social invite applications from colleagues to form a team delivering a 12-week online course titled “History Textbook Workshop”. Deadline: November 16th
offuniversity.org/call-for-two...
offuniversity.org/call-fo-expe...
@universitywithoutborders
November 18, 2025 at 11:15 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join us this week for "Justice in Post-War Reconstruction: The Social Sustainability of Neighbourhoods" by Zena Asswad in our Cities at War Lectures Series on 19.11.2025 at 16:00 CET.
#universitywithoutborders
@urbanstudiesfoundation.org
The lecture highlights the social and emportional dimensions of reconstruction, emphasising that buidling must extend beyond physical infrastrcuture to restore community, identity, and justice. It reflects the tension between sustainability discourses and political agendas and advocates for socially rooted approaches that honour local memory and participation. This hightlights how terms like "modernisation" and "sustainability" can be weaponized to justify displacement and homogenisation, particularly in the case of Aleppo.
November 17, 2025 at 3:22 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join us this week for "Urban Ruins and Resettlement: Governing Cities in Post-Conflict Ethiopia" by Wudu Muluneh Yimer in our Cities at War Lectures Series on 12.11.2025 at 16:00 CET.
This lecture examines post-conflict urban reconstruction in Ethiopia, focusing on cities in the Amhara region affected by displacement, infrastructural ruination, and contested planning. It explores how residents reclaim space, preserve memory, and secure tenure while local authorities navigate reconstruction under political and economic constraints, highlighting the interplay between everyday life, governance, and urban memory.
November 11, 2025 at 11:59 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
The @neweuropeu.bsky.social and @offuniversity.bsky.social invite applications from colleagues to form a team delivering a 12-week online course titled “History Textbook Workshop”. Deadline: November 16th
offuniversity.org/call-for-two...
offuniversity.org/call-fo-expe...
@universitywithoutborders
November 6, 2025 at 12:31 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join the third session of our Cities at War Lecture Series: "Teaching 300 Metres Beyond the Border" by Luqman Guldivê this Wednesday at 5 pm CET.

You can visit our website offuniversity.org/current-cour... for more information and registration.
#universitywithoutborders
Teaching 300 Metres Beyond the Border by Luqman Guldivê - Cities at War Lectures Series - 3 During the 1990s, paramilitary operations systematically eliminated the artisans and emerging middle class in the town of Nisêbin just a few hundred meters north of Qamislo, across the border. The renewed destruction in late 2015 erased urban space, left inhabitants with deeply fragmented memories and a dislocated sense of place. The subsequent reconstruction further severed these connections, erasing the sites of collective memory once embedded in the urban fabric. As an educator at the University of Rojava, Luqman Guldiv narrates the emotional and intellectual challenges of working within sight of a place so violently transformed.
November 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join the third session of our Cities at War Lecture Series: "Kobanê — Between The Ashes of War and The Dawn of Reconstruction" by Aras Hiso this Wednesday at 4pm CET.

You can visit our website offuniversity.org/current-cour... for more information and registration.
Kobanê — Between The Ashes of War and The Dawn of Reconstruction by Aras Hiso - Cities at War Lectures Series - 3, 05.11.2025, 16:00 CET After the liberation of Kobanê in 2015, the residents of Kobane undertook the task of rebuilding their city despite ongoing warfare and the constraints of a severe embargo. As part of this reconstruction, they made the decision to establish the city’s first university now serving over 1000 students. What motivated the founding of the university? How was the city rebuilt? And how does the ever-present threat of renewed violence continue to shape the reconstruction? Aras Hiso, who experienced this period first as a student and now as a faculty member at the University of Kobanê, offers a first-hand account.
November 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Join the second session of our lecture series "Cities at War" with Anood Ali who will speak on "Architecture as Resistance: The Reconstruction of Gaza's Urban Fabric After The Ongoing Genocide" this Wednesday, 4 pm CET.
offuniversity.org/current-cour...
October 27, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Off University
juliahauser.bsky.social
Unser offener Brief, in dem wir fordern, Privatdozent*innen in Reformen der Personalstruktur an Universitäten einzubinden, kann noch bis Montag unterzeichnet werden. Bitte unterstützt unser Anliegen!

#IchBinHanna #PDprekär #StableJobsBetterScience #AcademicPrecarity
nnwiss.bsky.social Netzwerk Nachhaltige Wissenschaft @nnwiss.bsky.social · Oct 7
Wichtige und dringende Kampagne! Bitte teilen und unterschreiben!
pdprekaer.bsky.social Privatdozent:in, Universität X @pdprekaer.bsky.social · Oct 6
Der Brief und die Möglichkeit zur Unterschrift sind unter folgendem Link zu finden:

chng.it/VhcP5tDBBY
October 12, 2025 at 4:49 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
Aksana Ulanovich and Andrii Kostyriev’s course will uncover the techniques, tactics, and means by which media shape – and are shaped by – democratic and authoritarian contexts through discussion, debate, and collaborative research.
offuniversity.org/current-cour...
#universitywithoutborders
Media Communication in the 21st Century with Aksana Ulanovich and Adrii Kostyriev, Wednesdays 2pm hosted at the Geschister Scholl Institute fot Political Science at LMU, co-sponsored by New University IN Exile Consortium
October 6, 2025 at 7:55 AM
offuniversity.bsky.social
We are proud to present three new online courses starting in mid-October. All our courses are free to join, free of charge and free in content! Sign up
today! offuniversity.org/current-cour...
#universitywithoutborders
@unimarburg.bsky.social @humboldtuni.bsky.social @urbanstudiesfoundation.org
September 29, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Off University
urbanstudiesfoundation.org
🌍 Exciting opportunity! Register for "Cities at War" – Online Lecture Series

🔸 By scholars from war-torn cities

📅 Fully online | Free & open to all
👉 ow.ly/6eiM50X2pZz

Organised by #USF, BeirutUrbanLab, DKVD, Rojava Univ, Off Univ, Humboldt Uni Berlin

#CitiesAtWar #UrbanStudies #ConflictCities
Flyer with USF logo for the Lecture Series "Cities at War" With the inscription: 15th October 2025 to 11th February 2026, Online Lecture Series, 16:00 (GMT+2) “Cities at War” is a fully online and publicly accessible 16-week lecture series jointly organised by 16 scholars from war-torn cities on how conflicts have produced and re-produced their cities." Flyer with USF logo for the Lecture Series "Cities at War" With the inscription: 15th October 2025 to 11th February 2026, Online Lecture Series, 16:00 (GMT+2) “Cities at War” is a fully online and publicly accessible 16-week lecture series jointly organised by 16 scholars from war-torn cities on how conflicts have produced and re-produced their cities."
September 26, 2025 at 7:00 AM