First Digital Leuphana Conference Week with many Celebreties

2021-02-19 Lüneburg. The first digital conference week at Leuphana University Lüneburg is entitled "All power to the cities?" and will take place from 23rd to 26th February. The topic will be addressed in three overarching programme parts: a student conference, a utopia studio and a future city magazine.

For about 1,500 students, the conference week is the conclusion of their first semester. They will discuss the future of cities and democracy online with renowned guests from all over Germany. Among others, the Federal Minister for the Environment, Svenja Schulze, the Prime Minister of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, the journalist Michel Friedman and the Green politician Aminata Touré have confirmed their participation. All livestreams of the event are public and will be shown on www.leuphana.de/konferenzwoche.

"The first digital conference week opens to all interested people from near and far. We have prepared a programme that should be as appealing to the public as it is to university members. A special highlight will be the Utopia Studio on each conference evening," announces conference director Sven Prien-Ribcke. The transformation researcher Maja Göpel and the philosopher Richard David Precht will sound out the post-Corona society in the Utopia Studio from Tuesday to Thursday from 7 p.m. each evening and think together about the future of work, prosperity and democracy. The President of the German Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, will also provide impulses.

For the first time, there will be a dedicated Future City magazine during the conference week. Every day at 5 p.m., sustainability researcher Daniel Lang will report live from the Libeskind Auditorium to talk to local actors and experts about the city of the future in Lüneburg. Guests include forest garden expert Jennifer Schulz, mobility researcher Stefan Rammler and sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani.

The conference will be opened on 23 February at 4 p.m. by political scientist Ulrike Guérot from Danube University Krems. In her short lecture, she will ask about the city of tomorrow in the Republic of Europe. Student performances entitled "Songs for a New City" directed by Friedrich von Mansberg, chief dramaturge of the Lüneburg Theatre, will round off the opening.

The organisers offer an overview of the numerous programme items on the internet at: www.leuphana.de/konferenzwoche

NOTE TO EDITORS:
We cordially invite you to participate virtually in this year's conference week. Instead of the usual press appointment, we offer you the opportunity to talk to individual participants and/or guests of the event digitally. Please let us know as early as possible which interlocutors you would be interested in. We will then try to organise a digital meeting.
You will make our planning easier if you register your wishes by 22 February 2021 at the following address: zuehlsdorff@leuphana.de. If you need additional material for a report, please let us know.

Highlights in the conference programme
UTOPIE STUDIO

TALKS WITH MAJA GÖPEL AND RICHARD DAVID PRECHT // TUESDAY TO THURSDAY, 23-25 FEBRUARY | 19:00 - 20:00 | WWW.LEUPHANA.DE/UTOPIE

URBAN POLICY = CLIMATE POLICY?
DISCUSSION WITH SVENJA SCHULZE AND UWE SCHNEIDEWIND // WEDNESDAY, 24.2. | 16:00 - 16:45 | WWW.LEUPHANA.DE/CONFERENCEWEEK

TURNING THE TIDE FOR MORE DEMOCRACY?
DISCUSSION WITH MICHEL FRIEDMAN // THURSDAY, 25.2. | 16:00 - 16:45 | WWW.LEUPHANA.DE/CONFERENCEWEEK

WHO OWNS THE CITY?
DISCUSSION WITH AMINATA TOURÉ AND ALADIN EL-MAFAALANI // FRIDAY, 26.2. | 16:00 - 16:45 | WWW.LEUPHANA.DE/CONFERENCEWEEK

 

Background: The Conference Week and the Leuphana Semester
At the conference week, students present their project work from the first semester. In over 50 different project seminars, the young academics developed more than 300 programme items together with the lecturers. Their spectrum ranges from panel discussions and workshops to individual presentations. Renowned guests from politics, society, business and academia enter into a dialogue with the students and provide insights into their work.
The conference week marks the end of the Leuphana Semester. It follows an interdisciplinary concept that is special in Germany. The four modules "Science bears responsibility", "Science uses methods", "Science teaches understanding" and "Science has limits" give students an introduction to science. They gain insights into other disciplines, deal with different points of view and thus learn the basics of scientific work. The focus of the conference week each year is the topic of "sustainable development".