How can the everyday life of a transnational organization be researched from a Cultural Studies perspective?
This central question was addressed by the participants of the master’s degree project seminar “Decentering Humanitarianism – Debates in the Red Cross in the 1970s” in the subject of Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-university Mainz in the summer semester of 2024.
As part of their research, the students traveled to Geneva to work in the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
They developed multi-perspective and multilingual historical approaches to make visible the diverse and often forgotten stories of the Red Cross.
The results of their cultural-historical research are publicly available in three formats:
- Individual texts on the project website
- Poster contributions at the Mainz Science Festival
- A subject-related article as part of the Alameda dossier “Containing Politics” (Alameda is a research institute that networks with social movements to investigate how engaged science can respond to current social challenges. Alameda is hosted by Save the Children UK.)
