Yvonne Albers studied Theatre Studies, Philosophy and Arabic Literature in Leipzig and Damascus. She completed her M.A. at Leipzig University with a thesis on the role of the spectator in theatre practices of post-war Lebanon (published with Reichert, 2011), and her PhD in Arabic Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg, with a study on the intellectual biography of the Beirut-based cultural magazine Mawaqif (1968-1994) (to be published with Fink/Brill, 2022).

Between 2010 and 2016, and again in 2020/21, she has been a research assistant at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg in the DFG-funded Leibniz research group “Figures of Thought/Turning Points” (PI: Friederike Pannewick). From 2015 to 2019 her PhD project was funded by the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation. Between 2017 and 2020 Albers was based in Beirut, where she has been a visiting scholar at the American University Beirut and at the Orient Institute Beirut. She was a co-founder and editor of the DFG-funded open-access journal Middle East – Topics and Arguments (2011-2021).

Albers received the dissertation award of Philipps-Universität Marburg in the category “Philosophie, Theologie, Geschichte, Erziehungs-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften” and the award of the German Association for Middle Eastern Studies (DAVO), both in 2021.

In the academic year 2021/22, she is an affiliated fellow of the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, in the program Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME).

• WiSe 2021/22 | MA-Seminar: „Verlorenes Gedächtnis, verlorene Zukunft? Theater, Kunst und Film im Libanon (1990-2021)“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg

• SoSe 2021 | Akademieprogramm im Rahmen des Festivals „This is not Lebanon: Festival for Visual Arts, Performance, Music and Talks”, Mousonturm Frankfurt, 26. Aug. – 12. Sept. 2021 (Teilnehmende Dozentin)

• SoSe 2021 | BA-Vorlesung: „Sprachen und Literaturen des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg (Co-Teaching)

• SoSe 2014 | MA-Seminar: “Theorien arabistischer Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg

• SoSe 2012 | MA-Kolloquium: „Theoretische Wege zur arabischen Literatur und Kultur“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg

• WiSe 2011/12 | BA-Seminar: „Von Aleida Assmann bis Edward Said: Grundlagen der Kulturtheorie für OrientwissenschaftlerInnen“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg

• SoSe 2011 | MA-Kolloquium: „Theoretische Wege zur arabischen Literatur und Kultur“, CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Current research includes an EXC 2020 post-doctoral research project, Chronotopias: Revolution and the Cultural Magazine in the Arab Long Sixties (2022-).

Research interests:

• Modern Arab intellectual history

• Periodical Studies, print cultures and the Global South

• Arabic essayism and small literatures

• Modern and contemporary Arabic philosophy

• Modern and contemporary theatre, performance and visual arts in/from the Middle East

Organization of scholarly meetings

• The Journal as Form: Re-Thinking Approaches to the Study of Arabic Journals. International Workshop. June and Nov 2021. (together with Barbara Winckler und Anne-Marie McManus, in cooperation with the Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin and Universität Münster)

• What’s in a Year? Reflections on 1967. International Workshop. Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg. Dec 2015. (together with Felix Lang; in cooperation with the Institute for Media Studies and the Institute for Modern History, Philipps- Universität Marburg)

• Commitment and Dissent in Arabic Literature since the 1950s. International Workshop. CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg. June 2013. (together with Charlotte Pardey, Ali Sonay and Friederike Pannewick)

• The Middle East from Below – Dynamics of Subversion. International Workshop. CNMS, Philipps-Universität Marburg. Dec 2011. (together with Ines Braune, Ali Sonay, Friederike Pannewick, Albrecht Fuess and Rachid Ouaissa)

Talks and Papers

• "Krise, Kritik und die Kulturzeitschrift: Mawaqif (1968-1994) oder die späten Jahre des arabischen Intellektuellen" Evening lecture at Orientalisches Institut, Universität Leipzig, Feb 2022.

•  "Notes from Beirut’s Long Sixties" Evening lecture, lecture series: "Mighty Magazines", convened by ERC-project PalRead-Country of Words (PI: Refqa Abu-Remaileh), Freie Universität Berlin, June 2021.

•  "Globaler Geschmack der Nostalgie? Eine Annäherung an die Ästhetik der Sixties (nicht nur) in der arabischen Welt" 2. Marburger Wissenschaftsgespräche with Ulrich Raulff. Philipps-Universität Marburg, June 2021.

• "How to Edit a Revolution: Mawaqif as Chronotope of the Arab Long Sixties (1968-1975)." 9th ESPRit Conference: Periodical Formats in the Market: Economies of Space and Time, Competition and Transfer, Universität Bochum, June 2021.

•  "Mawaqif: Zur Biografie einer arabischen Zeitschrift im 20. Jahrhundert". Annual Meeting of the Working Group: The Cultural Study of Periodicals. KWI Essen, June 2018.

•  "Re-Launching the Arab Intellectual: Levantine Periodical Culture around 1967" Media Transitions and Cultural Debates in Arab Societies: Transhistorical Perspectives on the Impact of Communication Technologies. International AGYA Conference, Beit al-Hikma, Tunis, Nov 2017.

•  "Turning the Page: Reading 1979 in and through the Cultural Magazine" Reading the ‘1979 Moment’ in the Middle East. International Workshop, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. June 2017.

• "The Many Ends of the Nahda: On the Arab Cultural Magazine after 1967" 12. Annual Conference of the EURAMAL (European Association for Arabic Literature), University of Oslo, May/June 2016.

•  "Introduction: What’s in a Year?" What’s in a Year? Reflections on 1967. International Workshop, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Dec 2015 (with Felix Lang).

•  "Paradoxes Publikum: Aneignung in der künstlerischen Praxis Rabih Mroués" Forschung zu Kunst und Kultur des Nahen Ostens heute. Interdisciplinary Workshop, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Feb 2013

•  "Towards an Arab Aesthetics" Aesthetics and Politics: Counter-Narratives, New Publics, and the Role of Dissent in the Arab World. Summer Academy of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe, American University Cairo, Sep 2012.

Books

(2022) Beirut und die Zeitschrift Mawaqif: Eine arabische Intellektuellengeschichte, 1968-1994. Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink/Brill. (in process)

(2021) Arabistik: Eine literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Einführung. Stuttgart, J.B. Metzler. (with Ines Braune, Christian Junge, Felix Lang, Friederike Pannewick)

(2011) Scheiternde Zeugen, machtlose Wähler: Der Zuschauer im zeitgenössischen libanesischen Theater, Literaturen arabisch-persisch-türkisch, Vol. 32. Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag.

Edited Volumes / Special Issues

(2015) Commitment and Beyond. Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s. Wiesbaden: Reichert. (with Friederike Pannewick and Georges Khalil) (Open Access on perspectivia.net)

(2013) “The Intellectual” Middle East – Topics and Arguments, No. 1. www.meta-journal.net (with Maike Neufend)

Articles, Book Chapters

(2021) "Re-Launching the Arab Intellectual: Beirut’s Cultural Journals, the ‘Crisis’ of 1967 and the Case of Mawaqif” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Bd. 13. (in process)

(2018) "Turning the Page: Reading 1979 in and through the Cultural Journal Mawaqif." The '1979 Moment' in the Middle East (Series). In: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, May 15, 2018. trafo.hypotheses.org

(2015) “The Empty Chair: On the Politics of Spectatorial Situatedness in the Performances of Rabih Mroué” In: Commitment and Beyond. Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s. Wiesbaden: Reichert.

(2015) “Introduction.” In: Commitment and Beyond. Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s. Wiesbaden: Reichert. (with Georges Khalil and Friederike Pannewick)

(2013) “Dawn of the Declared Dead? On the Intellectual and Other Reasons for Launching a New Journal on the Middle East.” Middle East – Topics and Arguments, No. 1, 4-11. metajournal.net. (with Maike Neufend)

Essays

(2018) „Der arabische Nahe Osten im ‚globalen 1968’.“ 50 Jahre 1968 (Dossier). Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, July 26, 2018. www.boell.de

(2018) “Start, Stop, Begin Again: The Journal Mawaqif and Arab Intellectual Positions since 1968.” Worlds of Cultural Journals (Series). EUROZINE, July 26, 2018. Eurozine.com (English/German)

Reviews

(2022) “Zeina Maasri: Cosmopolitan Radicalism. The Visual Politics of Beirut’s Global Sixties (Cambridge UP 2020)” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication (in process)

(2015) “Monique Bellan: Dismember Remember. Das anatomische Theater von Lina Saneh und Rabih Mroué. (Reichert 2013)“ AMCA Reviews. amcainternational.org