PhD Award 2021 for Magdalena Gercke

With the award, the university recognises the excellent dissertation of a young scientist submitted to the University of Erfurt every two years. One dissertation is nominated from each faculty and from the Max-Weber-Kollege, which has previously been awarded the highest grade. Scientific originality, innovative methodological approaches, brilliant execution and high relevance to current research are decisive features of all nominated dissertations.

Magdalena Gercke did her Master's in Special Needs and Inclusive Education at the University of Erfurt. Here she is now an academic councillor at the Chair of Inclusive Education Research with a focus on learning. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Professor Rainer Benkmann and Professor Sandra Tänzer.

Four other theses were nominated for the doctoral award this year. They were all awarded a prize of 500 euros each:

• Samuel-Kim Schwope (Faculty of Catholic Theology): "Bless these people you send to serve your church... Liturgical celebrations for the mission and commissioning of parish and pastoral ministers Liturgical Studies"
  Supervision: Professor Benedikt Kranemann and Professor Julia Knop
• Janico Albrecht (Max-Weber-Kolleg): "The scope of religious staging of generals in the late Roman Republic"
  Supervision: Professor Jörg Rüpke and Professor Konrad Vössing
• Paula Stehr (Faculty of Philosophy): "Exchanging social support in online communication modes. An addition of the perspective of prosocially acting communication science".
  Supervision: Professor Constanze Rossmann and Professor Sven Jöckel
• Hannes Berger (Faculty of Economics, Law and Social Sciences): "Public Archives and State Knowledge. The Modernisation of German Archive Law"
  Supervision: Professor Arno Scherzberg and Professor Frank Fechner

"The high quality of the submitted papers shows once again in 2021 that our university is not only a good place to study, but also offers excellent conditions for young researchers," says Professor Benedikt Kranemann, Vice President for Research and Graduate Service at the University of Erfurt. "We are proud of this and congratulate all the winners!"