Cluster of Excellence: EurAsian Transformations

Upcoming Events

The Mongols in (Western) Eurasia – Perspectives and Problems

Urban Commercial Spaces and their Languages

The EurAsian Transformations Cluster of Excellence involves more than 30 researchers from four academic institutions (Austrian Academy of Sciences, University of Vienna, Central European University, University of Innsbruck). Major contemporary issues and current research - diversity, mobility, identity - are explored using original sources in dozens of languages, analyzed comparatively, and connections of all kinds - cultural and religious, economic and political - uncovered. We strive for a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue and seek cooperation with the regions involved in order to create new academic infrastructures in Austria and internationally, and to promote plurilateral research perspectives. The Cluster of Excellence explores the transformation processes of Eurasia - understood as the entire landmass of both continents, Europe and Asia - from antiquity to the present.

The research groups are working on three main themes:

"Geographies of Power" compares Eurasian continental empires between integration and fragmentation, considers the impact of ecology and economics on political configurations, and examines the effects of transregional power alliances on regional ways of life.
"Communication and Mobility" focuses on communication networks and the circulation of knowledge, explores multilingualism and literate cultures, and addresses issues of migration and demography.
"Identities and Religions" examines religious and political constructions of identity and culture communications, and problematizes perceptions of the other.

All research is underpinned by critical examination of historical master narratives and their ideological use, for example in Russian Eurasianism.

A central concern of the Cluster is the dissemination of research results and the transfer of research methods. We will provide structured and comprehensive training for advanced students and young researchers at home and abroad, especially in the respective regions, to promote skills in dealing with written cultural heritage, including source languages. Through a range of innovative and traditional media, we will engage the widest possible audience of all ages in the excitement of research.

Recent events included the Eurasian Materials in Central European Collections workshop and the second workshop in the Urban Multilingualism Workshop Series.

CEU People

Director: Tijana Krstić

Coordinator: Kateryna Kovalchuk

Key Researchers: Jan Hennings (on sabbatical 2025/26), Aliz Horvath, Istvan Perczel, Robyn Dora Radway (on sabbatical Fall 2025), Katalin Szende (on sabbatical Winter 2026), Daniel Ziemann

Postdoctoral Fellow: Marijana Mišević

PhD Fellow 2025/26: Hakan Yerebakan

Project description: Hakan Yerebakan’s Ph.D. project, titled “Laughing in Offense and Defense: Early Modern Ottoman Humor and Invective,” analyzes the transformation of Ottoman humor literature from the early sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. Early modern Ottoman written humor of the elites went from being a “friendly” banter among litterateur peers in the early sixteenth century to a derisive and caustic "invective mode of discourse" in the highly competitive late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Through analysis of a wide range of sources, from books of jokes (letâifnâmes) to humorous calendars (ahkâm takvîmi) and invective poetry (hicv) among others, this study surveys the impact of social, political, and economic developments on the transformation of Ottoman humor tradition. These include such developments as bureaucratization, migration to cities, and an increase in university graduates, which not only affected the Ottoman lands but also a wider Eurasian context. In both the “friendly” and “invective” modes of discourse, Ottoman humor made extensive use of scatological and erotic language with varying meanings and intentions in different contexts, either establishing friendship ties and consolidating elite group identity or besmirching an opponent vying for the same rewards and the same position within society.

In order to carry out an “archaeology of laughter,” this study employs three methodological approaches. First, it seeks to analyze the literary content of the humor texts within their social context, so as to understand the “jokes.” Second, it traces the litterateurs who produced humorous works through a complex network of letters and biographical data in order to reestablish the groups that were at the center of humor production. Third, it employs a manuscript studies approach that analyzes as a whole the collections and personal miscellanies that contained the humor works under scrutiny, to have a clearer picture of what kind of audience profile and response early modern Ottoman humor might have had.

PhD Fellow 2024/25: Mariia Golovina

PhD Fellow 2023/24: János Galamb

Affiliated Members: Cankat Kaplan, Saranya Chandran, Ephrem Aboud Ishac, Tünde Komori, Boris Fonarkov, János Galamb, Mariia Golovina, Emy Joy, Charles Shaw, Carsten Wilke, Jack Wilson, Hakan Yerebakan

Upcoming Events

Watch the keynote from the first workshop in the EurAsia Urban Multilingualisms series