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Lecture on European Global Studies by Madeleine Herren in India

Air ship "Italia" in April 1928 (Source: Bundesarchiv, Wikimedia)

"Decolonizing Epistemologies at 90° 0′ N ..?: European Global Studies through the lenses of a global rescue mission" is the title of lecture by Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch. The event will take place on February 24, 2015, at the Centre for European Studies (CES) of the O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana, India.

On May 25 1928, the Italian General Umberto Nobile sent a radio message to the Pope, to Mussolini and to the king of Italy to announce that he had successfully crossed the North Pole with his air ship called "Italia". Only a few hours later, the regular radio transmissions of the air ship's position suddenly stopped because the ship had collided with an ice floe. From the very moment that radio stations around the world received the SOS message from the surviving crew members, a number of globally connected rescue activities were started, all the time closely observed by the media around the globe.

The Nobile tragedy serves as an example to specify my main approach suggesting a discussion about different forms of connections which overstep linear chronologies and spatial orders generated by territorial acquisition. In the example chosen the North Pole turned into a "rescue scape" that attracted a global public and introduced new, environment-related questions. I argue that the arctic became the trigger for a new perception of the globe beyond established forms of claiming territories, with far reaching consequences that include today's controversies about global warming and access to raw materials.

Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch is Director of the Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel. She has written extensively on European history and global history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Within the history of Europe her work has focused on European expansion, imperialism, and integration.

The Centre for European Studies (CES) was founded in 2011 at the O. P. Jindal Global University (JGU). The non-profit organization was established in memory of the O.P. Jindal. The vision of JGU is to promote global research and teaching through a global faculty. It is located in the district of Haryana in the northern part of India.

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