Centre for British Studies (CBS)

Year of the Humanities: the ABC of Mankind 2007

The humanities spell out the entire ABC of mankind: whether history, philosophy, American Studies or Turkology, the Humanities reflect the cultural foundation of mankind. And because it determines and shapes its own goals, it can also build bridges between cultures. This does not only mean the vast stage of global conflicts, but also the co-existence of people of different origins, world views, identities or confessions in our own society. The Humanities are in demand, for example, where genetics or medicine have achieved something which was unimaginable until now, where different languages need to be explained or where traditions need to be understood and translated.

The Year of the Sciences 2007 was launched by the Ministry for Education and Research together with the initiative “Sciences in Dialogue” under the motto ‘The Humanities: the ABC of Mankind’.

The Year of the Sciences was officially opened in Berlin on 25th January 2007. Together with the initiative “Sciences in Dialogue”, numerous institutions from the field of humanities and other partners, people were able to experience the humanities up close through readings, exhibitions, competitions and publications.

More information on the Year of the Sciences 2007 ‘The Humanities: the ABC of Mankind’ can be found under www.abc-der-menschheit.de (website in German only)

The CBS took part in the Year of the Sciences with two event series:

‘Preferably bare-foot than without a book’ - Betra er berfættum en bókarlausum að

‘Bamberg reads a book – The Diary of Anne Frank’