UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN International

The KölnAlumniWeltweit summer school is designed for former students of University of Cologne who are invited to return to their alma mater and reconnect with other alumni in an international and career-developing, interdisciplianry program. The initiative is part of the Internationalisation of the UoC and fosters networking among former students and researchers of the university.

From the University of Cologne, five lecturers from four different faculties or institutes happily agreed to hold a presentation: Prof. Dr. Fabian Klose (History on Human Rights), Dr. Paula Rhein-Fischer (Governing History Through Law), Dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf (European Court of Human Rights), Dr. Dirk Schulz (Gender-Appropriate Language and Recognition of Identities), and Marvin Jürgens (Environmental Law and Human Rights). All lectures and sessions sparked great interest and led into lively discussions and exchanges of thoughts, experiences and differences of opinions.
Additionally, KölnAlumni WELTWEIT was proud to host several external guests for the Summer School on Human Rights. Kezia Mbabazi held a digital lecture on the work Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONCHR); Guido Steinke and Kathrin Schwarz, representatives of Cologne’s local Amnesty International (AI) group, not only hosted session on AI itself, but also were moderators for a round table discussion on Human Rights open to all alumni. Lastly, Dr. Ulrich Sommer, lawyer at a private law firm in Cologne, specialized on Human Rights, informed the Summer School audience on the process of going through a Human Rights legal case, both locally as well as through ECtHR.

For another consecutive year and besides the tight Summer School seminar program, all alumni had the chance to (re-)connect with their alma mater, old friends and professors or make new friends and beneficial connections during networking events, such as the Welcome Ceremony, excursion through the city of Cologne or the Send-Off Dinner.

The second virtual Cologne Summer School "A Digi-Journey through Asia, and Germany" was a huge success. The summer school program was developed in collaboration between the three universities: the University of Cologne, Universitas Pembangunan Jaya, Symbiosis International University and for the first time with Tongji University from China as well. Students from India, Indonesia, China, and Germany had the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures, make new friends and virtually explore Cologne and other cities in Asia!

"Cultural Sensitization – Typical German, is there such a thing?", "Indonesian Language", "What To Do and Not To Do In Indonesia", "Tales of Indian Gods and Goddesses", "Experience Incredible India", “Learning Chinese”, “Wonderful World of Chinese Characters” and many more! Thanks to the great lectures, the participants had the opportunity to get an insight into many aspects of the country such as society, culture, and digital landscape of each country.

The evaluation of the summer school was overwhelmingly positive. The participants were complementing the interactive structure of the course, where they could express their opinions and exchange ideas with their peers. The goal of the summer school was to not be another additional lecture but to offer an experience of different cultures by comparing it with one's own.

With Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), we all learn to shape the future in terms of sustainable development. Recent publications, including Albareda-Tiana et al. (2019), clearly indicate that university teaching based on sustainability competencies is a new challenge for university teachers, especially those who teach future teachers. "It is not enough for teachers to know about the problems related to sustainability, they need to have acquired the necessary competencies of sustainability and teach the way they live" (ibid., p. 2). The UNESCO reports for ESD (e.g. Rieckmann 2018, p. 39ff.) consider the interdisciplinary approach to
sustainability as a challenge in the education of future teachers and recommend to integrate sustainability into the curricula and thus encourage future teachers to acquire competencies of sustainability.

However, there is still a great need to integrate learning for sustainability consistently into the training of future educators and the advanced training of teachers (cf. ibid., p. 46f.). Evans et al. (2017) emphasize the importance of embedding learning for sustainability across disciplines (ibid., p. 414). Universities can take a leading role here in bringing change towards more equitable and sustainable societies. "However, the question is how to integrate the SDGs into the university curriculum for education to be transformative rather than merely informative" (Albareda-Tiana et al. 2019, p. 2). It must not only be about being aware of the problems that the planet and its inhabitants face, but more importantly about being actively involved in finding
solutions for sustainable education. This shift towards an "action-oriented transformative pedagogy" is also foregrounded by Rieckmann (2018) as a basic prerequisite for a successful ESD (ibid., p. 59). Sustainability must inevitably be approached in a global perspective, not only from an ecological point of view (cf. Albareda-Tiana et al. 2019, p. 2).

For our Summer School we were able to invite renowned researchers and to present exciting lectures such as those by Prof. Marco Rieckmann (University of Vechta, Germany) "Education for Sustainable Development in Teacher Education: Perspectives and challenges in practice and research" or by Jun.-Prof. Roman Bartosch (University of Cologne, Germany) "How Can We Read When Our Beds Are Burning? Teaching English Literature in Terrible Times".

In addition to great online workshops such as by Prof. Ingrid Geier, Mag. Robert Hummer, Dr. Sandra Stieger (Salzburg Stefan Zweig University of Education, Austria) entitled "Transformative learning as an opportunity to address social and environmental problems with sustainable approaches - does it work for you?" we were able to offer a total of 12 workshops on site, hybrid and digital. Highlight among others were by Dr. Maris Saagpaak (Tallinn University, Estonia) "Study Abroad While Staying at Home: A Case Study of a Virtual Intercultural Project on the German Forest“ or Miriam Remy (FREI DAY, Germany) "Time for Co-Creation and Action for Sustainabilty - Margret Rasfeld's FREI DAY".

With a Summer School on the topic of Sustainability in Schools and Teacher Education, we have approached this topic from an international as well as interdisciplinary perspective and thus made an active contribution to further strengthen and consolidate the topic in teacher education. The Summer School took place in cooperation with our nine UNITE partner universities and thus offered an opportunity for international cooperation and networking. Participating countries were Argentina, Estonia, Canada, Mexico, Namibia, Austria, Sweden, the USA and Vietnam. Through this international exchange, the professionalization process of prospective teachers was fostered and reflective competence was enhanced through (virtual) exchange formats in addition to specialized lectures and discussions. Through multidimensional perspectives from transdisciplinary as well as theoretical and practical sessions, a research-oriented theory-practice linkage was offered.

In November 2020, the University of Cologne and the International School for Holocaust Studies in Yad Vashem (ISHS) entered into a cooperation agreement to promote and strengthen Holocaust Education in the Cologne teaching profession. The cooperation, initiated by school is open and was signed in a digital ceremony by Prof. Dr. Axel Freimuth, Rector of the University of Cologne, and Prof. Dr. Eyal Kaminka, Director ISHS. Within the framework of the cooperation agreement, a 7-day program was organized and carried out by Yad Vashem.

The visit was part of the obligatory practical phase “Berufsfeldpraktikum” in the teaching program at the University of Cologne. This year's motto was "Erinnern um zu verändern - Remembering in order to change". The student teachers who participated in the project were prepared for the study trip in a transdisciplinary way with the help of an online course developed by ‘school is open’ in cooperation with the student teachers. The guided engagement with the online course #DigitalAgainstAntisemitism held different learning occasions and reflections on emotional, familial and societal narratives about National Socialism and perpetration. The students could develop individual questions about successful teaching-learning situations about the Shoah, about historical and contemporary anti-Semitism, about Jewish life before, during and after the Shoah, which they could pursue during their stay in Yad Vashem. The online course is available to all interested parties and pedagogical professionals as an open educational resource: https://digilehre.zflkoeln.de/online-kurs-digital-gegen-antisemitismus/

The aim of the project was to provide future teachers with an empathetic approach, considering Jewish perspectives before, during and after the Shoah, also, but not only, with regard to experiences with anti-Semitism. The study visits to Yad Vashem with guided tours and workshops on pedagogical concepts for learning about the Shoah and Nazi perpetration as well as dealing with anti-Semitism, especially in pedagogical school situations, has enabled the students to strengthen and expand their competencies. In doing so, they were also able to experience and reflect on the impact of digitalization on memory and learning for the.

Energiewende, e-mobility, zero carbon emissions, climate change, and clean energy. All phrases that have come part of our standard vocabulary but what do these terms really mean and how do they look on a business, economic, political and even technical level? (E)MBA students from the Cologne WiSo Faculty’s exclusive partner universities explored the scope of these terms and related concepts through a combination of academic and practical experiences during the Doing Business in Germany: Energy Economics and Automotive & Mobility programme. Instead of being addressed during two separate summer schools, these topics were integrated into one programme for the first time this year.

This 12-day, in-person programme included networking opportunities with institutions and companies where participants gathered first-hand information about current challenges and prospects. Both in small groups and in a larger setting, participants were able to interview and network with experts from all aspects of these sectors. They explored topics like international corporate strategy, implications of EU policies, lobbying, digital transformation, leadership and communication from a German perspective. From energy producers, German automotive giants to start-ups and policy makers, participants gained a comprehensive overview of the German energy and automotive sectors and their role in the EU. This year the program’s  participants represented the US, Canada, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

 True to the programs’ nature, participants married theoretical frameworks with a hands-on case study. They took on the roles of American and German companies who are in the processing of merging. Groups negotiated new standards for working hours, vacation time, parental leave, salary and more!

Within this international atmosphere, participants built their international network, pooled their knowledge and actively engaged with companies and governmental agencies. Together with social activities, participants created bonds that even led to new synergies and business proposals.

Overall, the programme strengthened the universities connections internationally by highlighting the advances made at the EWI institute as well as its strong connection with local, regional and national players. Participants also gained a new understanding of energy economics, the automotive industry, Germany and the universities’ role in the development of a greener, healthier, energy future.

During the fourth annual CISU-MBA – Cologne International Summer University, MBA students from the Cologne WiSo Faculty’s exclusive partner universities developed a deeper understanding of the issues, paradoxes and challenges that confront managers in diverse teams and organisations. Under the guidance of Dr. Meir Shemla, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and the Academic Director of the MBA programme at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) as well as lecturer in Cologne’s CEMS Master in International Management, fourteen participants from a variety of professional backgrounds explored topics such as how to realise the potential of diverse teams? Why do diversity policies often fail? How can you become more effective in a diverse environment?

During the eight-day programme, participants worked together both in smaller groups and in a larger setting. They split up into two groups for a team consulting project, in which they examined diversity-related challenges that leaders and organisations may face. Each group worked together inside and outside of class to develop a presentation which was held and graded on the last day of class.

At the beginning of the second week, the class took part in an in-class debate on the topic “Should organisations employ diversity quotas to increase gender diversity?”. Participants were divided to “pro” and “con” teams, and the debate took the form of timed individual and group presentations and responses separated by timed group work periods. In addition to this, participants were able to choose between a cultural immersion assignment and a diversity case, where they were to present a particular diversity scene in their own country.

The programme also included a company visit by McKinsey & Company, a corporate partner of the WiSo Faculty, during which participants were able to gather first-hand insights about current challenges and prospects regarding diversity and inclusion at McKinsey.

This year’s participants were enrolled in seven partner universities, with cultural backgrounds from Argentina, Canada, China, France, India, Israel, Singapore, the UK, and the US.

The programme not only strengthened the University’s connections with renowned international business schools – since the programme was offered on exchange basis – but also fostered intercultural exchange and presented Germany and Cologne as attractive destinations. The very positive feedback from the participants shows that the course concept and the integration of various didactic formats was very well received.

The summer course Lachinoamerica. Transpacific Perspectives in Literature and Film dealt with the economic, political and, above all, cultural relations between China and Latin America, based on the literary and audiovisual representation of the presence of this Asian community in different Latin American countries, although the main focus was on Argentine production.

Specialists in transpacific studies, filmmakers, writers and translators highlighted the diversity of exchanges between East and West. On the one hand, a critical reflection was made on the stereotypes of certain representations, sometimes depending on the closer or more distant knowledge of the Chinese community or, also, on the will to problematize interculturality in order to become aware of the difficulties of integration that can often be encountered. On the other hand, it focused on the reception of Latin American literature in the country of the dragon's descendants and the role of its translators as cultural promoters of Latin America.

In the workshops given by the teachers in the first blocks of each of the days, the students delved into topics related to migration and displacement and literary translation, among others, and prepared themselves, using, in addition, as a basis, bibliographic material made available by the organizers a few days before the start of the course, so that the participants could also contribute to interviewing the guest artists in each block. 

In the framework of the Summer School organized by Dunia Gras (University of Barcelona) and Victoria Torres (University of Cologne), participated more than fifteen students from various universities (UzK, University of Barcelona, University of Seville, University of Guadalajara, University of La Plata, National University of Tucumán), 18 international teachers, and more than 10 renowned artists, located in different parts of Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The final balance that we make as co-organizers of the course is really very positive, because of the synergies that have been created also between speakers, moderators, creators and participants, and that has managed to go beyond the mere screen of virtuality, to achieve personal connections that can thrive in the future.

In September 2022, for the 3rd time, the CSSERL simulated the EU legislative procedure in the “LegislEUlab”. After a productive and fruitful online preparatory phase from June to August 2022, the attendance phase of this year’s CSSERL was held on the University premises from September 8 to 14, 2022.

As in the past years, the CSS-ERL dealt with an ongoing EU legislative procedure. Due to its
increasing importance in both the political and social discourse, this year’s topic was the Commission’s proposal for a directive to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms (“Equal Pay Directive”; 2021/0050 (COD)).

After an introduction to the EU legislative procedure and the methodology of European legal linguistics, the participants analysed the articles controversial between the Commission, the Council and the Parliament in project groups and drafted their own text proposals based on the material provided to them and further research by themselves. Particular attention was paid to the comparison of versions of the Equal Pay Directive in all 24 official languages of the EU: terminology, the distinction between national and supranational legal concepts, the impact of various syntactic constructions on the interpretation of text passages, and divergences between the language versions were analysed. Comprehensive results were possible because of the mother tongues and foreign languages the participants had command of.

We will be happy to offer the Summer School of European Legal Linguistics again next year
on the basis of our successful experiences with the EU law-making laboratory. Of course, we
are looking forward to getting to know whether and in what wording the EU legislative bodies
will adopt the Equal Pay Directive.

In the last 2000 years, an important interface between Greek and Roman, and later between Eastern and Western cultures has grown on the territory of today's Romania. That is why Klausenburg, which the Hungarians call Kolozsvár and the Romanians Cluj, was an ideal place for an international summer school on „Resilience and forms of reorientation in face of unexpected, mostly unwanted or adverse developments“. For centuries, invaders and immigrants kept coming into the country: across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, from the steppes, the Caucasus or from the north, bringing with them very different languages and cultures, whose traces are clearly visible in Cluj and its surrounding area.

The topics covered came mainly from the fields of literature, history, linguistics, musicology, art studies and history and were related to the Spanish cultural area in Europe and Latin America, note for example the captivating analysis of the hero's attitudes in the small literary novel ‘Lazarillo de Tormes” of the 16th Century or the evening events which conducted to fine art or the world of
music: for example, two internationally known specialists illustrated the major work of the Romanian sculptor Brancuşi and the evolution of polyphony, others combined poetry with music and modern dance, like the young experimental group “Ruta 40”.

In the final evaluation statutes, this Cologne Summer School has been rated very positively by students and teachers. In addition to exceptionally good contributions, this is also due to the fact that students and professors taught and learned together on an equal footing from morning to night. A brilliant 24-year-old student from Seville summed up her overall impression most poetically: "Thank you for making summer a conversation without borders".

In the last 2000 years, an important interface between Greek and Roman, and later between Eastern and Western cultures has grown on the territory of today's Romania. That is why Klausenburg, which the Hungarians call Kolozsvár and the Romanians Cluj, was an ideal place for an international summer school on „Resilience and forms of reorientation in face of unexpected, mostly unwanted or adverse developments“. For centuries, invaders and immigrants kept coming into the country: across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, from the steppes, the Caucasus or from the north, bringing with them very different languages and cultures, whose traces are clearly visible in Cluj and its surrounding area.

The topics covered came mainly from the fields of literature, history, linguistics, musicology, art studies and history and were related to the Spanish cultural area in Europe and Latin America, note for example the captivating analysis of the hero's attitudes in the small literary novel ‘Lazarillo de Tormes” of the 16th Century or the evening events which conducted to fine art or the world of
music: for example, two internationally known specialists illustrated the major work of the Romanian sculptor Brancuşi and the evolution of polyphony, others combined poetry with music and modern dance, like the young experimental group “Ruta 40”.

In the final evaluation statutes, this Cologne Summer School has been rated very positively by students and teachers. In addition to exceptionally good contributions, this is also due to the fact that students and professors taught and learned together on an equal footing from morning to night. A brilliant 24-year-old student from Seville summed up her overall impression most poetically: "Thank you for making summer a conversation without borders".

This summer school focused primarily on conversing resources worldwide and the fair distribution of resources for global human well-being. This emphasized the successful necessity of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and provided the participants with better understanding on how these goals can protect our lives and our precious planet.

The summer schools´ workshops included the subjects of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), well-being, student engagement and future careers, as well as the expanding of the international network with universities of Kraków named AGH University and Jagiellonian. AGH University thankfully offered the nice venue for us.

Interdisciplinary discussion and international networking between Cologne and Kraków was induced by the participance of Prof. Jerzy Jedliński (Dean, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH University), Prof. Elżbieta Pamuła (Vice-Dean, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH University), Prof. Bartosz Handke (Vice-Dean, Faculty of Students Affairs, AGH University), Prof. Wojciech Macyk (Dean, Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University), and Dr. Taymaz Tabari (Jagiellonian University). Fortunately, the productive discussion between the deans led to born a new network for EUniWell with AGH University.

To strengthen the international collaboration and interaction an introduction into laboratories and facilities of the AGH University as well as Jagiellonian University have been offered to the participants from the University of Cologne. These were good chances to know characteristics of each research group and make research network by sharing scientific opinions and advice. To complete the experience of CSS fully, a city tour was scheduled to understand cultures by experiencing local cuisine, language, and historical places.

Departing from visits to institutional and self-organized spaces of knowledge production, the Field School: Berlin. Questions for Learning Spaces explored current issues around the spatial organization of education through workshops, lectures, and arts-based experiments, together with invited guests: What is the relationship between institutional and informal spaces of situated knowledge production? With which challenges, inclusion and exclusion mechanisms do they function, which design do they need? What spatial conditions enable and disable learning, and on what social negotiations are they based? What role do art and cultural practices play in this? In this context, places of education and the production of knowledge are understood in a broader sense, both as concrete and abstract places, concepts, buildings, arrangements, and narratives.

The Field School program unfolded over six days, with each day structured in the form of workshops and assignments, project critiques (in peer reviews and plenary sessions), and feedback discussions. Particular attention was paid to the fields of artistic research as a form of knowledge production that questions current socio-political issues pertaining to the spatial design of education in practical, theoretical and investigative terms.

In field trips (outings) the research questions were deepened and specifically considered along visited localities. As part of another assignment, for instance, the students were invited to visit the Jewish Museum Berlin and to reflect on the following questions, among others: What do you perceive and how? How is something presented? To what extent does the architecture play a role? Does your own background play a role (size, language, etc.)? What spatial conditions enable and disable learning, and on what social negotiations are they based? With which challenges, inclusion and exclusion mechanisms does the institution function, which design does it need? The exercise was concluded by a joint discussion with Julia Friedrich (Collection Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin).

The students were particularly positive about the approach of the Field School, in which they worked in mixed-faculty, mixed-subject, and mixed-language groups with students from Cologne, Vancouver, and Hamburg, and thus experienced an important change of perspective, both in relation to the research questions of the Field School and artistic forms of action, and in relation to their own subjects of study. They also emphasized that it encouraged them to work with artistic media and means, some of which they had never used before, thus "leaving their comfort zone." The different types of learning spaces visited – institutional, school-based as well as self-organized – inspired an exchange and discussion about the necessary conditions for specific learning settings and the role art can play in this.