The POLY Research Group will organise a series of public lectures during the winter term of 2025/26 at Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Bad Homburg. Outstanding researchers from disciplines other than history will share their insights to enrich our historical perspectives. The fourth lecture will be delivered by Professor Judith Miggelbrink (Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde/Universität Leipzig).

About the Talk

The assumption that “space” is socially produced has become something of a consensus in social and cultural studies by now. But what, precisely, does this insight mean? How, by whom, and under what conditions are spaces produced? And why, from an analytical perspective, is it important for scholars to consider the concrete processes through which space is socially produced?

Drawing on selected examples, this lecture addresses these questions and illustrates what is meant by “the production of space.” Building on this, the examples are situated within a broader systematic framework. The aim of the lecture is to demonstrate the analytical value of space-sensitive perspectives on social processes and to highlight their relevance across the social sciences

About the Speaker

Prof. Dr. Judith Miggelbrink is Director of the Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography and Professor of Regional Geography at Leipzig University. Her research focuses on the social production of space—particularly regions, borders, and peripheries—as well as on global geographies of healthcare, conflicts over land and resource use, and populist interpretations and imaginations of the regional in the context of global interdependencies.

She is co-editor of Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft and Moravian Geographical Reports and has published numerous contributions herself. In addition to her research, she serves on various academic committees, including the Commission for Regional Studies of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities. As of April 2024, she is Director of the Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig.

The keynote will be streamed live via Zoom for remote participants: https://uni-frankfurt.zoom-x.de/meetings/68351592688/invitations?signature=7s0dwiqkHdF83cudqEOI-dvrnpTqEJDp_bobgnJMP5Q