The camp’s thematic focus addresses two major challenges of the present at the same time: The transformation towards a more sustainable development and the growing diversity and heterogeneity of our societies. Questions of social justice will be at the center of attention in many discussions.
At the kick-off event on Monday, September 16, 2024, KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien welcomed the participants: “We are very happy to be able to welcome you at the KU. Being a committed University, one of our main goals is to combine high-quality research with social responsibility." The interdisciplinary and international research camp is also deliberately aimed at making a contribution to successful social development. Therefore, several criteria were decisive for the selection of participants: "We made sure that the participants combine a high level of professional expertise and originality in research with personal commitment and interest in a dialog with society", explains Vice President Prof. Dr. Jens Hogreve. Dr. Thomas Metten, who organized the Transformation Summer Camp for the KU together with his colleague Petra Schmidt, says they were actually surprised by the high number of applications received: "Around 120 interested researchers from all regions of the world, from Japan to Gambia and Brazil, have applied."
This week's participants include early-career researchers from very different backgrounds: a lawyer from Kenya and a psychologist from Canada as well as a teacher from Austria, a forestry scientist from Finland and a sociologist from Russia. Many of the participants have international biographies and have already studied and worked at other universities around the world. They all share a common interest in topics at the interface of diversity and transformation. Their research projects deal, for example, with the possibilities of fair citizen participation, safety and security in public spaces, transformation blockades, social narratives of diversity, but also the assessment of sustainable economic activities.
The interdisciplinary summer camp will take place for the second time in 2024 and offers high-quality academic impulses from current research fields such as postcolonialism, participation and migration research or sustainability. The group of guests includes researchers from the fields of sociology, literature and communication studies, theology, philosophy, education and political science as well as journalism. AUDI collaboration partners and the Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung Koblenz are also actively involved. The research camp, that is scheduled until September 20, offers young researchers professional impulses and workshops, for example on the design of scientific posters. Participants also learn how they can actively involve social stakeholders and collaboration partners and how to improve the transformative impact of their research.
