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Sie sind hier: FRIAS Veranstaltungen Lunch Lectures Former Lectures

Former Lectures

Freedom of Scientific Research: Demands, Challenges and Limits

Freedom of Scientific Research: Demands, Challenges and Limits


LL Freedom of Scientific ResearchIn its Bonn Declaration on Freedom of Scientific Research, signed in October 2020, the Ministerial Conference on the European Research Area declared academic freedom a centrepiece for democratic societies:


“Freedom of scientific research stands for openness, exchange, excellence, internationalism, diversity, equality, integrity, curiosity, responsibility and reflexivity. It is therefore a pillar of any democracy. Research and the freedom to conduct research are indispensable prerequisites for our social, cultural, political and economic resilience and progress. […] Freedom of scientific research is a necessary condition for researchers to produce, share and transfer knowledge as a public good for the well-being of society.”


Today, in line with this statement, many political actors express highest expectations towards and appreciation for academic freedom. Research facts become increasingly important for political decisions. But how free is research really? Ethical standards define its limits. Societal and religious groups as well as large political factions seemingly turn away from research based policies and academic freedom. Research and researchers are at risk. Academic events are cancelled due to external pressure. Demonstrations against the COVID-19 measures and against the climate catastrophe reveal that the values of “enlightenment” and free research are under debate. If the world is at risk, how free can research remain? How do human responsibility for our planet and freedom of research effect each other?


Due to these complex questions and obvious conflicts, the FRIAS Lunch Lecture Series in the winter term 2022/23 wants to explore the topic of Academic Freedom, its demands, challenges and limits from multiple international, transdisciplinary and transgenerational perspectives. We want to inquire into various aspects by addressing topics like the following from the perspective of different academic perspectives:

  • Ethical dimension and limits of academic freedom
  • Academic freedom in Eastern (Central) Europe
  • Academic Freedom and Cancel Culture
  • Academic freedom in the climate catastrophe
  • Academic freedom and structures of higher education and career paths
  • Academic freedom and the media
  • Academic freedom and self-censorship


The FRIAS Lunch Lectures Series are dedicated to reflecting on knowledge, science and technology in the broadest sense. Each semester introduces an overarching guiding question, addressed Thursdays between 12:15 and 13:00 by current FRIAS Fellows and Freiburg based researchers from the point of view of their disciplines.


The aim of this lecture series is to offer both undergraduate and graduate students and, essentially, everyone interested in public and open exchange on knowledge and science, a first-hand up-to-date account of research projects at FRIAS and of FRIAS’ interdisciplinary objectives, with the opportunity to engage in critical debate.

Paradigm Shifts in Science - 2015/16

Buhmann_LLA paradigm, according to the historian of science Thomas Kuhn, is a set of practices that defines a scientific discipline at any particular period of time. For him, a paradigm is not constituted primarily by theory, but defined by "universally recognized scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for a community of practitioners” (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions 1962). This involves such key issues of scientific research as defining the object or problem of investigation, the questions to be asked, predictions to be tested, methods to be used, results to be interpreted, etc. Furthermore, according to Kuhn, all sciences have been, and continue to be, subject to fundamental changes and re-evaluations, resulting in paradigm shifts which may ultimately trigger scientific revolutions.

In the current Lunch Lecture series, FRIAS Fellows from the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural and life sciences will address questions including the following: Which paradigm shift(s) has the relevant discipline experienced in the course of past 50 years? What was their nature, which basic assumptions did/do they challenge, which effects did/do they have? To what extent has technological progress, notably the digital revolution, contributed to that? Are paradigm shifts in the humanities and social sciences of a different nature than in the natural and life sciences? Can paradigm shifts involve scientific progress? To what extent can new paradigms incorporate elements of old paradigms?

The FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2015/16 have dealt with these questions in a range of lectures. Speakers included fellows from various discipline such as political science, physics, Islamic studies, mathematics and more.

22. Oktober 2015                      

               

Paradigm Shifts in Linguistics

Prof. Dr. Bernd Kortmann (Linguistics) and Prof. Dr. Peter Mühlhäusler

05. November 2015

Paradigm Shifts in Physics

Dr. Stefan Buhmann (Physics)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

19. November 2015

The Ontological Turn in Contemporary Political Theory

Dr. Benoit Dillet (Political Science)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

03. Dezember 2015

Humanities Beyond the Human: The Ecological Turn in Literary Studies

Prof. Dr. Kate Rigby (Literary Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

17. Dezember 2015

Paradigm Shifts in Economics

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Leoncini (Economics)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

21. Januar 2016

From the Study of Islam to the Study of Muslims - Paradigm Shifts in Islamic Studies

Prof. Dr. Johanna Pink (Islamic Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

04. Februar 2016

Paradigm Shifts in History

Prof. Dr. Franz-Josef Brüggemeier (History)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

28. April 2016

Paradigm Shifts in Neurosciences?

Prof. Dr. Ad Aertsen (Neurosciences)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

12. Mai 2016

Paradigm Shifts in Electronics

Prof. Dr. Ilia Polian (Informatics)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

09. Juni 2016

Paradigm Shifts in Mathematics

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kebekus (Mathematics)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

23. Juni 2016

Paradigm Shifts in Biology: From Descriptive to Automated Biology

Prof. Dr. Robert Murphy (Computational Biology)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

21. Juli 2016

Paradigm Shifts - The View from Science Studies

Prof. Dr. Veronika Lipphardt (Science Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

Challenges of an Ageing Society - 2016

Henriette_HerwigDue to better living conditions and health care systems in western countries we observe increased life expectancies of respective populations. With age, disease incidents also increase and individual fitness decreases, generating higher costs and bearing high socio-economic risks for western societies. Whereas, historically, aging has been regarded as a personal matter, ageing societies are nowadays regarded as a threat for our way of living. Thus, ageing societies and their implications are discussed in virtually all disciplines, ranging from medicine and natural sciences to economy, philosophy and ethics studies. Within the FRIAS Lunch Lecture Series an interdisciplinary approach will be taken bringing together experts from all of the above mentioned fields. The goal is to give a comprehensive overview of the Challenges of Ageing Societies.

In this Lunch Lecture mini-series during the summer term 2016, FRIAS has invited renowned scholars and scientists who have addressed questions including the following:
Which are the clinical challenges of an ageing society? What will our society look like in the year 2100? How is ageing discussed and regarded in different societies and eras? Which challenges may arise in communicating with old people? Is our health care system close to collapse due to increased health care costs of the ageing society? Which implications does the recruitment of nursing staff from our eastern European neighbors has on our relationship to these countries?

02. Juni 2016

                      

Repräsentationen von Alter und Demenz in der Literatur der Gegenwart

Prof. Dr. Henriette Herwig (German Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

16. Juni 2016

System-Medizin des Alterns

Dr. Melanie Börries (Medicine)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

30. Juni 2016

Internal Defense Strategies against Age

Dr. Pierre-Louis Tharaux (Medicine)

14. Juli 2016

Arzneimitteltherapie im Alter: Polypharmazie und Arzneimittelsicherheit

Prof. Dr. Klaus Aktories (Pharmacology)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

Ignorance - 2016/17

This lunch lecture series has led us to the frontiers of research, its greatest challenge and, some may say, its greatest enemy: what it is that we don't know, and that maybe we will never know! Or: that we don't know yet! Or: that we don't even know yet that we don't know! Or: that we don't want, or should not want, to know! Or: that we are not supposed to know! And in the latter case: who then is it who doesn't want us (academics, ultimately society) to know?

From the different perspectives of a highly diverse set of academic disciplines and research cultures, FRIAS Fellows have addressed these and other questions relevant for shedding light on ignorance — including its epistemology (which involves issues like its conditions and variation), ethics (which involves issues like self-censorship), politics (which involves issues like agenda setting or censorship), economics (which involves issues like the campaigning power of large companies or sectors of industry), or sociology (which involves issues like the (lacking) impact of science on society and the question what kind of knowledge society wants to share, or see produced, and which rather not). The lecture series has also built on recent research in the fields of „ignorance studies“ and „agnotology“, which tackles the production of ignorance, for example ignorance about the dangers of climate change, smoking, nuclear power, fracking, or sugar in soft drinks. Ignorance is nothing to be ignored! It has many fascinating dimensions, as we shall see and explore, in science as much as in society.

Some literature recommendations:

  • Groß, Matthias/Linsey McGoey (2015), Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies. Rutledge
  • the first 80 pages from: Matthias Groß (2010), Ignorance and Surprise, MIT Press
  • Proctor, Robert/ Schiebinger, Londa eds. (2008): Agnotology. The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance. Stanford University Press: Standford
  • Böschen, Stefan/Wehling, Peter (2010): Scientific Nonknowledge and Its Political Dynamics: The Cases of Agri-Biotechnology and Mobile Phoning. in: Science, Technology, & Human Values 35(6) 783-811

                    

10. November 2016

Ignorance Studies & their relevance for Science Studies and Society

Prof. Dr. Bernd Kortmann (Linguistics) and Veronika Lipphardt (Science and Technology Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

24. November 2016

Epigenetics = Ubergenetics

Prof. Dr. A. Ganesan (University of East Anglia, Chemie)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

08. Dezember 2016


"Ignorance" and the Middle East. Deconstructing the present through its past.

Dr. Lorenzo Kamel (Harvard University, History and Islamic Studies)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

15. Dezember 2016

Ignorance in (Social) Networks

Prof. Dr. Olaf Rank (Wirtschaftswissenschaften)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

12. Januar 2017

Knowing, Not Knowing, and the Quest for Understanding: Ignorance and Literary Hermeneutics

Dr. Dustin Breitenwischer (Nordamerikastudien)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

26. Januar 2017

Poking our ecological ignorance

Prof. Dr. Diego P. Vázquez (Biologie)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

09. Februar 2017

God.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Spielberg (Katholische Theologie)

Fear - 2017

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less”, Marie Skłodowska Curie reportedly once said. Especially in these times, Europe seems to be more obsessed with fear than with understanding.

Fear belongs to a small set of basic, hardly controllable emotions, and is induced by real, perceived, or anticipated physical or emotional danger, especially a threat to body or life. More often, however, we fear situations that are far from life-or-death. Fear response (most notably fleeing, hiding, or freezing) has played an important part in evolution since appropriate behavioral responses to fear serve survival. There are rational and irrational fears, individual and collective fears. In post-WW II European societies, especially the societies of Western Europe, for example, fear predominantly became something very individual, and typically did not involve fear for one’s life or the lives of one’s family. But just in the course of the last two years fear seems to have been spreading fast in large parts of European societies – and not only there. Collective fears have become reality again.

What do different academic disciplines have to say on this issue? In 8 different Lunch Lectures, FRIAS Fellows from disciplines as diverse as economics, film studies, medieval studies, political theory, sociology, psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy will reflect on the role of fear, its origins, consequences and meanings, in the present and in the past.

 4. Mai 2017

The economics of fear: applications from the literature on the economics of terror

Prof. Dr. Günther Schulze (Wirtschaftswissenschaften)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

18. Mai 2017

Pleasure and Fear at the Movies

Prof. Dr. Barbara Mennel (University of Florida, Germanistik)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

1. Juni 2017

Landscape of fear: a bridge across disciplines?

Dr. Luca Corlatti (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Verhaltensökologie) and Mario De Cristofaro

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

22. Juni 2017

The final countdown: Mapping apocalyptic thought in the early Middle Ages

Prof. Dr. Immo Warntjes (Trinity College Dublin, Geschichte)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

29. Juni 2017

Anxiety Disorders: From basic research to psychotherapy

Prof. Dr. Brunna Tuschen-Caffier

6. Juli 2017

Fear: The hidden driver of modern political thinking

Prof. Dr. Martin Loughlin (London School of Economics, Recht)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

13. Juli 2017

The Epigenetics of Fear

Prof. Dr. Katharina Domschke

20. Juli 2017

Governing fear: resilience as antidote to a catastrophic future

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kaufmann

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

Quantitative vs. qualitative methods across sciences - 2017/18

Quantitative vs. qualitative methods across sciences: mutual reinforcement, (un)happy co-existence, or source of schisms?

At a time when in most sciences (including the humanities and social sciences) quantitative methods have come to play a central role, it should be explored which role qualitative methods (still) play in different disciplines, in terms of research questions, trends and schools of research, the publication of research results and, not least, in the training of Master and PhD students. Questions to be addressed by FRIAS fellows and members of FRIAS project groups from a wide range of disciplines include the following:

  • In which disciplines have both types of methods played a role alongside each other for a rather long time, and what consequences has this had on these disciplines?
  • In which disciplines have quantitative methods made inroads largely due to the IT and internet revolutions, and what consequences has this had?
  • Is the relationship between (schools of) researchers primarily or exclusively working with one or the other type of methods one of mutual recognition and support, or rather one of tension, skepticism and, ultimately, rejection?
  • Has the quantitative turn of the last few decades led to new alliances across disciplines, possibly even bridging traditional divides between the natural, life, and behavioral sciences, on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences, on the other hand?
  • Does this fundamental methodological debate (or, in the worst case, battle) have the power to decide about the future of early-career researchers?

 

 

23. November 2017

Unhealthy Habits: Unlearning Methodological Divisions to Enable the Study of Drug-using Social Worlds

Prof. Nancy Campbell (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, History of Science and Technology)

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

7. Dezember 2017

Mixed methods in interdisciplinary collaborations: A case study in Populations Genetics

Prof. Veronika Lipphardt, University College Freiburg, Science & Technology Studies

Prof. Peter Pfaffelhuber, University of Freiburg, Department of Mathematical Stochastics

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

15. Dezember 2017

Research in Legal Science

Prof. Dr. Lorena Bachmaier, Complutense University Madrid, Legal Science 

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

11. Januar 2018

Reflecting on the quantitative turn in Linguistics

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Kortmann, FRIAS Director, University of Freiburg, English Linguistics 

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

18. Januar 2018

Life in the marine realm - counting microbes... and what else?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hess, University of Freiburg, Genetics and Experimental Bioinformatics

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

25. Januar 2018

Data Collection and Data Analysis in the Social Sciences

Prof. Dr. Diana Panke, University of Freiburg, Multi-Level Governance 

Video-Podcast des Vortrags

 8. Februar 2018

"Mixed methods" in Clinical Psychology - in research and everyday practice


Prof. Dr. Anna Buchheim, University of Innsbruck, Psychology 

Video-Podcast des Vortrags



Ignorance - 2018

Ignorance - what we don't know

This lunch lecture series leads us to the frontiers of research, its greatest challenge and, some may say, its greatest enemy: what it is that we don't know, and that maybe we will never know! Or: that we don't know yet! Or: that we don't even know yet that we don't know! Or: that we don't want, or should not want, to know! Or: that we are not supposed to know! And in the latter case: who then is it who doesn't want us (academics, ultimately society) to know?
From the different perspectives of a highly diverse set of academic disciplines and research cultures, FRIAS Fellows will address these and other questions relevant for shedding light on ignorance. With the introductory lecture by Matthias Groß, co-editor of the “Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies”, the lecture series will also build on recent research in the fields of „ignorance studies“ and „agnotology“. The latter tackles the production of ignorance, for example ignorance about the dangers of climate change, smoking, nuclear power, fracking, or sugar in soft drinks.

Ignorance is nothing to be ignored! It has many fascinating dimensions, as we shall see and explore, in science as much as in society.

Some literature recommendations:

  • Groß, Matthias/McGoey, Linsey eds. (2015), Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies. Routledge.
  • the first 80 pages from: Groß, Matthias (2010), Ignorance and Surprise. MIT Press.
  • Proctor, Robert/Schiebinger, Londa eds. (2008), Agnotology. The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance. Stanford University Press.
  • Böschen, Stefan/Wehling, Peter (2010): Scientific Nonknowledge and Its Political Dynamics: The Cases of Agri-Biotechnology and Mobile Phoning. in: Science, Technology, & Human Values 35(6), 783-811.
  • Firestein, Stuart (2012), Ignorance: How it Drives Science. Oxford University Press.

 

May 3, 2018

Back to the Unknown: How Ignorance can be Useful

Prof. Dr. Matthias Groß, Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ Leipzig

Video Podcast des Vortrags
May 17, 2018

Answering a Question is (Usually) a Hopeless Task

Dr. Oliver Bräunling, Mathematics, University of Freiburg

Video Podcast des Vortrags

June 7, 2018

“Father of Ignorance”: How and Why Marginal Figures within Islam Remain Marginal

Dr. Majid Daneshgar, Religion and Islamic Studies, University of Otago

Video Podcast des Vortrags
June 14, 2018

Hidden Rituals in Medicine

Dr. phil. Stefan Schmidt, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg

Video Podcast des Vortrags
June 21, 2018

The Quantum Veil of Ignorance: Fundamental Limits to our Knowledge about the Microscopic World

Video Podcast des Vortrages
June 28, 2018

Ignorance and the Law: the Unknown, the Ignored and the Secret

Prof. Dr. Lorena Bachmaier, Law, Complutense University of Madrid

Video Podcast des Vortrags
July 5, 2018

Ignorance and Inconvenient Truths: How the Placebo Effect Became the Nemesis of Psychopharmacology

Prof. Dr. Anne Harrington, History of Science and Medicine, Harvard University

Video Podcast des Vortrags
July 12, 2018

On the Ignorance of Burdens and Benefits of Taxation: Fiscal Illusions and Tax Justice

Prof. Dr. Paolo Silvestri, Legal and Political Philosophy, University of Torino

Coming soon...

July 19, 2018

The Myth of Ignorance in Biology

Prof. Dr. Gunther Neuhaus, Vice Rector and Vice-President for Research, University of Freiburg

Video Podcast des Vortrages

Shifting Perspectives - 2018/19

Shifting Perspectives: When the Margins Become the Center

In scholarly work, what is the “center”, and what is on the “margins”? Who decides? How are such distinctions enforced? How pronounced is this dichotomy, which is deliberately put in inverted commas, in different disciplines? What does the world of science and scholarship miss by neglecting the so-called “margins”? How can the issue of lacking resources for “outsiders” be addressed, especially in the experimental sciences? And what role do geographical imbalances in knowledge production and sharing play, be it between the global north and south, or between west and east?

The task of this new lunch lecture series is to invite leading scholars to (1) reflect on the ways in which, in their respective fields, some approaches, sources, methods, questions, stakeholders and areas of the world are judged to be central / mainstream and others judged to be marginal and (2) to ask what could happen if their respective fields were to engage in a process of strategic “decentering”? How might science and scholarship become more innovative, more global, more equitable, and conceptually richer if their so-called “margins” were no longer dismissed as marginal?

November 29, 2018

From the Margins to the Center: The Case of Philosophical Anthropology

Prof. Dr. Oliver Müller, Philosophy, University of Freiburg

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
December 6, 2018

Lowering Asymmetries in Global Knowledge Production

Prof. Dr. Andreas Mehler, Political Science, University of Freiburg

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
December 13, 2018

Centering the Margins in Experimental Sciences

Prof. Dr. Cecile King, Immunology, The Gravan Institute for Medical Research

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
January 10, 2019

The ‘End of Metaphysics‘? Decentering and Recentering in the History of Modern Thought

JunProf. Dr. Philipp Schwab, Philosophy, University of Freiburg

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
January 24, 2019

Watching China’s Rise from the Academic Margins

Prof. Dr. Daniel Leese, Sinology, University of Freiburg

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
January, 31 2019

Shifting Perspectives in History: Women’s History, Gender History, Intersectionality

Dr. Anne-Laure Briatte, History, Sorbonne University

Video-Podcast des Vortrags
February 7, 2019

Iconic Crusoe

Prof. Dr. Sandro Jung, English Literature, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Intelligences 2019

Intelligences. A multidisciplinary exploration of human and artificial intelligence.

 

For understanding the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), many of us will have intuitive and shared concepts of artificiality, for example, a computer that implements an algorithm or an autonomous robot. When it comes to intelligence, however, we face a multitude of definitions, some based on conceptual categorizations others on empirical, e.g. psychometric, criteria. These different concepts of intelligence, whether regarding humans or artificial systems, make it very difficult to identify commonalities between human intelligence and AI, but also to clearly demarcate differences between these intelligences.

In this lunch lecture series by the FRIAS Research Focus Responsible Artificial Intelligence, researchers from various academic disciplines—philosophy, psychology, computer science and others—will analyze the concept of intelligence. By following the lecture series, attendees will gain a multidisciplinary understanding of human and artificial intelligence.

 

25 April 2019

State of the Art of Artificial Intelligence Research

JProf. Dr. Joschka Boedecker, Neurobotics Lab, Institute for Informatics, University of Freiburg

9 May 2019

State of the Art of Human Intelligence Research

Prof. Dr. Evelyn Ferstl, Cognitive Science & Gender Studies, University of Freiburg

23 May 2019

Can and should we build AIs with social intelligence?

Prof. Dr. Johanna Seibt, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University

6 June 2019

Human and Artificial Intelligence: Scientific, Ethical and Governance Issues

Dr. Marcello Ienca, Research Fellow at the Health Ethics & Policy Lab, ETH Zurich

27 June 2019

The Role of Biases in Human and Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Philipp Kellmeyer, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Freiburg

4 July 2019

Human and Machine Intelligence from a Philosophical Perspective

Prof. Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna

11 July 2019

Cognitive Reasoning: Differences between Human and AI

Prof. Dr. Marco Ragni, Department of Computer Science, University of Freiburg

18 July 2019

Interaction of humans and intelligent social robots

Prof. Shelly Levy-Tzedek, Human-Robot Interaction & Motor Control
Ben Gurion University

Models and Modelling across Sciences 2019/20

FRIAS Lunch Lectures im Wintersemester 2019/20: Models and Modelling across Sciences


Modelling is an essential part of many academic disciplines. Models “aim to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate by referencing it to existing and usually commonly accepted knowledge.” (Wikipedia on “Scientific modelling”). We are surrounded by models, partly have received most our school book wisdom in individual fields of science from these models. Consider, for example, the billiard ball model of a gas, the Bohr model of the atom, the double helix model of DNA, mouse models in biomedical research, or climate models in the environmental sciences. In this lecture series, we want to inquire into models as one of the principal instruments of modern science from the perspective of different academic disciplines.

 

Science and Society in a Postfactual Era - 2020

FRIAS Lunch Lectures im Sommersemester 2020: Science and Society in a Postfactual Era


Lunch Lecture @FRIAS Reflections

The values of science are under attack. The world is increasingly turning to science and technology for solutions to persistent socio-economic and developmental problems. Yet, at the same time, many people – from concerned citizens to powerful stakeholders – do not trust science. Public trust is suffering as falsehood is presented as ‘alternative facts’, ‘post-truth’ and ‘fake news’, and the ‘dual use’ and unintended consequences of emerging technologies as artificial intelligence or genetic engineering is perceived as an increasing risk.  The resulting devaluation of science-based reasoning is a problem for the scientific community, but also for democratic societies that rely on rational discourse and evidence-based decision-making. At the same time, social movements, such as Fridays for Future, emphasize the importance of scientific facts and hope to induce social and political change with evidence-based policies.

From a normative perspective, attention and adherence to the ethical and legal standards of science are crucial for creating trust in science among policy-makers and the general public. Furthermore, obstacles to the diffusion of scientific knowledge and its applications such as scientific illiteracy and lack of access to new technologies jeopardize the potential of science to help successfully address the grand challenges of our times. In this Lunch Lecture Series we will (1) map how science-based reasoning and decision-making is threatened and (2) how emerging digital technologies fuel postfactual and irrational discourses in society as well as (3) explore concepts and ideas, such as the ‘right to science’ that could strengthen science as a central tenet for democracy, human flourishing and sustainable development.

Multidisciplinary Research on Resilience 2020/21

Multidisciplinary Research on Resilience: Examples from Theory and Practice 

 

Lunch Lecture WS20-21Despite intensive academic debate about the notion of resilience in human geography, sociology and related disciplines in the second decade of the 21st century, there still is little theoretical basis for a truly multidisciplinary discussion about resilience concepts, strategies and practices. Three areas – ecological resilience, social resilience and material resilience – seem to dominate in publications. By transferring ecological resilience (understood as an ecosystem’s capacity to recover from shocks and perturbations, e.g. from the impacts of climate change) to other disciplines and adapting it to other research objects, shifts in the semantic contours of the concept can be observed. From a sociological perspective, for example, a key question is if and how society succeed in overcoming environmental crises and if capacities for transformation emerge in this process. Psychologists investigate how individuals are able to recover from trauma, while scholars of human geography critically investigate the ideal of ‘resilient cities’. Resilience can also be understood – and criticized - as an apparent promise for increased global security, as an ethos, or even as an ideology linked to contemporary neoliberalism. A core controversy revolves around the question of whether resilience thinking can be a force of good or if it rather prevents more radical, but necessary, transformation.

Since spreading from ecology to sociology and psychology and further into social realms, the concept of resilience has only been discovered by a few humanities fields. However, resilience holds promise for other humanities as well, as it may facilitate broader debate about the ability of individual and collective capacities to persist and change. Many disciplines refer to the concept of resilience in order to understand complex systems threatened by negative events and describe processes of change, but not all humanities naturally work with systems theory and complexity theory. Acknowledging that each discipline has its own theoretical access to resilience, it seems adequate to posit that various resiliences exist. This Lunch Lecture Series will shed a light on multiple and partially divergent perspectives on resilience, by highlighting theoretical and practical approaches from different disciplinary backgrounds. A core aim of the series is to facilitate a multidisciplinary dialogue about the potentials of the humanities engaging more deeply with resilience concepts, strategies and practices.

 

05 November 2020

“Resisting", "Reorganizing" and "Maintaining” – Origins and Dimensions of Socio-ecological Resilience


Dr. Roderich von Detten, University of Freiburg

19 November 2019

'Daily Bread': Resilience, Religion and the Arts

Prof. Dr. Kate Rigby, Bath Spa University

03 December 2020

Societal Resilience. On the Ambivalences of a Concept

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kaufmann, University of Freiburg

17 December 2020

Amphibious Omens: Adapting to Dangerous Wetness

Luisa Cortesi, Cornell University New York

14 January 2021

Concepts, Discourses and Uses of Resilience in Literary and Social Science Studies

Philippe Hamman & Aurélie Choné, University of Strasbourg

11 February 2021

Resilience in Chemical Systems and Processes

Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing, University of Freiburg

Trust in Sciences and Technologies: Crises and Opportunities

LL Ws 21_22 als Bild 

 

organisiert durch Philipp Kellmeyer

 

Trust in Sciences and Technologies: Crises and Opportunities

Die Wissenschaften sind in liberalen Demokratien ein Schlüsselfaktor, um eine gemeinsame faktische Grundlage für rationale Diskurse und eine Entscheidungsfindung zu schaffen. Technologien ermöglichen uns Innovationen und machen Gesellschaften widerstandsfähiger gegen systemische Schocks. Die zunehmende Komplexität neuer und aufstrebender Wissenschaften und Technologien - wie KI, Genom-Editierung und Geo-Engineering - bringt uns jedoch an die Grenzen unserer Fähigkeit, die ihnen innewohnenden Risiken zu bewerten und diese Risiken gegen den beabsichtigten Nutzen für die Gesellschaft abzuwägen. Vor allem in Zeiten von Krisen und des Umbruchs, wie der Klimakrise und der Coronavirus-Pandemie, ist Vertrauen zu einer der wichtigsten Währungen für die Aufrechterhaltung des politischen und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts geworden.

In dieser Vortragsreihe werden wir das Thema Vertrauen aus einer vielschichtigen Perspektive beleuchten: von begrifflich-philosophischen Aspekten über Fragen des Vertrauens in Mensch-Technik-Interaktionen bis hin zu Vertrauen als Grundlage für die Aufrechterhaltung des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts im Kontext großer Krisen.

 

Lunch Lecture 21/22 Videos (Youtube)

FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2023: “Doing God: New Perspectives in Medieval Studies”

FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2023: 

“Doing God: New Perspectives in Medieval Studies”


organisiert durch die FRIAS-Projektgruppe Rethinking the Middle Ages

Lunch Lecture Poster 2023 Doing God

FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2023/24: Cells, Turns, and Footprints – Metaphors in Science

FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2023/24

Cells, Turns, and Footprints – Metaphors in Science

The FRIAS Lunch Lecture Series 2023/24 intends to unravel the influence of metaphors on scientific thinking, knowledge construction, and communication. Metaphors, usually associated with literature and poetry, play a decisive role in shaping our understanding of scientific concepts. We want to explore how metaphors enable researchers to conceptualize and explore complex phenomena, providing new insights, analogies, and perspectives in their research. We want to examine how metaphors function as cognitive tools, bridging the gaps between microscopic and macroscopic worlds, between disciplines and between science and the public.

By dissecting, observing and following scientific metaphors, we intend to uncover the underlying assumptions, implications, and potential limitations they bring to scientific inquiry. Furthermore, we want to delve into the collaborative nature of metaphors, investigating how they foster interdisciplinary exchanges and catalyse scientific advancements. By examining how metaphors are shared and understood across various domains, we attempt to explore how they contribute to scientific consensus- and community-building, creative problem-solving and the development of novel research methodologies.

Lastly, we want to critically reflect on the ethical and societal dimensions of metaphors in science. How do metaphors influence public perception, policy decisions, and the circulation and perception of scientific knowledge? We want to address these questions, discussing both the benefits and potential pitfalls of metaphorical language in scientific discourse.

With this wide scope and a mosaic of interdisciplinary perspectives, we want to explore the intricate relationship between metaphor, conceptualisation and communication in research.

About the FRIAS Lunch Lectures

The Lunch Lectures are a series of events at FRIAS dedicated to reflection on knowledge, science, and technology in the broadest sense, with a different overarching theme from semester to semester. The language of the lectures is usually English. Following the 30-minute lectures, the audience is invited to participate in an audience discussion.

Lunch Lecture 23-24