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Student Networks and Trajectories
Nico Putz

The project traces the lived realities of "Afro-Asian students" and trainees during the Cold War. Building on work on Afro-Asian students in the GDR and FRG, the project aims to show how these actors were integrated into networks and institutional and administrative frameworks, and what resources they used to influence these in return - not as passive recipients of global bloc politics, but as translocal actors who transcended traditional readings of East-West, North-South and centre-periphery. The focus lies on the social, political and cultural curricula which guided and shaped these young people and their future lives.

Front page of an issue of the All-India Youth Forum's (AIYF) mouth piece Student Action Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1982. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi.

Image: Front page of an issue of the All-India Youth Forum's (AIYF) mouth piece Student Action Vol. 1, No. 2, June 1982. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi.

Research

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The research traces the stations a young person coming to one of the German states for educational purposes would have undergone - from developing the intention to go abroad, to deciding weather or not to return to the old or remain in the new home once the intended education programme finished.

A particular focus lies on the groups and networks such a person might have been situated in - student unions, political organisations, performance groups, editorial boards - as well as the social, cultural, and political curricula accompanying their formal education.

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Expected Results

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Following these steps and connections, the project will unearth the entangled identity/ies of the individual, that might connect them to ideas of nation, region, ideology, religion, culture, love, family, and other forms of belonging. In addition, the comparison of similar stations in the life of people who are of similar age and share the stated intention of educating themselves abroad, but are dispersed across different temporal and systemic contexts, allows conclusions regarding the cultural, political, and societal conditions of the time.

Publications

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Martin Christof-Füchsle, Nico Putz. 2020. Nachlässe mit Indienbezug in deutschen Archiven. MIDA Thematische Ressourcen. DOI 10.25360/01–2022-00046

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Anandita Bajpai, Johannes Heymann, Nico Putz. 2019. Dokumente im Joachim-Heidrich-Nachlass des Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. MIDA Thematische Ressourcen. DOI 10.25360/01–2022-00041

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Nico Putz. 2019. Archivalien mit Indienbezug im Lautarchiv der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. MIDA Thematische Ressourcen. DOI 10.25360/01–2022-00045

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An image from the AIYF publication New Generation, Vol. 2, No. 3, March 1962, p. 8. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi. In the source the image is captioned: "Black or white - we are all friends" is the guiding spirit of the festival. [Referring to the World Festival of Youth and Students]

Image: An image from the AIYF publication New Generation, Vol. 2, No. 3, March 1962, p. 8. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi. In the source the image is captioned: "Black or white - we are all friends" is the guiding spirit of the festival. [Referring to the World Festival of Youth and Students]

An image from the AIYF publication New Generation, Vol. 3, No. 8, March 1963,, p. 16. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi. The image depicts the 7th Congress of the GDR youth organisation Freie Deutsche Jugend [FDJ / Free German Youth] in Berlin. The AIYF was present with a delegation.

Archives visited

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Bundesarchiv, Berlin

Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi

P. C. Joshi Archive, JNU, Delhi

Asiatic Society, Kolkata

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Image: An image from the AIYF publication New Generation, Vol. 3, No. 8, March 1963,, p. 16. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi. The image depicts the 7th Congress of the GDR youth organisation Freie Deutsche Jugend [FDJ / Free German Youth] in Berlin. The AIYF was present with a delegation.

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Front page of an issue of the AIYF's mouth piece Student Action Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1983. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi.

Image: Front page of an issue of the AIYF's mouth piece Student Action Vol. 2, No. 2, June 1983. Archive: Ajoy Bhavan, Delhi.

 

Logo Design: Jyothidas KV, 2024​

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