Mobility in International Research Collaborations: Democratic Decline, Climate Change, and Negotiation in South Asia

The project “Expanding Internationality” is part of the Excellence Strategy of Heidelberg University. The project comprises a funding program for promoting mobility in international research collaboration. This project engages scholars and institutions to address two critical challenges facing the South Asian region. The first is the challenge of democratic decline. The second is the challenge of climate change. The negative impact of climate change is exacerbated by the conflict-ridden relationship between India and Pakistan. The departments of Political Science and Geography in the South Asia Institute will jointly address these two problems that impact the well-being of South Asians in particular but also humanity at large. The decline of democracy in South Asia, especially in India, will have global ramifications.
Similarly, dealing with climate change in a region that houses the world’s highest concentration of glaciers outside the polar caps comes with broader ecological ramifications.  The project facilitates faculty and student exchange between Heidelberg and our partner universities. We will hold two workshops and engage scholars from South Asia. Such student and faculty exchanges and workshops will connect Heidelberg with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh to promote scholarship on the above-mentioned themes in Heidelberg and South Asia. The funding period is between 1.1.2022 and 31.12.2023.