Research

Higher education goes hand in hand with research – in our LAS Program and teaching projects. Staff and Teaching Fellows conduct and include research in teaching. Reflections on scientific knowledge and methods are the LAS Program's interdisciplinary backbone and represented by the UCF professorships: Epistemology and Theory of Science and Science and Technology Studies. Finally, our offerings enable students to conduct student research. 

Recent Research Highlights

Publication by UCF alum Sabina Grigore (Governance)

• Grigore, S. A. (2024). The Narrow Definition of Genocide & Its Role in Investigating and Prosecuting Charges of Genocide in Romania. Problems of Post-Communism, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2024.2337944

Publications by UCF alum Denicia Kassie (Environmental and Sustainability Sciences)

• Kassie, Denicia. Unravelling the legal labyrinth: Investigating barriers to effective adoption and enforcement of international environmental law in domestic jurisdictions, Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 352, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119944
• Diehl, J.M.C., Kassie, D. & Biedermann, P.H.W. Friend or foe: Ambrosia beetle response to volatiles of common threats in their fungus gardens. Symbiosis 89, 353–358 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-023-00914-y

Latest Publications by Prof. Frieder Vogelmann

• Umkämpfte Wissenschaften – zwischen Idealisierung und Verachtung. Stuttgart: Reclam 2023.
• Die Wirksamkeit des Wissens. Eine politische Epistemologie. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2022.

Archive

Research on student-centred higher education

• Mathias Hempfling and Lisa Hüther-Pape (2022). Integrating the student perspective: A framework for teaching competences in European higher education. Preprint July 13, 2022, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1173078/v1

Latest Publication by Prof. Dr. Veronika Lipphardt (2021)

• Lipphardt/Surdu/Ellebrecht/Pfaffelhuber/Wienroth/Rappold: "Europe’s Roma people are vulnerable to poor practice in genetics", Nature 599, 368-371 (2021), doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03416-3 
  Have a look at our News & Blog for more information.

Book publication / translation by Prof. Hans-Joachim Gehrke (August 2020)

• (editor) Making Civilizations. The World before 600, Cambridge, MA 2020, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (transl. of Geschichte der Welt. Die Welt vor 600: Frühe Zivilisationen, München 2017, C.H. Beck)

Book publication by UCF dean of studies Prof. Dr. Sitta von Reden (December 2019)

• Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. Volume 1: Contexts, edited by Sitta von Reden (2019), De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

Book publication by UCF staff member Dr. Marie Muschalek (July 2019)

• Muschalek, M. (2019): Violence as Usual. Policing and the Colonial State in German Southwest Africa, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Joint UCF Student-Staff Publication (February 2019)

• Gross, P., Buchanan, N. & Sané, S. (2019): Blue skies in the making: Air quality action plans and urban imaginaries in London, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 48, 85-95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.09.019

Publications on Didactics in Political Science Teaching (September 2018)

• Mikalayeva, L. Introduction: encouraging student reflection – approaches to teaching and assessment, Eur Polit Sci (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0182-7
• Mikalayeva, L., Panov, S. & Schleutker, E. Reflective writing for enhancing knowledge integration in modularised study programmes, Eur Polit Sci (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0183-6

Publication of the Multidisciplinary STS@Freiburg Initiative (May 2018)

• "Forensic DNA Phenotyping Legislation Cannot be Based on 'Ideal FDP.'" N. Buchanan, F. Staubach, M. Wienroth, P. Pfaffelhuber, M. Surdu, A. Lipphardt, A. Köttgen, D. Syndercombe-Court, and V. Lipphardt. Forthcoming in Forensic Science International: Genetics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.01.009

Research Fields

Professorship in Epistemology and Theory of Science (ETS)

The Professorship covers, in research and in teaching, systematic and historical perspectives on epistemology and on the sciences and humanities. It focuses on political epistemology, understood as the intertwinement of epistemology and philosophy of science with social and political theory.

Professorship in Science and Technology Studies (STS)

Science and Technology Studies pursues the empirical study of science and technology, with an emphasis on the actual practices of scientists and engineers as they engage in knowledge-making and the development of technologies. And STS investigates the impact of this knowledge and technology on society.

LAS Academic Staff

The breadth of research conducted at UCF reflects the interdisciplinarity of the LAS study program that ranges from the natural (Earth and Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences) and social sciences (Governance) to the humanities (Culture and History). In their research, academic staff often collaborates with other researchers and research projects at the University of Freiburg and beyond.

Student Research

LAS provides students – as potential early-stage researchers – space and guidance to engage in supervised research projects and other inquiry-based learning formats.

And students and graduates (co-)publish first research findings:

• Werner, S. S. (Life Sciences) & Stallwitz, A. (2024) Barriers to and Facilitators of Opioid Substitution Therapy in Penal Institutions: A Qualitative Study from Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, International Journal of Social Work, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.5296/ijsw.v11i2.22192
• Philip Strecker (Life Sciences), Martin Broeker, Simon Büchner, Raphael Scheible. Usability Evaluation of a Modern Multilingual MeSH Browser. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 295, 37-40 (2023). https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI220653
• Vahid Asimi (Life Sciences): Asimi, V., Sampath Kumar, A., Niskanen, H. et al. Hijacking of transcriptional condensates by endogenous retroviruses. Nat Genet 54, 1238–1247 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01132-w
• Marie Vetter (Culture and History): Vetter, M. (2022). Kuratieren als antirassistische Praxis. Rote Fäden und ein Versuch der Sortierung. Studien zur Materiellen Kultur, Band 48, Oldenburg.

• Philip Strecker and Suhail Yaziji (Life Sciences): Scheible, R., Strecker, P., Yazijy, S., Thomczyk, F., Talpa, R., Puhl, A., & Boeker, M. (2022). A Multilingual Browser Platform for Medical Subject Headings. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 289, 384-387. https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI210939
• Amelie Müller (Earth and Environmental Sciences): Amelie Müller, Lorenz Friedrich, Christian Reichel, Sina Herceg, Max Mittag, Dirk Holger Neuhaus. A comparative life cycle assessment of silicon PV modules: Impact of module design, manufacturing location and inventory, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Volume 230, 15 September 2021, 111277, doi: 10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111277
• Werner, S. S., Binder, N., Toews, I., Schünemann, H. J., Meerpohl, J. J., & Schwingshackl, L. (2021). Use of the GRADE approach for rating the certainty of evidence in evidence syntheses published in high impact factor nutrition journals: A methodological survey. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, Volume 135, 54-69, doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.02.010
• Werner, S. S., Afandiyeva, G., Karimova, G., Kiefer, S., Abdujabborov, N., Dzhamalova, M., Bandaev, I., & Prytherch, H. (2021). Scaling up Business Plans in Tajikistan: A qualitative study of the history, barriers, facilitators and lessons learnt. Global Health Action, 14(1), 1947552. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2021.1947552

• Chiara Giardi (Culture and History): Giardi, C. Vom Guten Hirten zum Theater. Kleinplastik als Untersuchungs- und Vermittlungsmethode, in: Un-learning Ecologies: Workbook Kunstvermittlung in der ökologischen Krise / Workbook Art Education in the Ecological Crisis, edited by Cynthia Gavranic, Janina Krepart, Chantal Küng, and Maren Ziese (2021), Zurich University of the Arts / Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
• Daniel Hölle (Life Sciences): Daniel Hölle, Stefanie Aufschnaiter, Johanna Bogon, Christina Pfeuffer, Andrea Kiesel & Roland Thomaschke (2020): Quality ratings of wine bottles in e-commerce: the influence of time delays and spatial arrangement, Journal of Wine Research, doi: 10.1080/09571264.2020.1723067
• Megan Schneck (Life Sciences): Aneliya Antonova, Barbara Hummel, Ashkan Khavaran, Desiree M. Redhaber, Fernando Aprile-Garcia, Prashant Rawat, Kathrin Gundel, MeganSchneck, Erik C. Hansen, Jan Mitschke, Gerhard Mittler, Cornelius Miething, Ritwick Sawarkar (2019): Heat-Shock Protein 90 Controls the Expression of Cell-Cycle Genes by Stabilizing Metazoan-Specific Host-Cell Factor HCFC1, Cell Reports Volume 29, Issue 6, 5 November 2019, Pages 1645-1659.e9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.09.084
• Patrick Léon Gross (Earth and Environmental Sciences): Nicholas Buchanan, Sabine Sané: Blue skies in the making: Air quality action plans and urban imaginaries in London, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. 2019 Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 48, 85-95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.09.019
• Lena Skatulla (Life Sciences): Chleilat, E., Skatulla, L., Rahhal, B., Hussein, MT., Feuerstein, M., Krieglstein, K., Roussa, E. (2018). TGF-β Signaling Regulates Development of Midbrain Dopaminergic and Hindbrain Serotonergic Neuron Subgroups, Neuroscience, 2018, Jun 15, 381, doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.04.019
• Ruth Falkenberg (Life Sciences): Falkenberg, R.I., Eising, C. & Peters, M.L. (2018). Yoga and Immune System Functioning: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials, J Behav Med, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-018-9914-y
• Monja Sauvagerd (Governance): India's Strategies on its Periphery: A Case Study in the India–Bhutan Relationship. ASIEN – The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, 146 (January 2018), 56-77
• Clara Nicolai (Earth and Environmental Sciences): Maier, M., Paulus, S., Nicolai, C., Stutz, K. P., & Nauer, P. A. (2017). Drivers of Plot-Scale Variability of CH4 Consumption in a Well-Aerated Pine Forest Soil. Forests, 8(6), 193. doi: 10.3390/f8060193
• Ruth Falkenberg (Life Sciences): Falkenberg, R. I. (2016). An Evolutionary Perspective on Iron Deficiency, Science of the Human Body, 1(1), 24

Werner, S. S. & Stallwitz, A. (2024) Barriers to and Facilitators of Opioid Substitution Therapy in Penal Institutions: A Qualitative Study from Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, International Journal of Social Work, 11(2)

https://doi.org/10.5296/ijsw.v11i2.22192