Newsblog

Next Tuesday, 14 July 2026, the IKM is organising an information lunch from 1 pm to 2 pm in GD 05. Just pop in and bring your own lunch!

How do companies make ethical decisions? How can artificial intelligence be designed around solidarity? What role can Germany play in Russia’s war against Ukraine? Who bears responsibility for climate damage – and are we currently witnessing a backlash against emancipation? At the Long Night of the Sciences in Berlin on 6 June 2026, Viadrina researchers demonstrated just how closely their research relates to the pressing questions of everyday life. In the main building of Humboldt-Universität, they engaged in conversation with the audience about responsibility, change and the major conflicts of our time.

Event series to discover, explore, and shape the Master‘s Programme “Conflict and Democracy“.

As part of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA), the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and the social science institute at SWPS University Warsaw are inviting participants to the German-Polish networking event “Doing Democracy: Connecting Academia and Civil Society Across Borders” in Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice on Thursday and Friday, 23 and 24 April 2026. Over the course of two days, the event will focus on ideas, dialogue and exchange across the German-Polish border in relating work to democracy. Members of the public are invited to attend several discussion formats. The event marks the 35th anniversary of the signing of the German-Polish Treaty on Good Neighbourliness.

How can we continue to have constructive conversations about highly contentious issues? How can people exchange opinions without trying to convert one another? Inspired by these questions, Philip Murawski, who runs the KUKURYKU cultural café in Frankfurt (Oder), and Laura Gerards Iglesias from Viadrina’s Institute for Conflict Management (IKM) developed the “We Need to Talk” format. Looking back, their assessment is mixed.

At the annual Salon Sophie Charlotte hosted by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) on 17 January 2026, participants discussed how conflicts can be resolved. Viadrina conflict researcher Prof. Dr Lars Kirchhoff spoke at the well-attended event about how peace mediation can function under current geopolitical conditions. He warned against stepping into the “boxing ring made socially acceptable by Donald Trump”.

The UN resolution on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) has now been in place for ten years. But what role do young people play in geopolitical negotiations amid the current paradigm shift in peace and security policy? Viadrina conflict researcher Professor Lars Kirchhoff discussed this question at a conference in Berlin on 9 December 2025. The event was organised by the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt), in cooperation with the German Coalition for Youth, Peace and Security, to mark the tenth anniversary of the YPS Agenda.

The public launch of the lecture series "How to deal with right-wing extremism" on 11 November 2025 was a wake-up call for many in the audience: racism criticism expert Tupoka Ogette spoke to the fully crowded Logensaal about how uncomfortable it can be for white people to free themselves from racist imprints and thought patterns, what this means for everyday university life and how thinking and living in a way that is critical of racism helps to counter the growth of right-wing extremism.

Elisa Lehrer, Lilo Meier and Anna Rößner no longer just wanted to worry about democracy. With the desire for more self-efficacy for themselves and students, the lecturers from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics designed the seminar "Democracy in Crisis?" in the summer semester of 2025. They invited experts from all Faculties, went on excursions and simulated European politics. Together with their students, they explored the questions that are putting democracy under pressure.

German commitment to peace in current conflicts, Ukrainian protest, digital entrepreneurship and computer games as a business model - these are the topics with which the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) is taking part in the Long Night of Science in Berlin for the first time this year. The science festival will take place on Saturday, 28 June, from 17:00. Viadrina researchers can be seen between 5.00 pm and midnight in the Main Building of the Humboldt-Universität, Unter den Linden 6, room 1072.

Who is researching which topics at the Viadrina? Which projects have received funding, which works have been honoured with prizes? And how is the reform process at the European University going? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the newly published annual report "Viadrina 2024". On Wednesday, 14 May, Prof. Dr Eduard Mühle, President of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), presented the booklet at a media conference.

In the spring, the new online programme “Global Citizenship and Sustainable Futures: Learning for Change”, organised by the International Network of Universities (INU)–of which the European University is a member–took place for the first time. Both lecturers and students from Viadrina participated. In October, this successful programme will enter its second round and will be organised by Kingston University.

Since April 2024, the “Frankfurt (Oder) – Słubice Municipal Development Advisory Board” has been working on perspectives for the cities' future challenges. The participatory initiative, launched by former Viadrina President Gesine Schwan and the Berlin Governance Platform, brings together politicians and administrators with key figures from the business sector and civil society. Viadrina conflict researcher Lars Kirchhoff is facilitating the overall process alongside Kristin Horn. In this interview, he talks about the work being carried out within this binational committee.