Center for European-Arab & Islamic-Christian Studies (CEURABICS)

Intercultural and interreligious initiative in a university environment

Initiators
CEURABICS was initiated by Prof. Dr Wolfram Reiss, Professor of Religious Studies at the Department of Protestant Theology, and Prof. Dr Stephan Prochazka, Professor of Arabic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies (both University of Vienna). Students, doctoral candidates, student employees and professors of the University of Vienna have joined the organization.

Occasion
A shared affinity to the Arab world, through travelling, stays abroad, studies and friendships led to the idea of passing these experiences on through projects in Vienna.

Target Groups
CEURABICS sets its focus on interreligious and intercultural dialogues between people from Austria and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

Objectives
The initiative provides opportunities, meetings and joint projects to exchange ideas and to explore everyday life, politics and religions in the MENA region.

Topics
People from the MENA region have come to Austria and seek refuge for a range of reasons. In order to get a better understanding of how they feel, it is essential to be able to see things from their points of view. The Intercultural Workshop provides opportunities to learn about different aspects of the Orient ‒ ideas associated with it as well as prejudices and cultural bias towards it ‒ and to develop answers to diverse questions.

Duration
CEURABICS was founded in 2014 as an association and has been transformed into and continued as a private network as of April 1, 2022.

Activities
Intercultural workshops took place several times. Other projects extended over a period of several months and included weekly meetings. Projects such as the writing workshop for Arabic-speaking writers or "Auf dem Diwan 3.0" offered participants different approaches.

Form of Organization
CEURABICS was founded as a non-profit association in 2014. As of April 1, 2022 the initiative has been continued as a private network.

Funding
Funding was provided by the University of Vienna, the Department of Protestant Theology, the Institute of Oriental Studies, the associations Fibel and Fremde werden Freunde, the initiative Salam-Orient and other cooperation partners as well as by donations.

Products
Annual reports, newsletters, texts resulting from the workshops, Food Connection 2018.

Website | Social Media | Contact
www.ceurabics.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ceurabics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceurabics/

E-mail: ceurabics@outlook.com

editor: ns / update: ew 2022

ierung:ew 2022