Category Archives: News

BUA, Knowledge Exchange, News, Third Mission, Workshop

Researching with Society: International Perspectives

HU Office for Knowledge Exchange with Society at Zentrum für Kulturtechnik | TD-Lab – Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research of the Berlin University Alliance

Time:    Wednesday, 20. November 2024, 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Place:    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Campus Nord, Philippstraße 13, Haus 3, 10115 Berlin
(Keynote/Workshops: Entrance Tieranatomisches Theater;
Reception: Entrance Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik)

This is an in-person event that will take place in English. Please note that the workshops are currently fully booked and that your name will be added to a waiting list. Please register your interest here.

Researching with Society: International Perspectives

We are pleased to announce the event “Researching with Society: International Perspectives” on November 20th 2024, a get-together at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on participatory research and public engagement offering learning and networking opportunities for Berlin researchers. The day will feature a keynote speech and workshops by international experts from the University of Oxford followed by a reception allowing time and space for networking and discussions.
Science and universities have a central role and responsibility in dealing with major societal challenges of our time. Knowledge exchange between academia and society is thus increasingly becoming an important part of research and knowledge production. The event welcomes all researchers, members of BUA institutions and interested science-related organizations to explore approaches and impact of participatory research and public engagement, discuss civic responsibilities of universities and network with partners from the University of Oxford. Please join us for the following program:

12:40 pm   Doors open at Tieranatomisches Theater

1:00-1:45 pm   Keynote Speech: Enhancing Research Through Public Engagement – Strengthening Participatory Approaches in Academia
by Dr. Victoria McGuinness, Head of Public Engagement, Head of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), University of Oxford
preceded by a welcome by Prof. Dr. Julia von Blumenthal, president of HU Berlin

This talk will explore the vital role of universities in addressing today’s societal challenges and their civic responsibilities. It will outline the opportunities for collaboration and co-creation and the added value of participatory approaches and public engagement in research, including their impact and outcomes. The speaker will share examples of how universities can support participatory research methods and strengthen these essential practices in academia

1:45-3:45 pm    Parallel Workshops: please note that the workshops are fully booked at present and that your name will be added to a waiting list (register your interest here)

Workshop 1: What is Public Engagement with Research in the Humanities?
Dr. Victoria McGuinness, Head of Public Engagement, Head of TORCH, University of Oxford
This workshop will delve into the feasibility of public engagement and participation across various disciplines in the Humanities. We will explore the motivations for researchers to engage in participatory projects with non-academic audiences and organisations, and identify the support needed to initiate and lead these initiatives. Participants will discuss the challenges faced in implementing participatory research approaches and public engagement, sharing methods and solutions to overcome obstacles. Join us to enrich your research through meaningful and equitable collaboration.

Workshop 2: Developing Compelling Impact Stories
Pavel Ovseiko, DPhil MSc PGDip, Senior Research Fellow in Health Policy and Management, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford
This interactive workshop will introduce you to the UK’s best practice in defining, capturing, communicating, and incentivising research with impact on society, culture, and the economy. We will look at the fundamentals of a narrative impact case study, examine a mixture of real-world case studies, and critically discuss comparative advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to measuring and rewarding impactful research. You will walk away with real insights into what it takes to develop a narrative impact case study; which types of indicators you can use to demonstrate your impact; and how to pull different strands of evidence into compelling impact stories.

4:00-5:30 pm  Reception and Networking (snacks and drinks provided)
With Dr. Victoria McGuinness (TORCH, University of Oxford), Pavel Ovseiko (John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford), OPEN HUMBOLDT Advisory Board, HU Office for Knowledge Exchange with Society, BUA TD-Lab

Registration: Please register for the event and select a workshop here (waiting list)
Contact: wissensaustausch.hzk@hu-berlin.de

Photo: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

News

Museums targeted by populists: Open threats and gradually changes

The international project ‘CHAPTER’ has been investigating since 2020 how right-wing populist forces are influencing museums in Poland, the UK and Germany.

When the political scientist Julia Leser and her team surveyed museum and cultural institution employees in 2021 and 2022, she was amazed at how much their work is at the centre of right-wing populism. And not just in Poland, where the right-wing PiS party was in power, but also in the UK and Germany. In the research project CHAPTER – ‘Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe: The Role of Museums in a Digital ‘Post-Truth’ European Society’ – she interviewed around 40 employees of large and small institutions in urban and rural areas, including history, art and open-air museums, memorials and exhibitions on migration.

Together with Julia Leser, other researchers from Germany, Great Britain and Poland under the direction of Sharon Macdonald, Professor of Social Anthropology and founder of the ‘Centre for anthropological research on museums and heritage’, and Christoph Bareither, Professor at the University of Tübingen, systematically investigated this phenomenon. They wanted to find out how and in which institutions right-wing populism intervenes and how the employees are affected by it at work and personally. Since 2020, the researchers have been compiling examples and data to document and analyse the actions of right-wing populists and their effects. The project has also resulted in an app that invites users to engage with the topic of populism using specific objects in selected museums.

Read a detailed article about the research project.

Learn more about the CHAPTER app in the video.

To the project website

Caption: Since 2020, the ‘CHAPTER’ project has been investigating how right-wing populist forces influence museums in Poland, the UK and Germany. Photo: Challenging Populist Truth-Making in Europe (CHAPTER)

Event, Exhibition, News

About grey parrots and humans

The Animal Anatomy Theatre opens the exhibition ‘Parrot Terristories’ on 10 October, focusing on the multifaceted history of grey parrots and humans

African grey parrots are social animals that live in the tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa, where they travel in large flocks. However, these clever birds are endangered in the wild. There are now probably more grey parrots living in human households in Europe, the USA and the Middle East than in the wild.

The research and exhibition project ‘Parrot Terristories’ focuses on the history and complex facets of the relationship between grey parrots and humans. For six years, Ute Hörner and Mathias Antlfinger, Professor of Multispecies Storytelling at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, have been working with numerous actors and institutions to create images, texts, films, sound works and installations that examine and show where parrots and humans meet and what these encounters look like.

Art by grey parrots and humans

Hörner and Antlfinger themselves have lived in a household with grey parrots for 20 years and founded the interspecies collective CMUK – which stands for the first letters of the collective’s four first names – with Karl and Clara in 2014. There is a shared workbench in the studio where installations such as the ‘Dollhouse for Dinosaurs’ are created: A model of their shared home, on whose windows, doors and walls the birds have left their mark. Shredded magazines, cork crumbs and splinters of wood litter the floor and bear witness to the power of the beaks and the desire to mould and shape. An audio recording inside the model gives an idea of the strength and perseverance with which the animals went about their work. The exhibition also includes a joint work with Nick Byaba from the Parrot Tree Caretakers Association in Uganda, which examines the relationship between wild grey parrots and their environment.

The exhibits make this clear: Grey parrots are individuals with their own will and experience, they have agency and actively create and shape their world. Recognising this ‘animal agency’ is the central concern of ‘Parrot Terristories’.

The Tieranatomisches Theater is showing the exhibition in the context of research into material cultural heritage at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and the Käte Hamburger Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities ‘inherit.heritage in transformation’ at Humboldt University.

Caption: CMUK. Divided workbench in the studio. Photo: Hörner/Antlfinger

Supported by Kunststiftung NRW, Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin and Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln

Further information
Vernissage: 10 October, 7 pm
Location: Tieranatomisches Theater, Campus Nord, Philippstraße 13/Haus 3, 10115 Berlin
Exhibition duration: 11 October 2024 to 29 March 2025

Learn more about the exhibition at TA T

Further cooperation partners
Dr. Sylke Frahnert, Dr. Katja Kaiser, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (wissenschaftshistorische Beratung)
Christine Bluard, Annelore Naeckerts, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgien
Prof. Nancy Jacobs, Brown University
Dr. Vanessa Wijngaarden, University of Johannesburg, University of Liège

Contact:
Felix Sattler, Director and Curator of the TA T
felix.sattler@culture.hu-berlin.de

 

News, Object of the Month

Object of the month: Photo collection in the archive of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Object of the month 09/2024

Whether it was the opening of the academic year, the reception of foreign delegations, sporting competitions, conferences or conventions – a university photographer was always present at all university events, documenting the action and capturing it in numerous photos that provide a detailed insight into the history of Humboldt-Universität. The staff at the Hochschulfilm- und Bildstelle HBF (the universities own photographic and film service) also took on specific documentary assignments: architectural and interior photographs recorded the development of the university buildings, while portraits of professors and lecturers captured the composition of the teaching staff.

All these moments in over 40 years of university history, captured on mono film, are now in the photo collection of the HU Archive – both as positives and negatives and contact sheets; they include images that were intended for publication – in the HU magazine or in other university and non-university publications – as well as snapshots that have never been seen by the public.

X. Weltfestspiele der Jugend und Studenten (10th World Festival of Youth and Students) 1973, Angela Davis. Photo: Völkel, Copyright Humboldt-Universität
The student in the construction of a new Germany. Guest student at the veterinary clinic of the university, 1947. Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität
Meeting with Soviet citizens, November 1977. Photo: Talmann, Copyright Humboldt-Universität
Unveiling of the Marx bust in 1953. Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität
The FDJ Central Council's (Zentralrat der Freien Deutschen Jugend) graduation ball and reception, 1958. Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität
Photos of buildings inside and outside, undated. Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität
Photos of buildings inside and outside, undated. Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität
1. May 1946: „Zug der Universität. Die beiden Studentinnen sind beide Schuldirektorin bzw. Abt. Ltr. im Ministerium für Planung“. Roughly translatetd: „University procession. The two female students are both headmistresses respectively supervisor at the Ministry of Planning.“ Photo: unknown. Copyright Humboldt-Universität

A central service in the field of audiovisual media (audiovisuelle Medien, abbr.: AV) has existed at the university since 1952. Initially, it mainly provided photography and film work for teaching, studies and research, and also took over the maintenance and repair of AV technology. This university image centre was founded at all universities in the GDR by a resolution of the centrally responsible Ministry of Technical and University Education (Ministerium für Fach- und Hochschulwesen). Initially assigned to the Prorectorate for Research, the HFB moved to the Directorate for Cultural and Public Relations (Direktorat für Kultur- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit) after 1970, while the Centre for Audiovisual Learning and Teaching Materials (Zentrum für audiovisuelle Lern- und Lehrmittel, ZAL), founded in 1971 and 1979 respectively, continued to be available primarily as a service facility for research in the faculties and institutes of the university, for all members, students and teachers alike.

Although a few ZAL educational films are available in the archive, it is primarily the photos that are stored here: a unique and impressive testimony to academic life in the decades from the 1950s to the late 1990s, which has reached a volume of almost 30 linear metres and is largely untapped, despite its undoubted historical significance for the history of the HU. Despite verifiable attempts to organise and catalogue the mass of photographs in some way, the photo documents collected after the dissolution of the HBF were handed over to the archive in disarray, often unfortunately with very little information about the events and people in the photos, rarely supplemented with a note about the photographer and even more rarely dated. Creating order and retrospectively adding the missing information to the existing material is an immense and yet exciting challenge. Every time we delve into the sorted and unsorted boxes of photographs, we unearth a piece of everyday university life that tells stories on many levels: university history, but also social history, political, societal, scientific and everyday stories.

The ZAL and the HFB with their university-internal photographic laboratory were closed in the late 1990s. The university photographers took on other tasks. The possibilities for documenting life and events at the university have changed dramatically since then: analogue photographs are hardly ever taken, and every event is not only documented professionally, but also in a multitude of snapshots by participants and private individuals. The mono photographs depict a time that was characterised by different media, different resources and a long-changed university routine.

Author and contact:
Dr. Aleksandra Pawliczek
aleksandra.pawliczek@ub.hu-berlin.de
Speicherbibliothek Archiv
Wagner-Régeny-Straße 5-7
12489 Berlin

Knowledge Exchange, News, Open Humboldt Freiräume

Open Humboldt Freiräume – Time for dialogue and exchange

Time to implement projects with organisations from civil society organisations and thus promote the exchange of knowledge between university and society – this is what the Open Humboldt Freiräume funding line stands for. It literally creates ‘free spaces’ for researchers, who can be released from their teaching duties for one semester, to realise their ideas. The Humboldt University thus supports the exchange between science and society in the long term, as the projects often result in long-term collaborations and strong networks with civil society partners.

The programme is currently in its fifth round and has already supported 14 projects since 2021. In a video, researchers and their partners talk about the wishes and goals they have for their projects, what they learn and what successful projects look like.

Open Humboldt Freiräume is supported with excellence funding from the Berlin University Alliance.

Presented – Open Humboldt Freiräume in the video (YouTube)

OpenHumboldtFreiräume-Imagefilm-00000218-Standbild001
Prof. Gökce Yurdakul (right) in conversation with practice partners. Photo: Isabelle Duchêne
Knowledge Exchange, News, Third Mission, Workshop

Training Program in Public Engagement for Researchers

The team of HU ‘Knowledge Exchange with Society‘ at Zentrum für Kulturtechnik (HZK) invites researchers to participate in a training program for Public Engagement, delivered by the Berlin School of Public Engagement and Open Science. The workshop series is an effective and flexible training in public engagement and knowledge exchange between science and society. It offers an active network and a certificate in the field of participation and engagement.

  • What: Training program (Ger/Eng) with 3 thematic modules and optional units: 1. Foundations – Engagement in Practice, 2. Evaluation Practice, 3. Creative Engagement – Skills and Formats
  • Who: the training is aimed at researchers from all disciplines and at all stages of their careers who are interested in cooperating with non-academic and community partners
  • When: from October 2024 to June 2025, with an average of one workshop per month; you can choose and book the individual appointments on your own
  • Where: live online sessions on Zoom

Please see here for detailed information about the training

If you are interested in participating or have questions, please contact the HU-team Knowledge Exchange with Society at wissensaustausch.hzk@hu-berlin.de until September 15.

 

Knowledge Exchange, News, Open Humboldt Freiräume

Call for Proposals: Open Humboldt Freiräume for Public Engagement

The funding program “Open Humboldt Freiräume” at HZK focuses on the need of researchers to have more time in order to engage in a dialogue with society and to develop projects for knowledge exchange between science and society.

The selected scientists will receive a teaching reduction to 0 SWS and funds for a replacement position for one semester (summer 2025 or winter 2025/26) to implement a knowledge exchange project with non-academic partners. Professors, postdocs and doctoral students at HU Berlin are eligible to apply. The applicants’ positions must have a teaching load and be fully financed by HU funds.

Info sessions online:
Tuesday, 13 August 2024, 10:00 a.m., Registration (HU-Zoom)
Friday, 19. September 2024, 12:00 noon, Registration (HU-Zoom)

Application deadline: October 11, 2024

For any questions  about the funding program, please contact Xenia Muth in the HZK area “Knowledge Exchange with Society” at wissensaustausch.hzk@hu-berlin.de or join a Freiräume info session.

Call for proposals Open Humboldt Freiräume 2025/26

Time is What you Make of it – Photo © Matthias Heyde

Event, News, Sound Archive, Symposium

Symposium “No future without memory. Strategies of preservation in cultural archives” – Nuremberg, 20-22 June 2024

Symposium in Nuremberg
There are more than 350 different archives in Germany alone, containing collections on architecture, photography, dance and more. That’s why the Institute of Modern Art Nuremberg and the Neues Museum Nürnberg are organizing a conference on the topic of “No future without memory. Strategies of preservation in cultural archives”. At this symposium, guests from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland will talk about the work and challenges of cultural archives.

Alina Januscheck and Christopher Li from the “Towards Sonic Resocialization” project will be holding a lecture on Friday, 21.6.24. Focusing on the ethic(s) of the Lautarchiv, they will discuss the handling of collections from colonial contexts of injustice. Furthermore, the impact of these ethics on the Lautarchiv’s current and future culture of remembrance will be explored.

Date: 20-22 June 2024
Venue: Auditorium in the Neues Museum Nuremberg, Luitpoldstraße 5, 90402 Nuremberg
Costs: EUR 50,- (lecturers + students free of charge)
Website: https://www.moderne-kunst.org/archiv/kulturarchive-projekt

Event, News, Sound Archive

The Long Night of Science 2024 – ECHOING ARCHIVES

The Long Night of Sciences will take place again on 22 June 2024. The Collegium Hungaricum is celebrating its 100th anniversary by presenting the contents of archives in this context.

In addition to guided tours of the institution and an interactive sound installation, lectures will be offered. The Lautarchiv presents a sound recording from its collection by Robert Gragger, who founded the Collegium Hungaricum around 1924.

Date: 22 June
Time: 17:00 hrs
Place: Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Dorotheenstraße 12, 10117 Berlin
Website: https://culture.hu/de/berlin/veranstaltungen/lndw2024

Please note that the event will be held in German.

News, Object of the Month

Object of the Month: The Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv Berlin/Brandenburg der Abteilung Erwachsenenbildung/Weiterbildung – The creation and development of an active collection of Humboldt-Universität

Object of the Month 06/2024 

What learning and educational opportunities are there for adults? What topics do different providers offer as courses, events, seminars and workshops, for example on sustainability, social cohesion, culture or the requirements of the world of work between professional relevance and key qualifications? And for which target groups do they offer them? How can statements be made about topics and target groups that are and have been relevant in adult and continuing education – and therefore in society – in the past and present?

These questions can be answered through the analysis of programs (and the announcements of offers therein), which are usually published either as booklets or flyers by continuing education providers. They contain descriptions of the planned educational offers, information on participation modalities and often forewords that allow conclusions to be drawn about the educational program orientation of the providers.

ODM-062024-Abb 1
Fig. 1: Covers of various providers collected in the archive

Program archives collect continuing education programs, which are generally not systematically collected by municipal archives, libraries or the providers themselves, and make them available as primary research data. In this way, they aid the identification of structural developments and also document changes in the continuing education landscape. These were the two main goals of the founding of the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv Berlin/Brandenburg in 1995. Wiltrud Gieseke, who founded the collection and held the department chair at that time, wanted to map the developments taking place after German reunification, including the merging of two different social, labor market and continuing education systems. For this purpose, it was necessary to actively collect the programs of continuing education providers from the states of Berlin and Brandenburg retroactively from 1990.

Today, the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv (Archive of Programs of Continuing Education) comprises a collection of around 18,000 programs from more than 1,100 continuing education institutions and other providers of continuing education. The archive is actively collecting on an ongoing basis in accordance with its subject matter.

ODM-062024-Abb 2a
Fig. 2: View of the archive room (also a workplace for users)
ODM-062024-Abb 2b

The collection is regularly used for research and theses and student groups visit the archive as part of their seminars.

In addition to our archive, there are two other program archives in German-speaking countries: the Volkshochschul-Programmarchiv am Deutschen Institut für Erwachsenenbildung – Leibniz-Zentrum für Lebenslanges Lernen (DIE) (Programme Archive of Adult Education Centers at the German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning) and the Österreichisches Volkshochschularchiv (Austrian Archives for Adult Education). In contrast to these two collections, the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv includes a wide range of different types of providers in addition to Volkshochschulen (adult education centers). For example, the programs of trade union, denominational and political institutions, chambers, non-profit associations as well as company and commercial providers are also archived here. This representation of different types of institutions makes the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv unique.

ODM-062024-Abb 3
Fig. 3: Variety of institution types collected in the archive

The educational planners responsible for the continuing education programs identify socially relevant topics, interpret them and transform them into educational programs. Through the scientific examination of the published programs in the context of program analyses, it is precisely these interpretations of social issues and the associated ideas of educational needs and education that can be worked out. A research project at the Department (ÖkonoBi_EBWB_Pro, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research 05.23-01.24) shows this for economic and financial education, which is currently regarded as an important political and social means of achieving participation on the one hand, sustainability goals on the other and shaping social change. Thanks to the archive, it was possible to form a sample of over 800 offers from a wide range of providers within a short space of time. The 250 offers analyzed show differentiations and focal points of a developing content area – but also, thanks to the wide range of the sample, provider-specific profiles of the interpretation and placement of economic education.

ODM-062024-Abb 4a
Fig. 4: Sample and topic categories from the ÖkonoBi_EBWB_Pro research project
ODM-062024-Abb 4b

The archive is being developed continuously: in addition to the mission statement and collection concept, a new database (which links institutions and individual programmes in a branched and differentiated manner) and a pilot project to store website data from institutions (trend towards digitized publication of offers), this currently includes work on a comprehensive inventory analysis. This is linked to the aim of mapping changes in the dynamic continuing education market from an educational science perspective.

The archive is integrated into the ‘Expert:innengruppe Programmforschung’ (panel of experts on program research), a network with the other two archives mentioned above and department chairs active in program research, as well as into the structures that exist and continue to develop via the adult education laws in Berlin (2021) and for Brandenburg (amended 2024).

On principle, the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv is open to all interested parties. If you would like to gain an impression of the collection yourself, you are invited to visit the archive on June 5 or June 12 between 12:00 and 14:00. In addition, the Weiterbildungsprogramm-Archiv will introduce itself as part of the Abteilung Erwachsenenbildung/Weiterbildung at this year’s Long Night of the Sciences (June 22, 2024, 17:00 – 21:00 in the auditorium of the Grimm-Zentrum).

Prof. Dr. Aiga von Hippel | Head of Collection
PD Dr. Marion Fleige | Scientific Scholarly Supervision
Annika Müllner M.A. | Archival Information Specialist

E-Mail: ewi.ebwb@hu-berlin.de or annika.muellner.1@hu-berlin.de

Homepage: https://www.erziehungswissenschaften.hu-berlin.de/de/ebwb/weiterbildungsprogrammarchiv

Visitor address:
Institut für Erziehungswissenschaften
Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 7
10117 Berlin
Room 313