Cooperation with BIGSSS

In 2007, the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) signed an Agreement of Cooperation with Jacobs University Bremen, consenting to collaborate in the "Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences" (BIGSSS), a joint program of Jacob University and University of Bremen funded by the German Science Foundation within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative.

The overall theme of BIGSSS is entitled “Changing Patterns of Social and Political Integration“. More specifically, research takes place in three thematic fields: “Global Governance and Regional Integra-tion“, “Welfare State, Inequality and Quality of Life“, and “Changing Lives in Changing Socio-Cultural Contexts“. 

The cooperation includes course teaching of CSD members at BIGSSS, particularly in the fields of democratic studies and comparative politics. Furthermore it was agreed that doctoral students from BIGSSS may choose CSD professors as supervisors. Additionally, international BIGSSS researchers are obliged to apply for a visiting fellowship at the CSD. Over the past years, Prof. Christian Welzel as well as Prof. Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (both CSD) have been supervisors of BIGSSS doctoral researchers. Furthermore, Prof. Welzel has taught seminars on methodology at BIGSSS.

The cooperation between BIGSSS and CSD has been prolonged until 2015, under the second wave of the Excellence Program of the German Science Foundation.