Events

At the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, academic events in various formats take place on a regular basis. You will find lectures, conferences, workshops, or panel discussions linked to different fields of research within the social sciences and humanities. Open science formats addressing the general public are also part of the portfolio.

Most events are planned by resident researchers and Senior Fellows, organised with support from the College’s event coordinator. Moreover, the College hosts select events offered by other members of the University Alliance Ruhr working in the social sciences and humanities.

The following list provides an overview of upcoming and past events at the College.

Next Event

Conference
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symbolic graphic: conference hall with rows of chairs

Aurora Staff BIP Expanding Scholarly Horizons & Aurora Student BIP Rising Voices: Emerging Scholar's Forum

05/10/2026 - 09/10/2026, Essen

The one-week joined retreat for students and researchers synchronises two Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) for scholars and students respectively in the two fields of (a) sustainability and climate change research and (b) culture: diversities and identities research.

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Lecture PostdocLab
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Bildung für KI – KI für Bildung: Forschungseinblicke zwischen KI-Führerschein und agentischen Trainingssystemen

12/10/2026, digital

Vortrag von Sabine Seufert, Universität St. Gallen (Schweiz)

Organisation: School Development and AI Agency Research Lab (SD-AI)

Der Vortrag beleuchtet die doppelte Bildungsfrage der KI: Was müssen Menschen lernen, um KI kompetent und verantwortlich zu nutzen – und wie kann KI selbst Lernprozesse unterstützen?

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Lecture PostdocLab
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From Human Agency to Responsible AI in School Development: Designing Human-Centred AI for K-12 Education

12/10/2026, digital

Lecture by Olga Viberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden)

Organiser: School Development and AI Agency Research Lab (SD-AI)

This lecture examines how human-centred AI can strengthen, rather than diminish, human agency in K-12 education. It discusses key challenges, including trust, transparency, privacy, autonomy, and cognitive offloading, and considers their implications for…

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Conference
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Präludo – Wissenschaft im Vorfeld der Spiele-Tage: Brettspiele zum Kompetenzerwerb

21/10/2026, Essen

Organisation: Copenhagen Business School & Netzwerk "Schule und Spiel"

Die Fachkonferenz ermöglicht fachlichen Austausch zu Forschung, Kompetenzmessung und pädagogischer Praxis für Wissenschaft, Hochschullehre und Bildungspraxis.

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Lecture Symposium
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Research Day 2026 | Strategic Research Area 'Transformation of Contemporary Societies'

27/10/2026, Essen

Organiser: Strategic Research Area 'Transformation of Contemporary Societies', University of Duisburg-Essen

The Research Area's focus is on analysing phenomena related to the formation of social order in a borderless world, i.e. social, political, and economic dynamics that lead to the dissolution, shifting, or redefinition of national borders.

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Panel
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collage; background: photo of archived materials in the LIESELLE library and archive, such as magazines and leaflets

Alles in Ordnung im Archiv? Gespräche über Zugang und Widerständigkeit

29/10/2026, Essen

Wie Materialien in Archiven geordnet, beschrieben und kategorisiert werden und wer Zugang dazu hat, hängt auch mit gesellschaftlichen Normen und historischen Machtverhältnissen zusammen. Die Abendveranstaltung befasst sich aus künstlerischer, gesellschaftspolitischer und wissenschaftlicher Perspektive und anhand konkreter Archivmaterialien mit Widerständigkeiten im Archiv, mit einem Fokus auf…

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Workshop
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collage; background: a lightbulb filled with a handful of soil from which a small plant is growing

Global Sustainability Governance Workshop 2026: Towards Transnational Planning in the Age of Ecological Crisis

02/11/2026 - 03/11/2026, Essen

This two-day workshop explores the potential of different forms of transnational planning for leveraging transformative change. It fosters interdisciplinary dialogue on aspects such as transnational dynamics, the interaction of states, or the role of international organisations.

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Conference
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East Asian Statecraft under Pressure: Resilience and Adaptation

11/11/2026 - 12/11/2026, Essen

Organiser: Institute of East Asian Studies IN-EAST, University of Duisburg-Essen

This conference seeks to shed light on the rapidly evolving dynamics of destabilisation, strategic adjustments, and resilience in China, Japan, Korea, and beyond by bringing together diverse perspectives and disciplines.

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Workshop
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Economic Growth and Planetary Boundaries: The State, Democratic Economic Planning and Security

23/11/2026 - 24/11/2026, Essen

Organisers: Matthias Kranke (College for Social Sciences and Humanities) & Halliki Kreinin (University of Tallinn, Estonia), DKN Working Group 'Rethinking Sustainable Development through Post-Growth'

This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars to reflect on the future possibilities of post-growth transformations, focusing thematically on the state, democratic economic planning and…

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Workshop
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Sweat as Method. Explorations of the 'Lower Senses'

26/11/2026 - 27/11/2026, Essen | hybrid

What forms of knowledge emerge when sweat is not only an object but an epistemic operator? What can sweat reveal about bodies, atmospheres, and relations that remains inaccessible to distanced observation? This workshop explores sweat as a paradigmatic phenomenon through which the 'lower senses', particularly smell and touch, come into focus.

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Newsletter

Past Events

Workshop
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Children Who Work: Child Labour from Multidisciplinary Perspectives

03/07/2026, Essen | hybrid

Child labour is still prevalent, particularly in the Global South. This workshop aims to deepen the understanding of child labour from an interdisciplinary and international comparative perspective. The focus is on socio-economic structures, legal frameworks, and historical aspects.

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Workshop
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illustration

Heat and Health: Bodies, Environments, and Unequal Thermal Worlds

26/06/2026, Essen | hybrid

Extreme heat is linked to illness and increased mortality. Both harmful and therapeutic uses and effects of heat are unevenly distributed across societies. This workshop examines heat as an embodied and sensorial experience that shapes health and illness, exhaustion, recovery, and care. A second focus lies on the approach to heat in health governance: how do different conceptions of heat – as…

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Lecture
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illustrative image; photo of lecture hall in the background

Rechtsextremismus als Hype? Zur Radikalisierung junger Menschen in den Sozialen Medien

23/06/2026, Essen | Event in German | Essener Wissenschaftssommer

Die Bildungswissenschaftlerinnen Nicolle Pfaff und Wivian Weller zeigen anhand von ausgewählten Social-Media-Inhalten auf, wie länderübergreifende ideologische Vorstellungen des Nationalismus und der sozialen Abwertung von Gruppen zum Bezugspunkt jugendkultureller Praktiken werden.

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Talk
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Die Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets bis 1914. Buchvorstellung & Gespräch

22/06/2026, Essen | Event in German | Essener Wissenschaftssommer

Wie ist das heutige Ruhrgebiet entstanden? Der erste Band der Buchreihe 'Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets' zeichnet die Entstehungsgeschichte der Region von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs 1914 nach. Die Herausgeber*innen Nicolai Hannig und Ute Schneider und Historikerin Anne Friedrichs beleuchten bei der Veranstaltung unter anderem, wie die Lebenswelten der damaligen Bevölkerung…

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Workshop
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collage: a photo of an open book and a historic painting of Istanbul by Matrakçı-Nasuh

Editorial Politics: Transmission and Reception of Religious and Confessional Knowledge in the Ottoman Empire

18/06/2026, Essen | hybrid

The workshop explores how religious knowledge is transmitted through texts and images as they move between manuscripts and printed forms, and how these processes shape meaning and interpretation. The focus is on authority, authorship, and inter-communal relations in the multi-confessional Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.

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Workshop
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German Jewish Thought, Critical Theory, and the Global South

17/06/2026 - 18/06/2026, Essen | hybrid

What is missing in the histories of German Jewish thought and of Critical Theory is a sustained account of their relations to European imperialism and colonialism. This workshop asks how apparently non-systematic references irritate established meanings, allowing the Global South to penetrate into European philosophical modernity.

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Conference
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collage with a photo of an underwater robot with sensors

Sensorische Re-Situierungen: Die Sinne in techno-ökologischer Veränderung

11/06/2026 - 12/06/2026, Essen | Event in German

Wie riecht und schmeckt Klimawandel? Die Tagung befasst sich damit, wie sich technologischer und ökologischer Wandel auf die Sinne auswirken und welche Neukonzeptionen von Körpern und Sozialität dies notwendig macht. Die Beiträge beleuchten aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auch die Frage, wie sich Sinneskonstellationen in Interaktion mit digitalen Technologien verändern.

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Workshop
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Right-Wing Radicalisation and Youth Activism as a Transnational Phenomenon

09/06/2026 - 10/06/2026, Essen | hybrid

In many democratic countries, the political climate is shifting to the right. This two-day workshop will examine right-wing radicalisation and youth activism in their transnational dimensions. It brings together specialists from different domains conducting research on right-wing extremism among young people, either in specific regional or transnational settings or in an international comparative…

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Panel Talk
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Ungleichheit als Gewalt ─ Wie Scham politisch wirksam wird

08/06/2026, Essen | Event in German

Wann wird Ungleichheit zu Gewalt? Die Autorin Daniela Dröscher und der Philosoph Christian Neuhäuser betrachten soziale Ungleichheit aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Sie diskutieren unter anderem darüber, welche Rolle Erfahrungen von Abwertung und Kontrollverlust für den politischen „Rechtsruck“ spielen. Die Veranstaltung spannt einen Bogen von der philosophischen Betrachtung von Ungleichheit…

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Symposium
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Prevention and Youth Mental Health: Evidence-Based Policymaking

02/06/2026, Essen

Across many countries, youth mental health is a growing societal challenge. This symposium explores innovative community-based prevention strategies to improve youth mental health. It offers evidence and practical insights that can inform investments in community prevention programmes and guide future policy and programme development.

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Contact us

Event Coordination

Laura Ziewitz

Event Coordinator

Phone: +49 201 183 - 6545

E-mail: