News 2026

Laura Padrón Brito from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is researching how German, Spanish and British politicians use dog-whistles to convey hidden messages in political communication. The PhD student in linguistics is currently at Viadrina as part of ERUA’s Visiting Programme for Early Career Researchers and has, amongst other things, taken part in ERUA Research Week. In this interview, she explains how dog-whistling works, why it is used primarily by right-wing parties, and whether it poses a threat to democracy.

The Viadrina Debate on 14 October 2026 offered in-depth insights into contemporary Ukrainian society from the perspectives of journalism and the social sciences. ‘Does society grow through crises? On learning from Eastern Europe, resilience – and why Ukrainians can’t bear to hear the term any more’ was the title of the third instalment in the series. ARD correspondent Vassili Golod and Viadrina social scientist Dr Susann Worschech also spoke with presenter Mattia Nelles and the audience about how Western Europe can become more crisis-resilient and why it is worth looking to Ukraine for insights.

On 12 October 2026, the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies (GCU) Ukrainian Week was launched at Viadrina University. In addition to Viadrina’s accession to the GCU, the programme – which included lectures, a discussion, an exhibition and other events – provided insights into how Ukrainian studies at German universities can be strengthened in the long term and what is needed for even closer cooperation with Ukrainian universities.

How do political and legal frameworks, borders and social inequalities shape the experiences of refugees? These and other questions will be explored in the public lecture series ‘Forced Migration’, organised by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION during the winter semester 2026/2027. To kick off the series on Wednesday 21 October at 4.15 pm, migration researcher Melanie Griffiths from the University of Birmingham will speak about the long-term effects of an insecure residency status on families. The lecture series, featuring international guests, will take place predominantly online.

Members of the ValEUs research and education network gathered at Viadrina for their final conference from 29 September to 2 October 2026. Since early 2024, representatives from 20 partner institutions across five continents have been researching fundamental European values and the ways in which they are being challenged. At the final conference, participants engaged in controversial debates on issues including the legitimacy of European values, current challenges facing the EU, visa restrictions for international students, and the role of universities in defending pluralist and humanitarian values.

The Staff Training Days organised by the Division of International Affairs, held from 28 to 30 September 2026, focused on AI and digital transformation in university administration. Thirty guests from international partner universities gathered at Viadrina to discuss the responsible use of AI in their work.

Around 30 years ago, Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schmid, a native Schwabe, joined Viadrina University and established his Professorship in Quantitative Methods, with a particular focus on statistics. As he bids farewell, he talks about young international researchers, a flash of inspiration on a train and the importance of statistics for artificial intelligence. He does not intend to withdraw completely from research when he retires.

In early September 2026, 25 students, researchers and practitioners came to Viadrina to spend two weeks engaging intensively with the topic of Ukraine. The third KIU Summer School focused on national minorities, Ukrainian identity and the question of how Ukrainian studies can bring together different academic and professional perspectives.

Europa-Universität Viadrina is one of 261 institutions from 30 European countries that have co-signed the joint statement "For an explicit recognition of European University Alliances as pillars of Europe's competitiveness, sovereignty and skills". The statement calls on the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament to acknowledge the role of the Alliances in the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework and in the European Competitiveness Fund.

From 14 to 16 September 2026, 40 writing advisers discussed their work and current challenges at the Student Writing Peer Tutors’ Conference (SPTK) at Viadrina – ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to ADHD. The conference, which takes place annually at various German universities, thus returned to Viadrina University, where it was first organised by students for students in 2008.

More than 150 participants and 30 speakers from academia, business and international organisations gathered at the European University Viadrina on 7 and 8 September 2026 for the 16th Global Governance & Integrity Forum. For the first time, around 20 partner organisations took part in the conference, including the OECD, the UN Global Compact, Transparency International and the Basel Institute on Governance.

Four students from Viadrina University took part in the ‘International Student Seminar for Global Citizenship and Peace’ in Hiroshima, Japan, from 4 to 12 August 2026. Together with other students from the International Network of Universities (INU) from Japan, Argentina, Indonesia, the UK, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, South Korea and the USA, they discussed the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This year’s seminar marked the end of the three-year academic leadership of the programme by Viadrina law professor Prof. Dr Carmen Thiele.

Students, researchers, activists and artists from 16 countries worked together at the twelfth edition of the Viadrinicum Summer School from 16 to 30 August 2026. Under the title ‘Practising Urban Junctures: The Cooperative City and Its Social Implications’, they explored, amongst other things, forms of communal living, experimented with future urban planning concepts and – in a very practical and sustainable way – built street furniture.

Sahra Damus is currently the Sustainability Officer at Viadrina and also works with the European Reform Universities Alliance (ERUA), where sustainability is a key focus. Her career has taken her from research and equality work at Viadrina to five years as a member of the Brandenburger Landtag (Brandenburg State Parliament), before returning to the university. In this interview she talks about her way into politics, how a Viadrina inititiave paved her way to the UN in Vienna and why it is interesting to step out of the Viadrina bubble from time to time.

From 6 to 17 July 2026, 39 students from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe attended this year’s summer school, ‘The European System of Human Rights Protection’, at Viadrina. Seminars, lectures and a concluding moot court focused on European issues relating to the protection of human rights. The participants particularly appreciated the open and critical discussions and the international atmosphere of the summer school.

How are values changing across societies, and what role do cultural differences still play in understanding political and social issues? Master’s students from the European Studies programme spoke with Professor Serdar Karabatı, currently a visiting professor at Viadrina, about emancipative values, social change, the development of Istanbul Bilgi University and his experience of teaching in Frankfurt (Oder).

Mohammad Arafat Intisher completed his Master’s in Digital Entrepreneurship at the European New School of Digital Studies at Viadrina in 2023. Besides his studies he was engaged in the role of the Anti-Racism Representative. He is currently working as an Associate Engineer in Core Data & Control Technology at Deutsche Bank. Fluent in Bangla, English, and German, he has built a global academic and professional journey shaped by both technical growth and community engagement.

27 June 2026 was Graduation Day at Viadrina: more than 200 graduates from all three Faculties and the European New School of Digital Studies (ENS) received their degrees, including Bachelor’s and Master’s graduates as well as PhD students. The President and the Deans offered their congratulations during the graduation ceremonies, whilst also reminding the graduates of their social responsibilities. In their speeches, the graduates highlighted what makes studying at Viadrina so special.

From 15 to 20 June 2026, 15 students from Viadrina and Touro University visited sites associated with former Jewish life and the Holocaust in the Lublin region and spoke to eyewitnesses. The excursion was organised by the French non-profit organisation Yahad In Unum. It formed part of a seminar on the so-called ‘Holocaust by bullets’, which was jointly taught by Dr habil. Frank Grelka (Viadrina) and Prof. Dr Stephan Lehnstaedt (Touro University).

Three days, dozens of programme items, hundreds of participants – that was the premiere of the Fake News Festival from 18 to 20 June 2026. The programme featured high-profile keynotes and discussions, workshops for everyone, academic debate and entertainment. The concept developed by festival organisers Prof Dr Charlotte Köhler and Ira Helten – to offer content for people of different age groups, levels of prior knowledge and interests – proved successful. Together, they discussed the major societal challenges of our time amid disco balls and tinsel.

Watching football as a seminar assignment – for students of Prof. Dr. Cornelia Müller, this is currently part of everyday academic life. Referring to the ongoing Men’s Football World Cup, they are analysing bodily gestures in international football and asking themselves: What is authentic here, and what is staged? The students’ findings offer insights into a world between highly professional brand-building and private outbursts of emotion. Connecting teaching to students’ interests and lifeworlds is one of Cornelia Müller’s guiding principles.

Roksana Rybicka is one of 15 students from across Germany who have been selected for the DigitalChangeMaker initiative run by the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD). In this role, she will speak at the University Future Festival in Berlin and Graz on 22 and 23 June 2026, discussing, amongst other things, how AI is changing the way we study. She is studying law and Digital Entrepreneurship at Viadrina University, works as a writing tutor at the Center for Teaching and Learning, and is founding two start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence. In this interview, she explains what her mission as a Digital Changemaker is and why AI does not take over our thinking.

Town twinning is about much more than choir meetings, fundraising campaigns for relief supplies and youth exchanges. Dr Susann Worschech from the European University Viadrina and Prof. Dr Jarosław Jańczak from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań are investigating the role they play in international diplomacy as part of their project ‘Paradiplomacy: Soft power in heavy shelling’. The focus is on partnerships between German, Polish and Ukrainian towns and cities, and on how these relationships have changed in the face of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

On 10 June 2026, the European University Viadrina opened its doors to prospective students. More than 400 pupils, accompanied by their parents and teachers from the Brandenburg region and Poland, took advantage of the wide range of information available to ask questions about studying at the Viadrina and life in the European border cities of Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice.

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.

Hours of waiting at checkpoints, constant checks on papers, fears for sick family members - sociologist Prof Dr Oksana Mikheieva has been researching the everyday lives of people in and from the occupied territories in Ukraine for many years. In the summer semester of 2026, she is teaching at Viadrina as a visiting professor at the KIU - Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies on this topic and reaching students with her special teaching.

Seven students from the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Viadrina have presented their final theses at the Wirtschaftsjuniorenpreis 2025 on 29 May 2026 in Erkner. Suman Schaffa took first place with her thesis on the role of European innovation ecosystems for the green transformation of the EU. The Wirtschaftsjuniorenpreis has been awarded annually by the Wirtschaftsjunioren Ostbrandenburg for more than 20 years and honours particularly committed Viadrina students.

Philip Panek is a graduate of the German-Polish Law (GPL) program at European University Viadrina and Collegium Polonicum. He grew up in Germany to Polish parents and has always felt closely connected to both countries and legal cultures. With native-level German and Polish, he is particularly interested in cross-border legal work and the practical application of law.

The light rain could not harm the runners on the evening of 20 May 2026: At this year's ViaRunning, around 200 Viadrina students and employees as well as running enthusiasts from the region were once again out and about together - for exercise, encounters and a good cause. The four-kilometre route took them across the island of Ziegenwerder twice. A cheerleading group from Fürstenwalde provided an extra dose of motivation.

With a festive ceremony on 6 May 2026, the graduates of the Master’s programme in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the European University Viadrina were officially honoured. Ten graduates from Austria, Germany, India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Ireland, Pakistan and Denmark successfully completed their studies. Family members and friends accompanied the graduates on this special day.

What happens when 15 researchers from across Europe come together to write for four days? According to those who were there: sometimes a small miracle.

What began as a student idea in the cosmos of the ERUA university alliance ended in a week full of music, exchange and European spirit. For the first time, musicians from universities in Italy, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Lithuania came together at ERUAvision in the first week of May 2026. They presented their self-written songs at the Kleist Forum in Frankfurt, competing with the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which takes place this weekend in Vienna.

The Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Viadrina hosted the first Brown Bag Seminar "Research with a Focus on Central and Eastern Europe" on 29 April 2026. The event was the first in a series of research seminars designed to strengthen academic exchange between Viadrina and universities from Central and Eastern Europe on a permanent basis. It was initiated by Dr Miriam Maske (Deputy Professor of Controlling) and Prof Dr Drahomir Klimsa (Junior Professor of Taxation and Accounting).

The ERLab Bootcamp 2026 concluded with an impressive final event at the Gravity Building of Campus Founders. For one week, the Bildungscampus Heilbronn was transformed into a European innovation lab: as part of the ERLab Days, international students, academics, and innovation stakeholders from the European university alliance ERUA collaborated on real societal and economic challenges – developing solutions with genuine practical relevance.

Intense discussions in working groups, prominent public events and valuable opportunities for exchange were offered at the two-day networking event "Doing Democracy: Connecting Academia and Civil Society Across Borders" on 23 and 24 April 2026 in Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice. The event was organised by the Viadrina and the Social Science Institute of the SWPS University of Warsaw as part of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA).

As part of the EU-funded PROSPER project, Viadrina and its strategic partner Panthéon-Sorbonne / Paris 1 visited two key partner institutions in Kenya: the University of Eldoret and the Open University of Kenya in the emerging technology centre Konza Technopolis. The aim of the trip, at the end of March/beginning of April 2026, was to deepen cooperation in the field of digital higher education and at the same time to strengthen the area of international relations in order to further develop future international cooperation.

Chornobyl was a major technological project that was part of Soviet power politics - and ultimately paved the way for Ukraine's independence by triggering protests. Forty years after the reactor accident on 26th of april 1986, the fear of a nuclear catastrophe due to the Russian full-scale invasion has taken on a new meaning. An interview with historian Klaus Gestwa.

On this evening, the foyer is as full as it was when the old canteen was still open: more than 400 guests have come to experience the opening of the Viadrina Coworking Space on 15 April 2026. The atmosphere is full of expectation and curiosity. "The first good news is: the coworking space is finally completed. The second good news is that I'm the last speaker before we get started," says the visibly cheerful Minister of Science of the State of Brandenburg, Dr Manja Schüle, as she welcomes everyone. Together with Viadrina President Prof Dr Eduard Mühle and the student representative on the Presidential Board, Jendrik Fabisch, she cuts the blue ribbon. This marks the official opening of the new learning, work and meeting place.

What is the significance of labour in times of the platform economy, financial markets and social change? Former SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert (now Head of Taxation, Distribution and Lobbying at finanzwende e.V.) discussed this topic together with Viadrina economist Prof. Dr Jana Costas at the Viadrina Debate on 15 April 2026 to kick off the summer semester. The discussion with the audience centred on the questions of how working environments are changing, why traditional promises of advancement are becoming fragile - and who benefits from change.

Julia Szuleta is studying German and Polish Law at Viadrina and is actively involved in several initiatives. In this interview, she talks about her work with the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), and as a staff member at the Equal Opportunity Division. Her advice to all future students: “Take every opportunity that comes your way.”

Viadrina's coworking space will be officially opened on 15 April. After five years of construction and a number of structural challenges, the campus will have one more innovative learning, working and meeting space. Shortly before the opening, Peggy Walter from Viadrina's Technical Building and Construction Management tells us about the special features of the building, its future use and where traces of history can be discovered.

Students have summarised the results from the seminar "From Borders to Bridges" by guest lecturer Dr Naum Trajanovski at the Viadrina in an exhibition. The posters will be on display on the first floor of the Gräfin-Dönhoff-Building from 30 March to 30 April 2026. They illustrate how the sociologist from the University of Warsaw and his students have researched the interstate relations in Europe and lines of conflict in the politics of remembrance. For student Camille Poli, exploring the German-Polish Doppelstadt Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice was particularly interesting.

How can intangible cultural heritage be protected? And what happens to churches, for example, if their original meaning is lost? Administrative law expert Dr Clizia Franceschini is researching such questions in the INHERENT project (Intangible Religious Heritage and Religious Groups in national, european and global contexts) - including the example of Brandenburg. She is working at the Viadrina for three years as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. On 24 and 25 March 2026, she brought together experts from Europe, North America, Australia and Latin America at an online workshop.

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.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the whole country has been at war. How do current restrictions, for example on parliament and the media, determine post-war democracy? Anastasia Rodi is researching this as part of the PhD programme of the Competence Network for Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies (KIU). She talks about her dissertation project "Demining Democracy" in an interview.

Natalie Freiin von Beust was awarded the Joseph T. McLaughlin Original Student Article Award on 12 February 2026 for her final thesis on the opportunities and risks of third-party financing in international arbitration proceedings. The International Centre for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) honoured the Viadrina graduate at its annual conference in San Diego. Natalie von Beust studied Mediation and Conflict Management at Viadrina from 2023 to 2025. She is now a litigation lawyer and dispute resolution expert in Nuremberg.

Prof. Dr Václav Štětka was appointed Professor of Digital Political Communication at the European New School of Digital Studies (ENS) at Viadrina on 10 February 2026. The communication scientist and sociologist researches the connection between a changing information environment and the rise of illiberalism and populism, particularly in Eastern Central Europe. In this interview, he also talks about what Western democracies should learn from experiences made in countries such as Hungary.

She studied and did an internship in South Africa, taught German in India and coordinated the programme work of the Goethe-Institut in Central Eastern Europe in the Czech Republic - today Luisa Rath-John manages the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles. She explains why studying Cultural Studies has opened up the world to her and what challenges she is mastering in Los Angeles far away from the film sets. She also gives current students advise for an international career.

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”.

Since 2014, Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast has been Professor of Interdisciplinary Polish Studies at the European University Viadrina’s Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. She also serves as Chair of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies (VCPU). But her connection to Viadrina goes back to its very beginnings: she was among the first students to enroll when the university was re-founded in 1992. In this interview, she talks about those pioneering years, her personal journey across borders, and the future of Viadrina as one of Germany’s most international universities.