The College for Social Sciences and Humanities gives outstanding postdoctoral researchers in early career stages the opportunity to further develop a specialised research profile and lead a research group. On a team with two doctoral candidates, they conduct independent research on a topic of their choice over a fixed period of time. This approach reflects the College’s fundamental principle of openness.
Potential research group leaders are identified in a competitive, cross-university recruitment process for open-topic junior professor positions. Academic excellence, potential compatibility of the projects with the research portfolio of the University Alliance Ruhr, and the scope of international cooperation are essential for selection.
The research group explores the sociocultural dimensions of sweating, with a focus on thermal inequalities in the context of the climate crisis. Using a qualitative research design that combines social-theoretical, sensory-sociological and cultural-historical perspectives, the researchers analyse the ambivalence of sweating between devaluating, aestheticising and politicising.
This research group investigates the politics of sustainability and (post-)growth in leading international organisations. Rather than asking whether green growth is feasible or whether instead post-growth is required for socio-ecological transformations, it focuses on the lessons that specific organisations at the supra- or international level draw from current sustainability debates for their work. The research group will thus contribute to further academic and public dialogue on global unsustainability as one of the most pressing problems of our age.
