Research Clusters

Center of Advanced Technology Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics (CATALPA)

Two students studying together Photo: Photo: Torsten Silz

As a group, students in higher education are becoming increasingly diverse. The im­por­tance of lifelong learning is constantly grow­ing. Meanwhile, digital trans­for­ma­tion impacts nearly every aspect of our lives. How can universities respond ap­pro­pri­ate­ly to these changes? This research center searches for answers using an in­ter­dis­ci­plinary approach.

To the research center

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Wind turbines on a hillside Photo: Photo: zhongguo_E+_GettyImages

This research cluster bundles the FernUniversität’s wide variety of research activities on the topics of energy, environment and sustainability with the goal of building transdisciplinary bridges between research, industry, politics, and society.

To the research cluster

 

digital_culture

Hand operating a tablet Photo: Photo: Kidsada Manchinda/Moment/Getty Images

The term “digital culture” is associated with the observation that technology-driven in­no­va­tions have far-reaching con­se­quences. These con­se­quences impact their subjects even when they are not (directly) interacting with technical artifacts, because they rep­re­sent a change to the culture itself. At the same time, the extent of the upheaval, as well as how dramatic and wide-ranging its effects are, is not yet clear. This research cluster con­tributes to the effort to make legible and accessible that which is only just becoming apparent.

To the research cluster (German)


Interdisciplinary Research Groups and Centers

Center for East Asia Macro-economic Studies (CEAMeS)

The Chairs of Macroeconomics and In­ter­na­tion­al Economics at the FernUniversität in Hagen founded the Center for East Asia Macroe­co­nomic Studies with the aim of de­vel­op­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al network of researchers with a focus on China and other East Asian countries and related macroe­co­nomic methods.

To the CEAMeS Website

Hong Kong skyline Suphanat Wongsanuphat/Moment/Getty Images

Figurations of Uncertainty

Every society and every time period has its own figurations of uncertainty. On the basis of this background, the research group investigates the historically variable strategies, mechanisms and cultural techniques with which societies address and process uncertainty and insecurity.

To the research group's website

Person standing in front of pavement with chalk question marks Michael Zwahlen/EyeEm/Getty Images

Gender Politics

Current global changes are reflected in rapid shifts and structural changes which have political significance - with effects for the categories of gender, class, disability, age, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. The Gender Politics research group examines these new processes and relationships in all their complexity.

To the research group's website (German)

Bookshelf seen through a pane of glass with rainbow design Photo: Photo: FernUniversität

Cooperative Assistance Systems

The My Store 55 Plus - Assistance with Shopping for Seniors with Limited Mobility research project develops new types of support and assistance with shopping with and for seniors.

To the research group's website (German)

Tablet with My Store 55 plus app Photo: Veit Mette

CoVio – Collective Violence Joint Research Project

Political crises, exclusion, discrimination, antisemitism, racism, wars – one feature of the challenges of our present time is that they take violent forms, which once again affect us very directly. A team of researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the FernUniversität in Hagen will meet these challenges head-on.

To the research group's website

Detail of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial DANIELA NOBILI/Moment/Getty Images
 

Groups and Networks for Early-Career Researchers

  • FILORED initiates, supports, and bundles exchange activities between Germany and Latin America in the area of philosophical research on classical German philosophy between Kant and Hegel.

    To the FILORED Website (German/Spanish/Portuguese)

  • EDELNET is a cooperation between the FernUniversität in Hagen, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and the Open Universiteit Nederland (OUNl). The project’s activities include a graduate school which will be further developed into an international doctoral program.

    To the graduate school's website

  • The Family in Transformation: Discontinuity, Tradition, and Structure Formation doctoral program investigates diagnoses of familial change within the framework of empirical studies which connect their analysis to the paradigm of qualititative social research.

    To the doctoral program's website (German)

Cross-Faculty Research Institutes

Dimitris Tsatsos Institute of European Constitutional Sciences

The Dimitris Tsatsos Institute of European Constitutional Sciences is an interdisciplinary institute which is engaged primarily in the fields of law, political science and history. Its aim is to track the integrative development of a European Constitution using an interdisciplinary approach. The institute conducts academic research in the area of constitutional studies. It investigates the historical and current development of national and European constitutional law, analyzes and compares approaches to constitutional policy in theory and practice, and develops practical solutions for constitutional problems. In the process, it establishes contact between research and politics. The research results are also incorporated into teaching.

To the Dimitris Tsatsos Institute website

Institute for History and Biography

The Institute for History and Biography at the FernUniversität in Hagen carries out biographical research projects, produces scholarly films, maintains the German Memory (“Deutsches Gedächtnis”) archive for subjective eyewitness memory and organizes the Lüdenscheid Conversations (“Lüdenscheider Gespräche”) event series. The Institute is also home to the editorial department of the journal BIOS which focuses on biographical research, oral history, and analysis of life courses, as well as the administration of the International Oral History Association.

To the Insitute for History and Biography website (German)