News 2026

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.