Yvonne Albers is a scholar of cultural and intellectual history of the Arab Middle East with a focus on the history of print and periodical media. She studied Theater Studies, Philosophy and Arabic Literature in Leipzig and Damascus and completed her M.A. at Leipzig University with a thesis on the role of the spectator in theater practices of post-war Lebanon (Reichert 2011). She received 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) (Brill 2023). Her thesis received the dissertation award of Philipps-Universität Marburg in the section “Philosophie, Theologie, Geschichte, Erziehungs-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften” and the award of the German Association for Middle Eastern Studies (DAVO), both in 2021.

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). Here, she also founded and co-edited the DFG-funded open-access journal Middle East – Topics and Arguments (2011-2021). From 2015 to 2019 her PhD project was funded by the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation. Between 2017 and 2020 she was based in Beirut, where she has been a visiting scholar at the American University Beirut and at the Orient Institute Beirut.

Since 2021, she is an affiliated fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, in the program Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME).

She is member of the editorial board of the Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte.

• 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

(2023) Beirut und die Zeitschrift Mawaqif: Eine arabische Intellektuellengeschichte, 1968-1994. Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink/Brill.

(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

(2025) The Journal as Form: An Introduction to Arab Periodical Studies (with Anne-Marie McManus und Barbara Winckler). Berlin: De Gruyter (in process)

(2024) Community. Living Handbook of Temporal Communities (with Frank Kelleter) (in process)

(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

(2024) “On Lateness: Arab Exile Magazines in the 1980s and 1990s” Middle Eastern Literatures (forthcoming)

(2023) „Ḫūrī, Ilyās: Das essayistische Werk”, Kindlers Literatur Lexikon.

(2021) "Relaunching 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.

(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

(2024) Mawaqif: Eine Beiruter Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte. Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 4/2024 (forthcoming)

(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

Other

(2023) “Vulnerability and the Capacity for Life: Biography as a Material Matter” Podcast Episode. The Afikra Podcast: Exploring the Arab World’s Histories and Cultures, Nov 2023. (interviewed by Kirsten Scheid, together with Daniel Schönpflug)