Research assistant

Marie Karner studied Geography, Economics and Communication Studies and has been working as a research assistant at the Institute of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since 2013, where she obtained a doctorate with a doctoral degree in 2020. Her thematic research units [im Rahmen der Forschungsinitiative 2008-11] are (neo-)diasporic communities, migration, Arab and colonial old towns as well as cruise and film tourism. On a theoretical level, she deals with diaspora concepts, social networks, ethnic identities, approaches to communitization(communities of practice and neo-tribes) as well as processes of commodification, touristification and atmospheric experience. Her regional focus is on the USA, Australia, Cuba, Brazil and Lebanon, where she was funded for a year in 2017 as a doctoral fellow at the Orient-Institut Beirut.

Communities of Syrians in Germany

The now established digital world with its social media and the changed political, legal, social, economic and technical conditions in Germany have led to the emergence of a wide variety of new communities and the modification of previously established migrant associations. Syrians can find information there to help them find their way in life, overcome their everyday problems and fulfill their ideas about life.

The geographical-ethnographic access is carried out via different survey units, including Syrians, their communication partners and representatives of existing collectives (cultural brokers, singles, couples, families, clans, ethnic groups, associations, refugee organizations, etc.). The interviewees are of different origins and affiliations and are sought out in rural and urban areas regardless of their asylum status.

The theoretical-empirical approach is practice- and digital-oriented. The selected survey techniques include ero-epic conversations, narrative interviews, participant observation and the analysis of community-building activities on the Internet. Interests, knowledge, skills and strategies in the different communities are collected via practices, routines, communication and narratives of the research units. The projects for Syrians set up by members, helpers and institutions provide further information on the work of communities.

Based on the empirical analysis of the lifeworld of Syrians, the project aims to develop a new community theory that makes it possible to understand interest-driven forms of organization in the digital age.

SOMMERLAD, E., T. REEH and M. KARNER (forthcoming): Screentourism: Locations in the field of tension between media fiction, tourism practice and everyday life. In: EISENSTEIN, B. et al. (eds.): Handbook Geographies of Leisure and Tourism. Wiesbaden. Springer.

ESCHER, A and M. KARNER (forthcoming): Major events: Place Branding. In: T. DEMMELHUBER and N. SCHARFENORT (eds.): Handbook Arabian Peninsula – Geography and Politics. Wiesbaden. Springer.

BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, B., S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.) (2023): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): The “Titanic Legacy” – Collective Narratives as Resources of Diasporic Communities. In: B. BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge: 153-170.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): Collective Narratives – Stories as a Way of Doing Community. In: B. BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge: 149-152.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): Standing Waves: Remittances as Social Glue in Neo-Diasporic Communities. In: S. MEYER and C. STRÖHLE (eds.): Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change: The Future of Transnational Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan: 121-149.

CUMMINGS, V. and M. KARNER (2023): The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. In: Geographische Rundschau, 9: 38-41.

CUMMINGS, V., M. KARNER, M. and E. SOMMERLAD (2023): The idea of Europe – between utopian construct and lived practice. In: Geographische Rundschau, 6: 4-8.

ESCHER, A., A. IZZO and M. KARNER (2023): Who is a refugee where and when? Designation and treatment of Syrians in Lebanon and other neighboring countries of Syria. In: movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 7 (1): 135-156.

KARNER, M. J. (2022): Collective Narratives of the Kfarsghabi Diasporic Community: An Important Tool to Reinstate Group Solidarity, Ethnic Identity and Societal Acceptance. In: Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 9 (3): 1-26. Online: https: //doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1073

KARNER, M. and H. RAPP (2021): Cruise tourism – Where dreams come true and paradises are destroyed. In: Vorstand der Marburger Geographischen Gesellschaft e.V. in conjunction with the Dean of the Faculty of Geography at the Philipps University (ed.): Jahrbuch 2021, Marburg: Selbstverlag: 203-209.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2021): Cinematic cruising: Reel and real spaces between imagination and experience. In: Research Outreach, 126. online: https://doi.org/10.32907/RO-126-1870901183

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2021): EXPO 2020 in Dubai – the most sustainable world exhibition ever? In: Geographische Rundschau 73 (9): 46-51.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2021): Cinematic cruising: Reel imagination and real experience for pleasure on the high seas. In: Tourism and Hospitality Research 21(3): 374-385. Online: https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584211011711

KARNER, M. J. (2021): “One Nation Under God” – The Meaning and Change of Ethnic Churches in US-American Society. In: V. WILHELMI, E. THEVEßEN and F. PFEIL (eds.): Geographies of Violence: The USA at the Turning Point – Geographical Perspectives. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, volume 19. Mainz: Geographisches Institut der JGU: 72-97.

KARNER, M. J. (2021): Neo-diasporic communities. Blouzaniyye in Sydney, Australia. Erdkundliches Wissen 167. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. [Link to summary/table of contents].

BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, B., S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.) (2023): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge.

KARNER, M. J. (2021): Neo-diasporic communities. Blouzaniyye in Sydney, Australia. Erdkundliches Wissen 167. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. [Link to summary/table of contents; link to review by A. Marsheva].

KARNER, M. (2016): Party in the old city – The transformation of the historic center of Byblos/Jbeil in Lebanon. Muslim Worlds 8, Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag. [Links to the table of contents and to book reviews by H. Nissel and C. Kirchen].

Articles in journals and books

SOMMERLAD, E., T. REEH and M. KARNER (forthcoming): Screentourism: Locations in the field of tension between media fiction, tourism practice and everyday life. In: EISENSTEIN, B. et al. (eds.): Handbook Geographies of Leisure and Tourism. Wiesbaden. Springer.

ESCHER, A and M. KARNER (forthcoming): Major events: Place Branding. In: T. DEMMELHUBER and N. SCHARFENORT (eds.): Handbook Arabian Peninsula – Geography and Politics. Wiesbaden. Springer.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): The “Titanic Legacy” – Collective Narratives as Resources of Diasporic Communities. In: B. BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge: 153-170.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): Collective Narratives – Stories as a Way of Doing Community. In: B. BÖNISCH-BREDNICH, S. MEYER, A. CHRISTOU, M. J. KARNER and A. ESCHER (eds.): Migrant Narratives: Storytelling as Agency, Belonging and Community. Abingdon: Routledge: 149-152.

KARNER, M. J. (2023): Standing Waves: Remittances as Social Glue in Neo-Diasporic Communities. In: S. MEYER and C. STRÖHLE (eds.): Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change: The Future of Transnational Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan: 121-149.

CUMMINGS, V. and M. KARNER (2023): The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. In: Geographische Rundschau, 9: 38-41.

CUMMINGS, V., M. KARNER, M. and E. SOMMERLAD (2023): The idea of Europe – between utopian construct and lived practice. In: Geographische Rundschau, 6: 4-8.

ESCHER, A., A. IZZO and M. KARNER (2023): Who is a refugee where and when? Designation and treatment of Syrians in Lebanon and other neighboring countries of Syria. In: movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 7 (1): 135-156.

KARNER, M. J. (2022): Collective Narratives of the Kfarsghabi Diasporic Community: An Important Tool to Reinstate Group Solidarity, Ethnic Identity and Societal Acceptance. In: Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies 9 (3): 1-26. Online: https: //doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1073

KARNER, M. and H. RAPP (2021): Cruise tourism – Where dreams come true and paradises are destroyed. In: Vorstand der Marburger Geographischen Gesellschaft e.V. in conjunction with the Dean of the Faculty of Geography at the Philipps University (ed.): Jahrbuch 2021, Marburg: Selbstverlag: 203-209.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2021): Cinematic cruising: Reel and real spaces between imagination and experience. In: Research Outreach, 126. online: https://doi.org/10.32907/RO-126-1870901183

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2021): EXPO 2020 in Dubai – the most sustainable world exhibition ever? In: Geographische Rundschau 73 (9): 46-51.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2021): Cinematic cruising: Reel imagination and real experience for pleasure on the high seas. In: Tourism and Hospitality Research 21(3): 374-385. Online: https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584211011711

KARNER, M. J. (2021): “One Nation Under God” – The Meaning and Change of Ethnic Churches in US-American Society. In: V. WILHELMI, E. THEVEßEN and F. PFEIL (eds.): Geographies of Violence: The USA at the Turning Point – Geographical Perspectives. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, volume 19. Mainz: Geographisches Institut der JGU: 72-97.

KARNER, M. (2020): Neo-Diasporic Communities. Blouzaniyye in Sydney, Australia. In: DAVO-Nachrichten, volume 48/49. Mainz: 108-109.

KARNER, M. and A. ESCHER (2019): Global (diaspora) communities at the beginning of the 21st century. “Kfarsghabis” in Kfarsghab/Lebanon, Sydney/Australia, Easton/USA and Providence/USA. In: W. GAMERITH and N. SCHARFENORT (eds.): People, Migration and Mobility. Passauer Kontaktstudium Geographie, volume 15, Passau: 63-83 [ order form].

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2019): “Cinematic Cruising” – with the “dream ship” on the high seas. In: M. PLIEN (ed.): Learning to see feature films geographically – Cinematic narratives from scientific and didactic perspectives. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, volume 15, Mainz: 31-53 [Information on ordering].

ARNOLD, G., T. BOOS, A. ESCHER and M. KARNER (2019): Is the future diasporic? Conceptual reflections on global communities as new forms of social order . In: C. Y. ROBERTSON-VON TROTHA (ed.): Diaspora. Networks of global communities. WIKA-Report, Volume 3, ifa-Edition Kultur und Außenpolitik. Stuttgart and Berlin: 23-30.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. RAPP (2019): Ernest Hemingway in Cuba. The commodification of the US writer in the socialist Caribbean state. In: Geographische Rundschau 71 (7-8): 62-63.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER and H. Rapp (2019): Booming cruise tourism industry. Made paradise or created inferno on the high seas? In: Geographische Rundschau 71 (4): 40-45.

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2018): Obsolete Romanticism and the Postmodern Transformation of Urban Cultures and Traditions in Mediterranean Medinas. In: E. Woertz (ed.): “Wise Cities” in the Mediterranean? Challenges of Urban Sustainability. Colección Monografías, Barcelona: Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB): 35-52.

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2017): Understanding interculturality instead of spatial coexistence as a response to terrorism? In: V. WILHELMI, E. THEVEßEN & F. PFEIL (eds.): Global Terrorism. Analyses, perspectives and didactic impulses. Mainzer Kontaktstudium Geographie, volume 16. Mainz: Geographisches Institut der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz: 30-47 [Information on ordering on page 3].

ESCHER, A., E. SOMMERLAD and M. KARNER (2017): “King’s Landing is real!” – film-induced journeys into imagined worlds. In: Board of the Marburg Geographical Society e.V. in conjunction with the Dean of the Faculty of Geography at the Philipps University (ed.): Yearbook 2016, Marburg: self-published: 157-163.

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER, C. KERZ, H. RAPP and E. SOMMERLAD (2016): The Atmospheric Grid of Cruising on the High Seas. In: Geography 70 (4): 313-321.

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2016): Syrian and Lebanese communities in the Caribbean states. In: Geographische Rundschau 68 (10): 20-29 [Link to order].

ESCHER, A., M. KARNER, C. KERZ, H. RAPP and E. SOMMERLAD (2016): Movement as the Basic Atmospheric Dimension of Cruising on the High Seas. In: N. RÉMY and N. TIXIER (eds.): Ambiances, tomorrow. Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Ambiances. Volos: University of Thessaly: 213-218 [Link to the conference page].

KARNER, M. (2016): The transformation of the old town of Byblos/Jbeil in Lebanon: From a “ghost town” to an “open-air nightscape”. In: Quarterly journal for urban history, urban sociology, heritage conservation and urban development, Forum Stadt Verlag 43 (3): 261-278. [Link to order]Blogposts

KARNER, M. (2018): Getting to Know Sheikh Youssef Stephan – Community Leaders as Role Models of Diasporic Village Communities. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies News. Internet: http://ow.ly/HDyB30lUVy2 (21.09.2018).

KARNER, M. (2017): Research Project: Lebanese Diasporic Village Communities and their Practices of Reproduction and Community Development. Mish ma32ool. The OIBlog from Beirut and Cairo. Internet: https://oib.hypotheses.org/987 (09.11.2017).book review

ESCHER, A. and M. KARNER (2019): Wolfgang Meyer-Hentrich. Cruise madness. Danger for nature and people. Berlin. In: Geographische Rundschau 71 (7-8): 60.

29.01.2024 Cruise tourism – back on course? Geographical Society of Hanover, in Hanover

24.04.2023 Sutopian Projects in Mauritius: Shades of Sustainability, HEO/GEO Lecture Series 2023 of the Philippine Geographical Society (together with Elisabeth Sommerlad)

28.01.2023 “Sutopian Projects” in Mauritius and the Arab Gulf States between cohesive communities and fragmenting sustainability, Conference New Cultural Geography, Halle (presented by Elisabeth Sommerlad)

01.04.2022 Touristic cruise. A cinematic utopia, Schulgeographentag Mainz (together with Anton Escher and Helena Rapp)

02.11.2021 “Cruise tourism – Where dreams come true and paradises are destroyed”, Marburg Geographical Society, in Marburg

29.04.2021 “Touristification of former colonial cities in the hinterland of Brazil”, University of Trier (via Zoom)

10.06.2020 “Kreuzfahrttourismus – Der Boom vom” Traumurlaub “auf hoher Seevor der Corona Pandemie!”, as part of the lecture series of the Faculty of Translation, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, JGU Mainz (via Zoom, together with Helena Rapp).

20.11.2019 “Boom industry cruise tourism – Are” dream ships “destroying our oceans?”, Gesellschaft für Geographie und Geologie Bochum e.V., lecture on the topic “The future of our oceans” in Bochum.

14.08.2019 “” You have to do your duties!“- Lebanese Diasporic Communities in the Beginning of the 21st Century” as part of the CAPES PrInt Middle East Colloquium of the Universidade de Brasília (UnB) in Brasília (Brazil).

27.07.2018 “Collective Narratives about” Village Heroes “- The Reproduction of Sheikh Youssef Stephan as a Role Model of the Diasporic Community of Kfarsghabiyye” as part of the workshop “Exploring Migrant Narratives” organized by the Center for Intercultural Studies (ZIS), Institute of Geography (JGU) and Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) in Mainz.

18.07.2018 “Diaspora Neighborhoods – The Blouzaniyye from Lebanon in Sydney” as part of the OIB panels “PA-180. Neighbourliness: Neighbourhood relations in Beirut and beyond” at the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) in Seville (Spain).[Link to the program]

18.04.2018 “Syrian Communities in Germany” as part of the workshop Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, Germany and beyond – Research and Analysis organized by the Institute of Geography (JGU) and the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at the Lebanese American University (LAU) (Lebanon) (together with Anton Escher and Ahmad Izzo).[Link to the program]

09.03.2018 “Preservation of Urban Cultures and Traditions: The history of urbanization in the Mediterranean” at the policy seminar and conference “” Wise Cities “in the Mediterranean?” organized by the Kuwait Chair at Sciences Po’s Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), in collaboration with CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and sponsored by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). [Link to the program and the biographies of the speakers].

14.12.2017 “” What Do You Think the Lesson is From This Story?“- The Reproduction of Lebanese Diasporic Communities Through Collective Narratives” as a Doctoral Fellow at the internal colloquium of the Orient Institute Beirut (OIB, Lebanon).

03.10.2017 “” Dancing on a still bubbling volcano “in the Lebanese old town of Byblos” at the German Congress of Geography 2017 (LT4-FS20: Between Crises and Development Potentials – Tourism in the Arab World) organized by the German Geographical Society (DGfG) and the Geographical Institute of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen.

01.10.2017 “Diasporic Communities and their Transnational Practices of” Historiography “” at the German Congress of Geography 2017 (LT1-FS12: Transnational Practices of Migrants) organized by the German Geographical Society (DGfG) and the Geographical Institute of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen.

18.07.2017 “The Titanic Legacy of the Kfarsghabis – Historical Narratives as Cohesive Elements of Diasporic Communities” as part of the workshop “Migrant Narratives – Moving Stories” organized by the Center for Intercultural Studies (ZIS), Institute of Geography (JGU) and the Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) in Mainz.

02.03.2017 “Lebanese Diasporic Communities – A Preliminary Model to Explain the Cohesion and Continuity of Diasporic Communities” as a doctoral fellow in the internal colloquium of the Orient Institute Beirut (OIB, Lebanon).

07.07.2016 “Lebanese Diasporic Village Communities” as part of the master’s/doctoral candidate colloquium (Wissenschaftlicher Initiativkreis Kultur und Außenpolitik) at the Institut für Auslandbeziehungen (ifa) in Stuttgart.

28.11.2015 “Lebanese Global Communities: Theoretical Conceptualizations” in the framework of the workshop Migration Studies: Reflection and Challenges organized by the Institute of Geography (JGU) and the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) of the Lebanese American University (LAU) at the Orient Institute Beirut (OIB, Lebanon).

German Working Group for the Middle East, DAVO (since 2018)

Netzwerk Fluchtforschung e.V. (since 2016)

Association of Geographers at German Higher Education Institutions, VDGH (since 2015)

Working groups Tourism Research and Geographical Migration Research in the German Society for Geography, DGfG (since 2015)

In academic teaching, Marie Karner is primarily responsible for the Human Geography Methods field course and heads field trips and project studies in countries including South America, the Caribbean, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

Summer 2023

  • M5/M2ED *2016* Practice class: Academic papers
  • M13/M12ED/M11ED*2016* PS: Empirical work on current research questions “Sustainability in Mainz”

Winter 2022/23

  • M2/M2ED Practice class: HG I (Social and Urban Geography) / Practice class: Human Geography II, Course B
  • M2/M2ED Practice class: HG I (Social and Urban Geography) / Practice class: Human Geography II, Course C
  • M1-MA Seminar: Academic Skills (I)

Summer 2022

Winter 2021/22

Summer 2021

  • M6/M4alt/M8ED/M13ED Field practical course in human geography methods, courses A-F
  • M11/M9-ED Regional seminar and field trip “Dubai/UAE”, 14 field days
  • M3ED Seminar and field trip on regional geography “Romanticism on the Rhine”, 3 field days
  • M1-MA Project Seminar: Tack a Map

Winter 2020/21

  • M13 HS & GP Special Human Geography “EXPO 2020/Dubai” (digital format)
  • M11/M9-ED Regional seminar and field trip River cruise Germany/Austria, 10 days (possibly digital)
  • M1-MA Project Seminar: Tack a Map

Summer 2020

Winter 2019/20

Summer 2019

Winter 2018/19

Summer 2018

Summer 2016

Winter 2015/16

  • M6-MA: Project study “Halifax”, 14 field days

Summer 2015

  • M6a-MA: Seminar: Research Concepts Halifax
  • M6b-MA: Seminar: Research Concepts Lebanese in Germany
  • M4/M8 ED Practice class: Methods of human geography

Winter 2014/15

Summer 2014

  • M6b-MA: Globalization and Region: Research Workshop Dubai

Consultation hours:
By appointment by e-mail

Diaspora, migration, flight

Touristification of urban spaces

Film and cruise tourism

Regions: Lebanon, UAE, South America, Caribbean, Australia, USA

Neo-diasporic communities