News 2026

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.