Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Contemporary issues in DEI research (Seminar)

Inhalt: The course introduces students to foundational concepts and ongoing debates in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research, with a particular focus on how these issues are shaped by and respond to contemporary societal changes, global developments, and emerging challenges. The course is structured in two parts. In the first introductory part (held online in May), students will be introduced to key DEI concepts, methododological approaches, and discussions in the field. During the following weeks, students will further engage with these topics through independent study. In the second part (on campus in June), students will present their insights. Together with additional short lectures and plenary discussions this block will foster a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in DEI research. Students will be evaluated based on their critical analysis and presentation of research articles and the development of a research proposal addressing a DEI research question.

Cooperative Rural Electrification in the Global South (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Lars Holstenkamp

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 11.308 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The global community has set itself the goal of ensuring that all people have access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy - Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. In 2021, 685 million people still lived in the dark, 4 out of 5 of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Electrification is especially challenging in poor rural areas due to low returns and high risks, a combination that rarely attracts private investors and often overburdens local authorities and states. In several places all over the world, this has led rural communities to take eletrification into their own hands. Sometimes, installations have been installed and put into the hands of local communities who cooperatively own and manage them. In the course, we develop a basic understanding of the challenges of rural electrification, energy governance and cooperative ownership. We look into major developments and the status quo of cooperative rural electrification in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Based on this, we identify interesting research questions and develop and discuss potential research designs to address these questions.

Creating Futures through Cultural Entrepreneurship - a Case Study of the Edinburgh Festival (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Laura Fey

Termin:
14-täglich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 13:45 | 14.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 12.102 Seminarraum

Inhalt: This is a bi-weekly postgraduate seminar that provides a brief overview of cultural entrepreneurship and introduces students to the case study of the Edinburgh Festival to gain a deeper, hands-on understanding of creating and legitimizing cultural organizations. Festivals have become common world-wide. The 2015 UNESCO report stated that Germany hosted 240 festivals, France approximately 1000, Spain 700 and Italy 200. Not all festivals are the same – they range from dramatic arts and cinema to the visual arts and music. Moreover, some festivals focus on one theme (e.g., music) whereas others, including our case study of the Edinburgh Festival, are composed of several different disciplines. The importance of festivals is not only their economic impact but also their role in giving a sense of identity, shared value and belonging, in preventing exclusion. Given these important social and economic effects, it is not surprising that the UNESCO report calls for more research into understanding how festivals can be successfully structured and designed. The Edinburgh Festival, is the world’s largest arts festival and has a 76-year history. In 2019, 4.9 million people attended festival shows, generating £313 million in revenue. Edinburgh has been internationally acclaimed as an exemplary festival city. We will explore the phenomenon of the Edinburgh Festival in detail, discuss learnings and critical aspects to its organization. Theoretically, we will focus on cultural entrepreneurship as an active and fast developing area of research in the social sciences, with challenges and opportunities for organizations as well as society. This course aims to give students an overview of cultural entrepreneurship with real life application by diving into the case of the Edinburgh Festival. Students are encouraged to apply theoretical and empirical ideas to their own life. Each introduced idea should be examined with the following questions in mind: How do I understand the topic for myself? How does it matter for my own life and my studies/future jobs? What is/are the overarching question(s) with which the idea is concerned? What are the key concepts? What are the assumptions about causal forces? How far is the empirical evidence convincing? A sub theme that you should consider is why some ideas seem to convince you more than others. That is, pay attention to the crafting and composition of ideas from YouTube videos to academic papers. Lastly, this course is about reflecting on your experiences and to formulate your own research questions and perspectives.

Developing research competencies through Problematization (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Julia Benkert

Termin:
14-täglich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 13:45 | 07.04.2025 - 27.06.2025 | C 40.152 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The course is designed around using problematization as a methodology for developing “interesting research” (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2013). Given that the review and critical analysis of specific research topics in the existing literature is an essential element of the problematization approach, the first part of the course will focus on principles for critical reading and critical analysis. In that, critical reading means to move beyond description of statements and gap-spotting in the literature towards challenging assumptions. The key here is to not only identify and challenge the assumptions that underlie others’ but also one’s own position. Related aspects include the differentiation between applying a theoretical framework versus problematizing it, as well as the question of what constitutes an (un-)ethical research subject. The course is organised as an interactive, “hands-on” seminar. In order to participate in in-class discussions and learning activities, students will need to be prepared to read required readings before class and there will be a range of self-study tasks to be completed either individually or as a group throughout the course. As interaction with peers is an important source of learning in this course, regular attendance of seminars is essential to successful completion.

Empirical Research Design and Causal Inference: Applications and Reflections (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Henning Schröder

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 6.317 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The course aims to introduce students to empirical research methods and applied data analysis. It will help participants to better understand common empirical research designs frequently applied in the field social sciences. Specifically, the course discusses how these methods are used in top-tier research papers and provides an introduction on how to apply the discussed methods to real-world archival data using statistical software. The first part of the course reviews econometric fundamentals and introduces students to the widely used statistical software STATA (available via a Campus license). In the second part of the course the focus will be on endogeneity issues, causal inference, and empirical identification strategies. The course is well suited for students who want to work with archival data in future research projects or during their master thesis. Participants should have at least a basic knowledge in statistics. However, this course will not resemble the statistics courses students might have taken. Instead, the course is designed to be more hands-on and discussion-oriented. The goal is to demystify the key concepts and fundamentals of modern empirical analysis, to provide practical skills, and to encourage students to develop their own empirical research projects.

Experimental methods in research and development (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Anthimos Georgiadis

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 12:15 - 13:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 5.124 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The seminar refers to the systematic procedures and steps followed in a research and development project to conduct experiments, gather data, and analyse results. It aims to provide a detailed description that allows other researchers to replicate the study and evaluate its validity and implement the results into the product development. This course covers an advanced treatment of experimental methods in the context of electro mechanical systems by way of example. Health and condition monitoring as well as predictive maintenance and resilience of production machines and systems are in the focus of the seminar. Students will study significant components of experimental apparatus or the hole system, use those to collect data or use collected data, interpret the resulting data, and write reports on the experiments. Assessment of the results in relation to the applied methods and comparison with alternatives follow in discussions.

Feminist Social Research Methods (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Julia Böcker

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 6.026 Seminarraum

Inhalt: In this course students will engage with feminist social research methods and methodologies. We will discuss what it means to do feminist social research, apply methodological debates to our own empirical research and critically reflect our research as feminists. At first, we will delve into different epistemological and methodological debates to understand possible theoretical backgrounds and foundations of feminist research (such as Sandra Harding’s “Feminist Standpoint Theory”). Afterwards we will critically interrogate a range of qualitative social research methods including but not limited to ethnography, interviews, and discourse analysis. Although the course is based on theoretical reading, the sessions are meant to relate the reading with (y)our own empirical research. We discuss practical questions, uses, limitations and other struggles within research and thus work on and critically reflect our position as feminist social researchers.

Growing Together (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Theres Konrad

Inhalt: Course vision: - -Encounter yourself and one another - -Come closer to own ideas AND their realization [implementation competency] - -Realize own learning objectives [self-efficacy, ownership, attitude] - -Develop an entrepreneurial mindset and useful competencies The course “Growing Together” allows students to deeply engage with oneself within a learning community to explore one´s own entrepreneurial potential. Inspired by Theory U and the often-cited quote of Bill O´Brien “The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor”, this course starts with the exploration of one´s own “interior condition” (intrapersonal competency) as a foundation for entrepreneurial action (interpersonal & implementation competency). The course gives space to the verbalization, exploration, development, and refinement of (own) ideas that want to be realized (after the retreat!). The course takes place in the shape of an intensive 3-days-retreat, drawing on experiential learning theory and the concept of the flipped-classroom. This means that the course is highly dependent on students´ pre-retreat preparations and willingness to engage in offered learning opportunities. The course includes phases of individual work and plenary sessions, input, reflection, and experiences and takes place in- and outdoors. On day 3 of the retreat students will present artefacts, elaborated along the semester, during the retreat, and outside of class (assignments on Friday and Saturday) [oral part of examination]. The written part of course examination happens throughout the semester along a provided template, providing space for individual reflection assignments documenting the student´s individual process towards their anticipated learning objectives and project goals, including a final project reflection. Note that this course requires the willingness to intensively explore yourself. It builds upon the pre-retreat assignments and a meaningful experience can only be provided if you fully immerse yourself into course, content, and community for the entire course duration. I invite you to see this course as the unique opportunity to have a retreat for yourself and your ideas. The course Growing Together is based upon several premises: - -“The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor” (Bill O´Brien via Otto Scharmer, Theory U) // The roots create the fruits! - -It not only takes a village to raise a child but a community to make the best out of an idea. - -It doesn´t matter how far you go. It´s all about how deep you dive. (Peter Jenkins)

Introduction to statistics (PhD Course open for Complementary Studies) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Henrik Wehrden

Inhalt: Introduction to statistics

Measuring the impact of sustainable ventures: A practical application of impact logics & measurement tools (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Steffen Farny, Frederic Penz, Svenja Rehwinkel

Inhalt: In the course " Measuring the impact of sustainable ventures: A practical application of impact logics & measurement tools", students learn the basics of impact measurement and apply them in small groups to a sustainable venture in a practical project. The basics are taught in a 2-day block at the beginning of the semester. Both impact logics such as the Theory of Change and measurement methods are introduced and embedded in a process of impact measurement. Subsequently, the students form small groups. Each of the small groups develops in cooperation with a sustainable venture a concept for impact measurement for the respective organisation. This year we work together with professional sport teams. The teachers support this process through regular coaching sessions. The course concludes with a presentation of the concepts to the organisations.

Media Archaeology as Method and Theory (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Jan Müggenburg

Termin:
wöchentlich | Freitag | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 5.325 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Media archaeology is an approach within media studies that investigates new media cultures through insights from past new media, often with an emphasis on the forgotten, the quirky, and the non-obvious apparatuses, practices, and inventions. For example, if they want to better understand how digital streaming platforms have been reshaping media consumption and popular cultures in recent years, a media archaeologist would go back in time and analyze how video recorders and related institutions, such as video parlors, changed television culture in the 1980s. One of the key assumptions of media archaeology is that old media have not vanished, but rather reappear in the form of new media, connecting contemporary cultures with numerous layers of past media technologies. Media archaeology views media cultures as sedimented and layered, a fold of time and materiality where the past and new media converge. Media archaeology is both a method and a theory. As a method, it empowers us to combine hands-on experimentation with individual objects and practices with the analysis of wider cultures of media use in their historical context. As a theory, media archaeology builds on the work of influential researchers such as Friedrich Kittler, Siegfried Zielinski, and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, and enables us to critically assess power relations and regimes of established styles of thinking that are reflected in the materiality of technological devices.

Methods of Knowing about Ecological History (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Anthony Waters

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 08:15 - 09:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 5.325 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Ecological history is about how the land and biosphere change in response to human culture and human organization. Some of this is popularized as it has been by Jared Diamond who wrote Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Collapse. More recently, and important book is The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wuthnow. Other works of relevance include William McNeill Plagues and Peoples, Alfred Crosby Ecological Imperialism, and William Cronon Changes in the Land.

Postsecular critique: The imprints of religion and spirituality on cultural studies (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Sebastián Eduardo Dávila

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 12:15 - 13:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 14.006 Seminarraum

Inhalt: We tend to think of the study of culture as thoroughly secular—that is, as freed from religion, unaffected by spirituality, and as dealing with cultural—as synonymous with non-religious—issues. However, under the sign of postsecularism, recent authors have engaged in revealing what Rosi Braidotti calls the "spiritual residues" of critical theory, while exploring methodologies that take religious experiences and spiritual presences seriously when dealing with art and cultural practices. The seminar first introduces the debates surrounding postsecularism in critical theory, identifying key terms, traditions, and concepts (secular/secularism/postsecular/critique/spirituality). The second part of the seminar engages with diverse texts on spirituality and religion in art and cultural practices. We will read authors who either explicitly address religious and spiritual traditions or are affected by them, looking at their motives, methodologies, references, and writing styles. What roles do they assign to art and cultural practices, and in what ways do they help us navigate the challenge posed by religion and spirituality in the study of art and culture? How do they engage with the assumed secular tradition of critical theories? Our seminar will also profit from the presentations and discussions held at the workshop Postsecular Reckonings: Spirituality and Religion in Contemporary Art History and Cultural Studies (Leuphana’s Kunstraum, May 14–16, 2025), which presents a unique opportunity to explore and expand our research questions through exchange with authors and practitioners. ! The participation in at least 2/3 of the workshop (planned for the evening of 14.05 and during the day on 15.05) is mandatory and will be relevant for the group presentations and discussion paper. For more information of the workshop, visit: https://kunstraum.leuphana.de/en/events/postsaekulare-auseinandersetzungen

Qualitative Methods (Complementary Studies) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Elke Schüßler

Inhalt: Qualitative research is a research strategy that emphasizes large bodies of unstructured data (textual, graphical, audio, and video data) that cannot be meaningfully analyzed by formal, statistical approaches. Despite differences, qualitative research approaches share at least the following two assumptions: (1) by systematically generating and analyzing data new theory can be discovered (inductive view), and (2) this theory stresses the understanding of the socio-economic world through an examination of interpretation of that world by its participants. Since each particular research method is informed by different philosophical traditions, this course will first introduce different perspectives on the socio-economic research process like positivism, interpretativism, realism, and postmodernism. Students will then learn how to set up a qualitative research project using different research design perspective, e.g. a case study approach, an ethnographic study, grounded theory, or a discourse analysis approach. In addition, the course will tackle different qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, including a reflection about practical and ethical considerations. The course is designed for doctoral students and advanced master's students with a strong interest in research. Throughout the course, initiative, creativity, and critical thinking on part of the students will be appreciated and encouraged. The course aims to facilitate students' progress in their thesis project.

Rechtsphilosophie (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Stefan Klingbeil

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 7.019 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Die Veranstaltung befasst sich mit rechtsphilosophischen und ethischen Fragestellungen und legt dabei einen besonderen Schwerpunkt auf die kritische Reflexion wissenschaftlich-methodischer Aspekte. Das Seminar ist eine Lehrveranstaltung zur Vorbereitung auf die Schwerpunktbereichsprüfung nach § 4 a Abs. 3 S. 1 NJAG und dient insbesondere der Vermittlung von Präsentations- und Vortragstechniken.

Think Mathematically, Act Algorithmically: Optimization Techniques (Complementary Studies) (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Paolo Mercorelli

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 08:15 - 09:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 40.106 Konrad-Zuse-Raum

Inhalt: MATLAB is a platform for scientific calculation and high-level programming which uses an interactive environment that allows to conduct complex calculation tasks more efficiently than with traditional languages, such as C, C++ and FORTRAN. It is the one of the most popular platforms currently used in the sciences and engineering. Optimization techniques can be applied in a wide interdisciplinary range of applications in control, estimation and identification problems. Using Matlab, the course embraces the most important optimization techniques and methods which can be used in control systems. The proposed techniques, e.g. Model Predictive Control, Two Point Boundary Optimization Problem, etc. are implemented using Matlab/Simulink. Through discussions on the mathematical origin of the proposed techniques and methods and their inspiring ideas the students should reach, not only a good command on the software, but also a critical spirit to interpret the nature of the algorithms and to reflect on their foundations and structures.

Virtual spring school | Feature your future: Envisioning Research Culture in 2050 (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Anna Sundermann

Inhalt: International spring school on the future of research culture for doctoral candidates and advanced Master's students. On average it takes emerging researchers 10 to 15 years to secure a fixed position as a professor or a senior position outside of the university. Consequentially, participants of this spring school who are now studying for their Master's or doctoral degree will be in charge of the new generation of researchers, actively producing knowledge involved in and shaping our societal development in the year 2050. However, during the next 25 years, research culture will be rapidly evolving. Thus, understanding how research is transformed is crucial for emerging researchers' success. The virtual and international spring school "Feature your future: Envisioning research culture in 2050" offers a unique opportunity to gain methodological competences and knowledge for scenario development. The spring school invites the participants to explore scenarios of research culture in the year 2050 through predictive and transdiciplinary methods. It is designed to promote futures thinking competencies that support participants to navigate and shape this dynamic working environment called academia. The three-day programme of the spring school includes keynotes by experts from interdisciplinary backgrounds, interactive workshops on methods such as applied strategic foresight or visioning essential for scenario development, as well as networking events. Why is this important? Research culture is not static; it evolves with paradigm shifts, technological advancements, societal changes, and emerging global challenges. By understanding these transformations, emerging researchers can not only position themselves strategically regarding these future developments but also be able to shape our societal development actively. Future thinking equips them with the tools to anticipate and adapt to transformations in research culture, which will inform their current research practice. Learning about methods for visioning and forecasting empowers them to create informed predictions and strategic plans. Additionally, these competencies enhance career prospects in academia and business alike. They enable upcoming researchers to contribute to policy-making, innovation, and strategic decision-making processes, making them a versatile and forward-thinking researcher.

WEIRD and POSH? Antecedents, consequences, and solutions for the representation crisis in psychology (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Franziska Kößler

Inhalt: Psychology and other cognitive sciences have been criticized for building their research on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic samples (WEIRD; Henrich, 2020) or Professionals who hold Official jobs in a formal economy and who enjoy relative Safety from discrimination while also living in High-income countries (POSH; Gloss et al., 2017). The resulting lack of representation may be due to various reasons such as sample access and the need to adapt research methods for studying non-Western, poor, or minoritized groups (see also Restubog et al., 2023). For instance, regular paper-pencil or online questionnaires are hardly useful for studying overexploited groups such as child laborers (e.g., D’Cruz et al., 2020) or migrant temporary workers (Gahrmann et al., 2024). At the same time, studies show that measures work for white workers but not for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., Fujishiro & Koessler, 2020). Theoretical and empirical works (e.g., on social determinants of health) further suggest that material conditions affect psychological processes (e.g., Frank et al., 2023; Kößler et al., 2023). Thus, WEIRD and POSH sampling may be convenient but questionable in terms of generalizability and even meaningless to un(der)represented populations (see also D’Cruz et al., 2021). Therefore, we will discuss the causes and consequences of these sampling practices, explore the extent to which these practices affect subfields of psychology, and finally, work on potential solutions and recommendations for researchers and institutions.

Werkstatt und E-Learning-Einheit zu Methoden der Gender- und Diversity-Forschung (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Miriam Gutekunst

Termin:
wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 10:15 - 11:45 | 07.04.2025 - 11.07.2025 | C 14.202 Seminarraum

Inhalt: Dieser Kurs vertieft die Inhalte des Grundlagenmoduls „Reflecting Research Methods“ und wendet diese auf an-dere thematische Zugänge bzw. eigene Forschungsarbeiten an. Nach Abschluss sind Sie befähigt, - eine Pluralität an Perspektiven und eine gender- und diversitätssensible Haltung weiter zu entwickeln und zu stärken, - Geschlechter- und Diversitätsaspekte in Forschungsthemen zu erkennen und sie methodisch angemes-sen zu erforschen, - eigene Fragestellungen auf der Grundlage eines fortgeschrittenen Geschlechter- und Diversitätswissens zu entwickeln, darzustellen und zu begründen, - die eigene Selbst- und Fremdpositionierung und die zugrunde liegenden Normvorstellungen und stereoty-pen Zuschreibungen kritisch zu reflektieren. Sie erarbeiten sich folgenden Themen: - Gütekriterien wissenschaftlicher Forschung, - Unterschiede zwischen und Charakteristika von qualitativer Sozialforschung und anderen Methodentra-ditionen, - zentrale Aspekte der Geschichte und Entwicklung gender- und diversitätssensibler Methoden, - sowie das Bestimmen des Erkenntnisanspruches von Forschungsprojekten und die Wahl der angemesse-nen Methode.