The University of Konstanz offers a training programme for students and doctoral researchers who have had to flee their countries and are now living in Germany, supported by a scholarship of the DAAD’s (German Academic Exchange Service) Hilde Domin-Programme for students at risk. The goal of the training programme is to provide continuing education in the social sciences as well as personal training.
The Hilde Domin-Programme provides academic safe spaces for students and doctoral researchers forced to leave their homes because they are denied educational or other rights in their countries of origin. For about 160 students who received a Hilde-Domin scholarship from the DAAD and are currently living in Germany, the University of Konstanz offers a four-year programme providing additional training in the social sciences in face-to-face classes as well as online. Topics include democracy, federalism and the rule of law, social integration and the balance of interests as well as climate change and the effects of the Anthropocene. The programme’s on-campus phase in Konstanz started in March 2023.
In addition to the mentioned topics, the training programme brings together perspectives from diverse disciplines, such as economics, law, politics and public administration, psychology as well as legal and political anthropology. It also includes a multimodal laboratory on the anthropology of Germany, where all participants share their experiences of living in Germany. The programme promotes the individual students and strengthens their training, e.g. through leadership development, team building, intercultural competence, networking and integrative transferable skills.
Konstanz professors Judith Beyer (anthropology), Anke Hoeffler and Wolfgang Seibel (politics and public administration) as well as Ulrich Wacker (head of the Academy of Advanced Studies at the University of Konstanz; AWW) initiated the training programme in collaboration with the DAAD and the Federal Foreign Office. The AWW plays a key role in the programme, as it provides organisational and logistical support as well as the virtual teaching and learning environment for the online courses. The Hilde Domin training programme is an example of continuing education programmes that the University of Konstanz sees as part of its social responsibility. The special transfer dimensions of continuing education programmes also come into play here.
Contact: Judith Beyer, professor of social and political anthropology, University of Konstanz
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Photo (from left to right): Judith Beyer, Ulrich Wacker, Anke Hoeffler and Wolfgang Seibel initiated the training programme at the University of Konstanz.
