Internal Events

2:15–3:00 PM | Clara Müllenmeister
— Wider die Norm. Zweifelsfälle referenzieller Geschlechtszuschreibung | Cases of Doubt in Referential Gender Assignment
Discussant: Dr. Lesley-Ann Kern (Köln)

Writing an academic thesis is a complex process that presents its own challenges. Dr. Birgit Schreiber, a social researcher, journalist, and coach from Bremen, together with journalist Uwe Buse, will teach how to reliably navigate this process in this two-day workshop, which provides guidance on effective self-coaching. The workshop is offered bilingually (English, German).

Writing an academic thesis is a complex process that presents its own challenges. Dr. Birgit Schreiber (Schreiber Coaching Bremen), a social researcher, journalist, and coach, together with journalist Uwe Buse, will teach how to reliably navigate this process in this two-day workshop, which provides guidance on effective self-coaching. The workshop is offered bilingually (English, German). Practical exercises will be conducted as much as possible using texts provided by the participants.

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of polarization. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy hunt against this spectre. Where is the opposition party that has not been decried as polarizing by its governing opponents? Where the opposition party that has not hurled back the branding charge of polarization — against both its more progressive counterparts in opposition and its reactionary adversaries? And yet we must note: empirical social research rarely finds the polarization presumed to be everywhere. This tension is the starting point of the talk: What if polarization is seen everywhere because it structures the very way in which politics observes itself? And what follows from this insight for the political present? Polarization, the core thesis holds, is an expression of how modern politics processes its own contradictions. The politically explosive question is therefore not so much whether society is polarized, but above all along which axes.

— Building bridges to the Bremen art world. An excursion to Weserburg. Museum für modern Kunst

The field of infrastructure studies lies at a critical juncture marked by novel kinds of logistical interfaces, new configurations of agency, and enduring neo-Foucauldian concerns with the shifting contours of the human subject.  In this presentation I develop a conceptual synthesis between four analytical perspectives: an emphasis on infrastructure as a set of cultural and material artefacts marked by diverse modes of enquiry; the co-evolutionary dynamics of infrastructure networks in relation to the corporeal vulnerabilities of urban space; the emergence of successive socio-technical imaginaries that connect with the metonymic or ideological significance of urban infrastructure; and the significance of infrastructure as an epistemological vantage point for embodied encounters with urban space.  I show how the question of infrastructure intersects with a series of wider debates over agency, subjectivity, and the rise of algorithmic governmentalities.  I emphasize the value of creative practice as a vibrant alternative to creeping forms of analytical modularity and neo-positivist epistemological elision.   

— Research Approaches and Methodologies Reflecting specific research projects within the broader spectrum of possible research approaches and methodologies.

— Fellow Research Approaches and Methodologies: A Hands-on Follow-up Contextualizing RTG 2686 Fellow projects within the broader spectrum of research approaches and methodologies

— Deep Dive Reading and Reflection on the Writing Process: Writing and Text Feedback Techniques

— Relevance: The Epistemological Value of Scientific Research

— Details will follow. Mercator Fellow Michael Hampe (Zürich) wird vom 18. bis 22. Januar 2027 im GRK 2686 zu Gast sein.

Welcome back! In this Welcome session, we will look back on the summer semester 2026, reflect on key outcomes, and discuss ideas for the upcoming winter semester. We will explore central themes of the Workspace program, set priorities, and identify questions to guide our discussions […]

Ellen Masur
— Feminist Rewriting als Praktik des Wi(e)dersprechens. Eine empirische Untersuchung von mehrdimensionalen Wirkweisen feministischer Rechtsauslegung

Prof. Dr. Yan Suarsana
— Wrap-Up

Jean Marie Bakaïwé Ngabra
— Der Einsatz von KI-Tools zur Förderung der Schreib- und Sprechkompe-tenz im DaF-unterricht: eine Untersuchung der Motivation von DaF-Lernenden am Beispiel Kamerun

Miguel Ángel Prieto-Castellanos
— Becoming Aware of Ignorance and Contradiction

Workshop on Jacques Derrida This workshop offers an overall account of the work of Algerian born Jacques Derrida, educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, between 1949 and 1956. His work has been read within a broad range of […]

During this two-and-a-half-day retreat, we will delve deeper into our Contradiction Studies. Together with RTG 2686 Faculty members and Mercator Fellows, our doctoral candidates will discuss Contradiction Studies in relation to dynamics of polarization. Working in interdisciplinary groups, we will discuss current topics and specific […]

Thomas Itsuo Fujishima
—Imaginaries of More-than-human Resistance: Life, Farming, and Posthuman Politics in Japan

Yash Gupta
— Of मिर्ची in Our Blood: Intergenerational Dis/abilities and Toxic Contra-dictions of Postcolonial Care in the Survivor Narratives of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Clara Müllenmeister
— Wider die Norm. Zweifelsfälle referenzieller Geschlechtszuweisung

Jana Faber
— Rechtskämpfe um Feminizide. Strategien im Spannungsfeld zwischen Feminismus und Abolitionismus

Franziska Moosmann
— Widersprüchliche Artefakte. Missionarische Sammlungen zwischen kolonialer Wissensproduktion und dekolonialer Gegenarchivierung

Rainer Stummer
— (Un)Building Contradiction(s) – Postfoundationalism, Ecology, Movement

Kim Wagener
— Berührung, Widerspruch, Differenz. Aporien tastend-experimentellen Schreibens nach Jean-Luc Nancy