The Cartographies of Africa and Asia Project Meets Ethiopia

The Centre for Transcultural Studies in Gotha hosted the annual meeting of a network of scholars in residence from Ethiopia at the 20th and 21st October 2022. The Gerda Henkel Foundation’s unfaltering support enables them, despite the civil war in Ethiopia, to continue their research in cities throughout Germany and Europe; the Centre for Transcultural Studies being a vital partner of the programme since its inception and host to a small group of Ethiopian scholars in the former ducal residence town in Thuringia. 

A highlight of the conference was a visit to the Perthes Collection, which was held by chief archivist Sven Ballenthin and enriched with presentations by Iris Schröder (Erfurt University) and Wolbert Smidt (Jena University/Mekelle University). The Cartographies of Africa and Asia (KarAfAs) project was another spotlight of the visit – within the premises of the collection Claudia Berger (Erfurt University) introduced the audience to the project and its digital architecture, commenting on opportunities to access and research the digitized items systematically.