Information for
Quick links
Faculties
News
4. Saarbrücker Europa-Konferenz an der UdS
Europa träumt(e)? Zwischen politischem Anspruch und gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit
Die 4. Saarbrücker Europa-Konferenz wird am 28. November mit einer Podiumsdiskussion zum Thema “Visionen von Europa. Deutsch-französische Perspektiven” im Saarbrücker Rathaus eröffnet. Am nächsten Tag findet das Veranstaltungsprogramm an der Universität des Saarlandes statt. Dazu gehören in erster Linie Panels zu politischen und gesellschaftlichen Themen. Um 11:45 wird Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun einen Vortrag zu den Auswirkungen des konsolidierten Euroskeptizismus auf die europäische Politik halten.
Talk: "Gender and violence in focus: Sexualised warfare and women in terrorism"
Date: 25.11.2024
Time: 18:00-20:00
Place: FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Djamila Jabra, M.A. will speak about a special form of gender-specific violence: the use of sexualised violence as a weapon in conflicts. What changes when security policy issues such as terrorism, weapons and violent conflicts are viewed from a gender perspective? What is the significance of integrating feminist approaches into security policy and what new insights can be gained from this? The focus is on the role of women in terrorist organisations and the question of how gender-specific violence is used as a strategic instrument of power.
Panel: "Nationalism and Climate Change"
Der Klimawandel ist eine existenzielle Bedrohung für die Menschheit. Doch die Strukturierung der Politik in einem System souveräner Staaten ist ein großes Hindernis für das kollektive Handeln auf planetarischer Ebene, das zur Bewältigung dieser Krise erforderlich ist. Dieses Panel untersucht die Art und Weise, wie sich Nationalismus mit den Bemühungen zur Bewältigung des Klimawandels überschneidet, sowohl auf der Ebene der Innenpolitik als auch der internationalen Beziehungen, und zwar sowohl in negativer als auch in positiver Hinsicht.
Dr. Rosa Navarrete hat zu diesem Thema neben Prof. Dr. Daniele Conversi (Universidad del País Vasco) und Prof. Dr. Marianna Poberezhskaya (Nottingham Trent University) an einem von Prof. Dr. Peter Rutland (Wesleyan University) moderierten Panel der Association for the Study of Nationalities teilgenommen.
Der Lehrstuhl beim Digital Democracy Workshop in Zürich
Im Rahmen der an der UdS von Prof. Dr. Daniela Braund und Prof. Dr. Ingmar Weber initiierten interdisziplinären Kooperation I2SC, haben die Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter Dr. Alex Hartland und Dr. Giuseppe Carteny des politikwissenschaftlichen Lehrstuhls sowie Dr. Jianlong Zhu vom Lehrstuhl für Societal Computing ein gemeinsames Forschungsprojekt zum Thema “Chatbots at the Ballot Box: How do AI Chatbots Influence Political Attitudes and Behaviour?” erarbeitet, welches Dr. Rosa Navarrete beim Digital Democracy Workshop in Zürich präsentierte. Der Vortrag befasste sich damit, wie die schnelle Entwicklung von KI zunehmend das Online-Informationsangebot und die Interaktionen der Menschen damit beeinflusst. Diese Technologie wird auch für Wähler eine wichtigere Informationsquelle, was mögliche Auswirkungen auf politische Einstellungen und Verhalten hat. Da diese Effekte noch wenig erforscht sind, wird auf Erkenntnisse aus Wahlberatungstools und Fehlinformationsforschung zurückgegriffen. Die Ergebnisse sollen Chancen und Risiken von KI für demokratische Institutionen aufzeigen.
Prof Dr Jale Tosun: "Climate policy portfolios that accelerate emission productions"
Date: 07.11.2024
Time: 16:30-18:00
Place: Bld. B3 1, Lecture hall II
As part of the political science lecture series Politics in Europe with an interdisciplinary focus, Prof Jale Tosun, Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University, will give her lecture "Climate policy portfolios that accelerate emission productions". She will address the question of what effect the growing body of national climate policies actually has on climate change. In particular, she will focus on what kind of climate policy portfolios are best suited to accelerate emission reductions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. To this end, she will use examples to present the findings and results of her work.
Interested parties are cordially invited to attend. Please register in advance at vinciane.pilz(at)uni-saarland.de.
Article about European Studies: Politics - Law - Society in the web magazine Campus
The campus magazine has published an article on the Bachelor's degree programme "European Studies: Politics - Law - Society". Students on the new degree programme and Prof Dr Daniela Braun, who co-initiated the course, were interviewed.
First issue of the UNTWIST newsletter published
The UNTWIST project has published the first issue of its newsletter. The topics of this issue:
- Who are we? We introduce you to our 9 national teams and the 7 institutions involved in an advisory capacity, as well as our objectives related to the UNTWIST project.
- What are we currently working on? We will present the first results and findings on what and how much attention the different gender-specific needs and requirements receive from society, political parties and academia. We also analyse the way in which radical right-wing populist parties address gender-specific issues that may be overlooked by other moderate actors.
- What's new? We will introduce you to our international UNTWIST survey, with which we will conduct innovative measurements of gender-specific needs and demands from an intersectional perspective that simultaneously takes into account the voting behaviour of citizens.
Digital Democracy Days 2024 at Saarland University
Digitalisation is having a profound impact on democracy, both positive and negative. Phenomena such as Donald Trump's election success and social movements show how digital technologies are changing political processes. A key question is which aspects of democracy are affected and how negative effects can be tackled. The I2SC (Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing), a research institute founded by Prof Dr Daniela Braun and Prof Dr Ingmar Weber, therefore organised a two-day conference entitled “Digital Democracy Days”, bringing together 20-30 experts from various disciplines to discuss opportunities and risks. It was emphasised that further research is needed to secure democratic processes in the digital age and that collaboration between different fields is crucial.
ActEU-Workshop: Aufruf zur Einreichung von Bewerbungen
In February 2025, the ActEU Doctoral School will take place, where participants will spend four days exploring the topics of the ActEU research project, helping to advance our understanding and solutions. The ActEU (Activating European Citizens' Trust in Times of Crises and Polarisation) project, funded under the EU's Horizon Europe programme, aims to conceptualise and empirically measure political trust and legitimacy beyond conventional methods to explore how policy makers and civil society can respond effectively to these challenges to support democratic governance.
Talk at the EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC)
The EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC) took place in Lille from 27 August to 31 August. Djamila Jabra, M.A. gave a presentation entitled "From Warnings to Wars - A Comprehensive Review of IPCC Reports on Climate and Conflicts". In her presentation, she analysed how the connection between climate change and violent conflicts is presented in the six IPCC reports from 1990 to 2023. Using a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, she analysed the terms conflict, violence, war, armed, threat and risk in order to identify the visibility of climate-related conflicts. Theoretically, she drew on the expanded security concept of international relations, which goes beyond state approaches to identify potential causes of future conflicts and their prevention.
Saarbrücker Zeitung reports on I2SC
A year ago, the "I2SC" - Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing - was founded at Saarland University as a new research institute that brings together computer science and political science. The idea behind it: “The computing of society meets computing for society, so to speak,” says Ingmar Weber, Humboldt Professor of AI, who heads the "I2SC" together with political scientist Prof Dr Daniela Braun at the young department of Societal European Studies. The coupling of computer science and political science is "still relatively new in Germany" (Braun) and harbours challenges. However, despite their different research interests, the synergy effects of their collaboration outweigh the challenges.
Prof Dr Braun at panel discussion on Franco-German relations
Prof Daniela Braun was invited to take part in a panel discussion on the topic of “Franco-German relations in a changing Europe” on Saturday, 28 September. The event, organised as part of the alumni exchange of the members of the alumni Master GPRE e.V., took place from 13:00 to 15:30 in the Villa Europa, Kohleweg 7, 66123 Saarbrücken.
The panel of panellists consisted of:
- Dr Stefan Seidendorf, Deputy Director, Deutsch-Französisches Institut (dfi)
- Dieter Hackmann, Member of the Board for Special Tasks, Association of Franco-German Societies for Europe (VDFG) & Chairman Weimarer Dreieck e.V.
- Prof Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science specialising in European Integration and International Relations, Saarland University
The discussion was moderated by Jerome Friedrichs and Maya von Thenen and co-organised by Nolwenn Etienne and Tim Georgi.
Here is a brief description of the topic of the discussion: Franco-German relations in a changing Europe
The recent elections to the EU Parliament have confirmed the unstoppable rise of right-wing parties as a pan-European trend on the one hand and triggered a political earthquake in France on the other. 20 years after the ‘eastward enlargement’, the EU is facing a series of new geopolitical questions and challenges, and its future seems more uncertain than ever. Even if Franco-German co-operation is still considered a key driving force in Europe, the EU is driven by a multitude of complex dynamics and the Franco-German friendship no longer seems to be Europe's guarantor. At a time of multiple crises, especially in light of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, we are once again reminded that European cohesion and solidarity must be actively practised. Together with experts from institutions and academia, we therefore want to explore the question: Quo vadis Franco-German relations? Quo vadis Europe?
The panel discussion was prepared by a workshop that took place on the same morning. The participants, consisting of around 25 alumni, including three DFH-sponsored degree programmes, were also sent two texts in advance for preparation. Participants were also invited to ask questions at any time.
The debate was very stimulating and there was a lot of positive feedback. It is to be hoped that many of the topics raised and possible solutions will be discussed further in various contexts.
The event concluded with a joint visit by all participants to the Historisches Museum Saar.
The Chair at the DVPW Congress in Göttingen
From 24 to 27 September, the congress of the German Political Science Association on “Politics in the Polycrisis” took place at the Georg August University in Göttingen. The chair took part in the congress and gave three presentations. Prof Dr Braun also took part in a panel and a podium discussion.
![[Translate to Englisch:] Logo ecpr](/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/braun/Tagungen/ecpr_Logo.png){kind=logo}
UNTWIST at the European Conference on Politics and Gender
In July 2024, the UNTWIST teams participated in the European Conference on Politics and Gender in Cologne and presented a panel with research findings related to a better understanding of gender dynamics in voting for radical right-wing populist parties. Prof Dr Daniela Braun and Dr Giuseppe Carteny presented the following paper:
The salience of gender-related issues in European party manifestos
Welcome Day on 10. October
On 10 October, we will be welcoming new European Studies students to Saarland University from 10 a.m. in Building C3 1, Lecture Hall 1. At our Welcome Day, the new students will get to know the campus and the canteen and find out everything they need to know about the degree programme and their respective specialisations.
DVPW-Tagung 27.-28.03.2025: Bewerbungsfrist für BEITRÄGE und CLOSED PANELS bis 30. September 2024
Application procedure
After having received proposals for panels, we now open the second phase of the application procedure with a call for three categories of panels and papers. This application phase will end on September 30, 2024.
Paper submissions directed to one of the open panels (see below): Papers can be submitted to one of the panels proposed for the conference (see the list below). Paper submissions should include a title and an abstract of 250 words. Please send the paper proposals to the conference mail address tagung-dvpw-vergleich-2025(at)uni-saarland.de as well as to the respective panel chairs.
Papers unrelated to one of the panels: Paper proposals can also be directly sent to the conference organization team. We will then create panels that comprise thematically related papers. Please send the paper proposals to the conference mail address tagung-dvpw-vergleich-2025(at)uni-saarland.de.
Closed panel proposals: We also invite closed panel proposals. These should include a panel abstract, panel chairs as well as a maximum of 4 papers related to the scope of the panel with title and abstracts. Please send the panel proposals to the conference mail address tagung-dvpw-vergleich-2025(at)uni-saarland.de.
The team of organizers will inform submitters of papers and closed panels by October 11, 2024.
Please visit also the conference homepage for more information.
First results of Voto project published
The first results have now been published at the final discussion of the Voto project. Students from Saarland University presented these in the form of posters. For example, it emerged that even people on the left of the political spectrum can be in favour of border controls (poster) and that young people think of environmental issues as most important (poster). The influence of educational qualifications on the position (poster) (poster) and the influence of gender and age (poster) were also analysed.
Article in the Saarbrücker Zeitung