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!

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

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.