The Graduate Centres and the Max-Weber-Kolleg

In the Graduate Centre "Bildungsqualität", doctoral students, postdocs and university lecturers from various disciplines in educational research are involved. They examine educational processes in schools and universities with their respective determinants at the level of learners (e.g. learning processes, individual prerequisites, learning environment), teachers (e.g. professional skills, professionalization processes) and teaching (e.g. lesson design, individual support, use of digital media) as well as their systemic embedding in the respective context.

The research focuses on three main areas of research: (1) the professionalization of teachers, (2) teaching-learning processes from a didactic and educational science perspective, and (3) questions of individual support, taking digital media into account. All research focuses on the current social challenges of inclusion and migration, digitalisation and social inequality.

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Inga Glogger-Frey

Bildungsqualität

The "Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavioral Sciences" (CEREB) brings together scientists in the fields of economics and behavioral science in order to promote the discourse and the research success of the participating scientists. Key topics are the theoretical modeling of human decision-making behavior and the design of social institutions. Subgroups of CEREB are involved in the educational focus at the University of Erfurt and deal with educational and career choices as long-term self-management processes. They complement decision research with a life course-related perspective and examine the conditions and consequences of self-selected learning, action and development contexts.

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Manfred Königstein

Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavioral Sciences (CEREB)

The "Center for Political Practices and Orders" (C2PO) offers scientists from various disciplines a space for communication in order to question current developments in social theory, political theory and international theory with regard to their understanding and consequences for the formation of orders. In addition to practices of order formation, the focus is on concepts of order and processes of stabilizing order.

The communication space created by the C2PO is thus thematically effective through the interdisciplinary composition of its members and their corresponding interdisciplinary cooperation, which is constantly being expanded; in the area of education through regularly held colloquia and other events that provide space for reflection; and in the area of research through cooperation in the preparation of applications for external funding and the organization of research workshops.

Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Oliver Kessler and Prof. Sophia Hoffmann

Center for Political Practices and Orders (C2PO), Website of the University of Erfurt

Center for Political Practices and Orders (C2PO), own website

The Graduate Centre "Communication and Digital Media" (COMDIGMED) investigates the significance of (digital) media in the socialization process. Our research is oriented towards the social sciences and is characterized by a methodological and theoretical pluralism that focuses primarily on so-called medium-range theories. The inter- and transdisciplinary orientation of the research programme allows us to look at acting with media - and thus their functions and effects on individual and societal developments - both from the perspective of communication science and from the perspectives of sociology, political science, media education or psychology. Three interlinked thematic focuses characterize our collegium: the analysis of questions of health communication, developments in the field of child and youth media research, and the investigation of political and social communication.

Contact person: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Fabian Prochazka

Communication and Digital Media (COMDIGMED)

The key theme of EIPCC is the investigation into effective and innovative forms of policymaking particularly in contested contexts. It covers research on the four dimensions of (i) Public Policymaking, (ii) Socio-economic Development and Effective Policymaking, (iii) Socially Innovative Policymaking, and (iv) Policymaking in Conflicted and Contested Orders. Contestations may arise due to the globalization of economic and social relationships and its consequences for the economic, social and even physical wellbeing of societies; the significant structural and political challenges in the course of ageing societies or international migration; new political forms of contestation such as populist or even extremist parties; and unresolved, violent conflicts. As part of this research agenda, EIPCC is meant to function as a learning hub bringing together international early career researchers primarily with a focus on (or from) the Global South.

Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Andreas Goldthau and Prof. Dr. Mariana Llanos

EIPCC

The graduate centre ‘Glocal Religiosities’ (GlocRel) focuses on the varying ways in which global narratives become woven together with local traditions and practices in different religious contexts and communities.

The complex interdependencies and patterns of influence that have arisen through processes of globalisation mean that both local and global narratives play an important role in the development of social identities and belongings. Researchers within the GlocRel centre aim to explore these – contemporary or historical – entanglements from a range of different transdisciplinary standpoints.

Work at the centre seeks to analyse the convictions and experiences of individuals or collectives as well as the processes which contribute to the creation of meaning and identity, insofar as these can be interpreted as expressions of religiosity. The centre draws upon the methodological and theoretical diversity of cultural and social studies. It seeks to bring historical perspectives on religious thought and praxis into dialogue with empirical methods of research, combining broad transcultural perspectives with attention to local situations and circumstances.

The speakers of the graduate centre are: Professor Katharina Waldner (Faculty of Philosophy) and Professor Patrick Becker (Faculty of Catholic Theology). Other founding members of the centre are Dr Christoph Günther, Professor Vasilios Makrides and Dr Isabella Schwaderer (all from the Faculty of Philosophy).

The research project of the interdisciplinary EPPP-certified Graduate Centre "Sprachbeherrschung" deals with the theory-based apprehension, description and promotion of linguistic competence in both monolingual and multilingual constellations. By that, all lingustic modalities (reading, listening, writing, speaking) in language use, language processing and language acquisition (first and second language acquisition) are taken into account. The Graduate Centre „Sprachbeherrschung“ is actively involved in the development of the research focus „Education, School, and Behaviour“ at the University of Erfurt. The participating researchers have already worked on numerously relevant scientific questionings from the perspective of their respective disciplines and are renowend by multiple successful third-party fundings and publications.

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Frank Domahs

Sprachbeherrschung

The Graduate Center "Texte. Zeichen. Medien." (TZM) is the graduate group of the "Forum Texte. Zeichnen. Medien.".  It is characterized above all by the type of scholarly access to the above-mentioned objects: texts, signs, media, which combines the exact reading of texts (and other representations) with media and cultural studies questions. It brings together the subject areas and specific perspectives of general and comparative literature, English/American studies, modern German literature, Romance studies and Slavic studies in trans- and interphilological perspectives and questions. The nationally and internationally perceived literary and media-theoretical profile of Erfurt's literary studies is reflected in various, also interdisciplinary, research collaborations in which the "Forum Texte. Zeichnen. Medien." is involved, such as the Research Group "Verräumlichung und Kulturtechniken"the Erfurt Group on New Materialism, the "Erfurt Spatio-temporal Research",the BMBF-funded project Maps-Seas. For a History of Globalization from the Water(cf. the concept of Erfurt Literary Studies). Here, two main references stand in the foreground: the joint research on the "knowledge of philology" and the interdisciplinary connections into which literary studies contributes its specific analytical competencies, especially in the constellations created by the newly established university research field of "Wissen. Räume. Medien." are to be identified.

The Graduate Centre TZM organises its own events, such as the internal writing workshop, discussion and reading workshops, smaller conferences, and it participates in the events of the "Forum TZM": conferences and workshops on many aspects of literature and media studies, as well as on cultural techniques, and a colloquium, which brings together all doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers, university professors and research assistants, and invites external, often international researchers from all areas of literary and cultural studies.

Contact persons: apl. Prof. Dr. Dietmar Schmidt and Prof. Dr. Michael Cuntz

Forum Texte. Zeichen. Medien.

The Graduate Centre "Theology - Tradition - Transformation" (t³) deals with transformation processes of religion, Christianity and the Church in European contexts. The interest that links the various projects in the centre is focused on the tasks, challenges and perspectives of Christianity in a strongly secularized society and a constantly changing cultural and social environment. Docs, post-doctorals and professors from various disciplines work on corresponding questions. Colloquia are held regularly, conferences and guest lectures are offered. There are research cooperations with theological institutions in several neighbouring European countries. Theologians from Germany and abroad are given the opportunity as Fellows to pursue their own research projects in Erfurt as fellows.

Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Benedikt Kranemann, Prof. Dr. Dr. Holger Zaborowski and Prof. Dr. Julia Knop

Theology - Tradition - Transformation (t³)

In the Graduate Centre "Wissensgeschichte der Neuzeit", doctoral candidates, post-doctorals and senior scholars conduct research on transdisciplinary history of knowledge. The focus is on practices that produce knowledge, as well as on the interest in different forms of knowledge, including how they developed in the sciences. Methodologically, the spectrum of approaches is broad, ranging from actor-centered assumptions of historical anthropology, cultural techniques, material culture research, approaches of spatial and intellectual history, and explicitly postcolonially inspired research approaches. One focus is on studies of the history of the court of Gotha and the Perthes Collection, which is oriented towards global history and allows knowledge to be explored in colonial contexts.

Communicative focal points are weekly meetings: the colloquium and regular workshops on writing and publishing. In addition, the research location Gotha makes it possible to establish a wealth of international academic contacts through the Herzog-Ernst scholarship programme and guest lectures.

Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Iris Schröder and Prof. Dr. Bernhard Kleeberg

Wissensgeschichte der Neuzeit