Open Access Journal Middle East - Topics & Arguments (META)

• Applicant: Dr. Leslie Tramontini
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 286784391

Middle East – Topics & Arguments (META) is an international, interdisciplinary open access journal. It is published half-yearly by the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) at the Philipps-Universität Marburg. In terms of its objective, META takes up a fundamental challenge posed in Area Studies, which is to not only gather but to combine specialist disciplines on a interdisciplinary level. META meets this requirement by exploring – through journal-based thematic focal points – concepts such as “the intellectual”, the “middle class”, or “the periphery”. In doing so, META moves away from a static understanding of concepts, seeing them instead as both versatile instruments of analysis as well as being an object of study themselves, thus facilitating interdisciplinary debates on the basis of a common language with respect to a shared terminology. The journal’s interdisciplinary nature follows a dual purpose: firstly, it stimulates discussion between the social sciences and humanities within the field of Area Studies, while secondly correlating Area Studies to the systematic disciplines. In this way, regional academic discourses are integrated into a global framework and comparability is ensured beyond the confines of the region. META’s geographical focus is the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). The journal is concerned with the states of Northern Africa and West Asia, but recognizes that regions are dynamic, socially produced spaces exposed to globalization – and not finalized, selfenclosed entities. META is committed to providing open access to knowledge, to facilitate exchange within the international academic community and to actively contribute to the interregional transfer of knowledge. Both shall promote and advance a cooperative ‘researching with’, replacing obsolete models of ‘researching on’, and in the process counteract exceptionalist and culturalistic discourses on the MENA region.

• DFG Programme: Science Communication, Research Data, eResearch (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Rachid Ouaissa