Papers by Frederik Schröer
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2024
This article focuses on the plethora of lists that the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist Anagarika D... more This article focuses on the plethora of lists that the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) composed across his many notebooks. Rather than seeing lists as mere repositories of data, the text foregrounds aspects of form and formatting of the list as a genre and practice. Dharmapala's notebooks emerge as key material aspects in the creation of his self, and listmaking is revealed as an emotional practice. The various lists and their central role in Dharmapala's life and thinking are explored by tracing list-making as a cultural practice belonging both to colonial modernity and to the ancient Theravada Buddhist tradition. This is shown in two particular foci: the temporal operations performed by Dharmapala's historical and autobiographical lists, and the spatiality and visuality in and around his lists.
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, Dec 22, 2022
This article traces forms of resistance in the early Tibetan diaspora (c. 1959-79) in india as bo... more This article traces forms of resistance in the early Tibetan diaspora (c. 1959-79) in india as both political and emotional practices. it thereby seeks to make productive recent insights of research into the history of emotions for the study of migration and diaspora in general and Tibetan exile in particular. it zooms in on resistance and suffering as key concepts of Tibetan diasporic public discourse, both constituting complex semantic networks that entangle elements from Tibetan and Buddhist heritage as well as the refugees' historical experiences. The article demonstrates the centrality of emotions to exilic morality and moral renegotiations, by probing into their historical effectivity and change. Furthermore, it will show how these concepts and practices are temporalised. This will uncover the ways in which key concepts such as resistance and suffering establish and negotiate multiple temporal relations to diverse pasts, presents and futures.
Numen, Sep 20, 2021
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
This article traces forms of resistance in the early Tibetan diaspora (c. 1959–79) in India as bo... more This article traces forms of resistance in the early Tibetan diaspora (c. 1959–79) in India as both political and emotional practices. It thereby seeks to make productive recent insights of research into the history of emotions for the study of migration and diaspora in general and Tibetan exile in particular. It zooms in on resistance and suffering as key concepts of Tibetan diasporic public discourse, both constituting complex semantic networks that entangle elements from Tibetan and Buddhist heritage as well as the refugees’ historical experiences. The article demonstrates the centrality of emotions to exilic morality and moral renegotiations, by probing into their historical effectivity and change. Furthermore, it will show how these concepts and practices are temporalised. This will uncover the ways in which key concepts such as resistance and suffering establish and negotiate multiple temporal relations to diverse pasts, presents and futures.
Numen , 2021
The articles in this special issue illuminate the importance of aesthetics, affect, and emotion i... more The articles in this special issue illuminate the importance of aesthetics, affect, and emotion in the formation of religious communities through examples from the Buddhist world. This introduction reads across the contributors’ findings from different regions (China, India, Japan, and Tibet) and eras (from the 17th to the 21st centuries) to highlight common themes. It discusses how Buddhist communities can take shape around feelings of togetherness, distance, and absence, how bonds are forged and broken through spectacular and quotidian aesthetic forms, and how aesthetic and emotional practices intersect with doctrinal interpretations, gender, ethnicity, and social distinction to shape the moral politics of religious belonging. We reflect on how this special issue complicates the idea of Buddhist belonging through its focus on oft-overlooked practices and practitioners. We also discuss the insights that our studies of Asian Buddhist communities offer to the broader study of religious belonging.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
Anthropology in Action, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to space has been strictly regulated and restricted. Many of... more During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to space has been strictly regulated and restricted. Many of us feel acutely disconnected from our relationships, while at the same time new forms of (virtual) intimacies have become ubiquitous. In the pandemic present, nearly all interpersonal relations are now characterised by a double absence that is concrete and material, and also emotional and felt. This article offers a theoretical reflection on how conditions of absence create new practices of intimacy and new strategies of coping. It does so by discussing how pre-pandemic emotional repertoires are translated into new forms of intimacy that can synchronise or throw out of sync. It highlights the centrality of spatial and temporal relations under absence in uncovering new mediated practices.
Numen, 2021
This article argues that belonging can be characterized by absence. It explores this as experienc... more This article argues that belonging can be characterized by absence. It explores this as experienced in two different geographical and historical contexts by two groups of actors: members of the early Tibetan diaspora in India (1959–1979) and former members of a religious group (Aum Shinrikyō) in Japan. The absence we conceptualize is double: it is not solely a spatial absence, but also a temporal absence in terms of the irreversibility of time. It is felt and articulated through emotions that play decisive roles in the constitution and sustaining of these communities. These communities as feeling communities are characterized by absence, but absence is simultaneously what makes them a community. This simultaneity allows our actors to create complex temporal frameworks by relating to reimagined pasts, different presents, and potential futures. Therefore, the article contributes to discussions of belonging by retheorizing the relationship between absence, emotions, and time.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
Anthropology in Action, 2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to space has been strictly regulated and restricted. Many of... more During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to space has been strictly regulated and restricted. Many of us feel acutely disconnected from our relationships, while at the same time new forms of (virtual) intimacies have become ubiquitous. In the pandemic present, nearly all interpersonal relations are now characterised by a double absence that is concrete and material , and also emotional and felt. This article offers a theoretical refl ection on how conditions of absence create new practices of intimacy and new strategies of coping. It does so by discussing how pre-pandemic emotional repertoires are translated into new forms of intimacy that can synchronise or throw out of sync. It highlights the centrality of spatial and temporal relations under absence in uncovering new mediated practices.
Schröer, Frederik. "Of Testimonios and Feeling Communities - Totaram Sanadhya’s Account of Indent... more Schröer, Frederik. "Of Testimonios and Feeling Communities - Totaram Sanadhya’s Account of Indenture." Südasien-Chronik - South Asia-Chronicle 6 (2016): 149-74.
In the early twentieth century, India, Tibet, and China have stood in a relationship of dynamic m... more In the early twentieth century, India, Tibet, and China have stood in a relationship of dynamic mutual influence. The impact of colonialism instrumentalised and eroded older political systems; modern ideas and models were imported, apprehended and applied in order to face the problems of modernization in Asia.
Based on a historiographical account of important events, this work sheds light on the role of Tibet and individual Tibetans in contact between the two big neighbours India and China. Not only the direct and indirect influences of these countries, apparent in their diplomacies, but also the historic narratives bound to specific events are to be elaborated on as well as repeatedly viewed in the larger context of Asian modernity.
Subsequently, a comparative analysis of the political and social systems and their particularities is to point out similarities, influences, and contrasts on the path from the (dynastic) realm to the nation. This paper uses its geographical focus to show some of the multi-layered relations of the three selected regions and to compare the local applications and manifestations of more universal terms like colonialism, nationalism, and modernization.
Books by Frederik Schröer
Teaching Documents by Frederik Schröer
Global history emerged as an intervention in the discipline of history, asking new questions and ... more Global history emerged as an intervention in the discipline of history, asking new questions and contributing new answers to older debates. The diversifying landscape of global history today reflects and builds upon a plethora of movements, “turns” and interventions that reshaped the study of history since the nineteenth century. Its approaches, methods and theories—the kinds of questions it asks, how it asks them and how it goes about answering them—are indebted to this heterodox heritage. As much as global history today thrives on the diversity of the disciplinary backgrounds of its practitioners, its rooting in the peculiarities of the discipline of history can be a challenge for students coming from other fields. This seminar is geared towards students who might feel unfamiliar or uneasy with the “who is who” and “what is what” of history. Designed as a safe space for the puzzled and the curious, the seminar focuses on three interrelated sets of larger questions in historiography: questions of theory, questions of sources and questions of writing. We will encounter different ways of doing history, their heuristics, stakes and historical contingencies. We will discover different types of primary sources, their archives and how scholars have worked with them. And we will explore what it means to write historically and how to go about formulating historical questions.
This seminar explores Environmental History in the Age of Empire from a global perspective. Indus... more This seminar explores Environmental History in the Age of Empire from a global perspective. Industrialization, imperialism, and the accelerating global integrations they effected are today seen as central to the emergence of what has been termed the “Anthropocene” (Crutzen and Stoermer), the “Capitalocene” (Moore), the “Plantationocene” (Haraway, Tsing, et al.), and by a variety of other names – marking the beginning of the era in which humans became a “major environmental force” impacting the earth’s bio-, atmo-, and hydrospheric systems. Such rapidly growing human intervention into the natural world did not go unnoticed. Its observance, description, and problematization went hand in hand with the reconfiguration of the concept of “nature” in dominant imperial science. Relations between metropoles and colonies were at the heart of this process, organizing the interlocking practices of exploration, classification, and extraction. But despite imperial monopolies of power, the growing environmental knowledge of empire depended on, exploited, and ultimately sought to replace a plethora of local vernacular knowledges. The origins of the Anthropocene teem with multiplicity, and our view of them needs decolonizing. This is why a multi-scalar global history approach to this crucial period in environmental history is called for. The seminar is designed to introduce students with no or little prior expertise to the field of environmental history in the long nineteenth century, with particular focus on the British Empire. In this history, it will explore how “nature” emerged as a designated domain of colonial policy and knowledge production. Crucially, however, the seminar will contrast this imperial archive with other, vernacular sources that may contradict, expand, or resonate with what have come to be dominant scientific concepts and understandings.
Seminar Syllabus, 2020
Global history takes the connectedness of the world as its point of departure and therefore thriv... more Global history takes the connectedness of the world as its point of departure and therefore thrives on the diversity of disciplinary backgrounds of its practitioners. As a historically contingent academic field, global history is premised upon developments and critiques that arose when the discipline of history realized the challenges of global integration. This happened as a long and complex process, which makes finding your way into global history especially difficult for students who have not completed previous degrees in history. Therefore, this course is designed for those who feel they are new and maybe slightly uneasy with the "who is who" and "what is what" of history. Structured along a rough chronology, we will explore the history of history, from the likes of Ranke and Braudel to the cultural, linguistic and other important "turns" that reshaped the discipline and are the fundamental prehistory of global history. Along with this exploration of some of the main intellectual currents of history's history, the course will familiarize students with the practice of history and its heuristic methods.
Migration Diaspora Syllabus, 2020
Syllabus of my Seminar "Migration and Diaspora in Global History: Perspectives and Intersections"... more Syllabus of my Seminar "Migration and Diaspora in Global History: Perspectives and Intersections" in the MA Global History at FU Berlin, winter term 2020-2021.
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Papers by Frederik Schröer
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
Based on a historiographical account of important events, this work sheds light on the role of Tibet and individual Tibetans in contact between the two big neighbours India and China. Not only the direct and indirect influences of these countries, apparent in their diplomacies, but also the historic narratives bound to specific events are to be elaborated on as well as repeatedly viewed in the larger context of Asian modernity.
Subsequently, a comparative analysis of the political and social systems and their particularities is to point out similarities, influences, and contrasts on the path from the (dynastic) realm to the nation. This paper uses its geographical focus to show some of the multi-layered relations of the three selected regions and to compare the local applications and manifestations of more universal terms like colonialism, nationalism, and modernization.
Books by Frederik Schröer
Teaching Documents by Frederik Schröer
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
Based on a historiographical account of important events, this work sheds light on the role of Tibet and individual Tibetans in contact between the two big neighbours India and China. Not only the direct and indirect influences of these countries, apparent in their diplomacies, but also the historic narratives bound to specific events are to be elaborated on as well as repeatedly viewed in the larger context of Asian modernity.
Subsequently, a comparative analysis of the political and social systems and their particularities is to point out similarities, influences, and contrasts on the path from the (dynastic) realm to the nation. This paper uses its geographical focus to show some of the multi-layered relations of the three selected regions and to compare the local applications and manifestations of more universal terms like colonialism, nationalism, and modernization.