Under this heading we regularly present current research projects of our School. In the archive you will find all research projects presented so far in chronological order.

To view our more recent presentations of research projects, please refer to the German website.

Table of contents

1. 1. 2022
      1. TU Dresden supports nursing trainees and their practical instructors
      2. The junior research group GAP presents its research "Gender shares in ESF projects university and research"
      3. Theater of translation. Dynamics and constellations of translation and degradation in 21st century theater and performance
      4. Media use and political engagement
      5. Networks under socialism - TUD researches global art relations in the GDR
      6. With the educational game LIS 2.0 through the Bohemian-Saxon literary landscape
      7. Internet memes, videos of police violence and protests on social media
   2. 2021
      1. SMARTI - Support for Innovative Methodology, Approaches and Tools for Teaching through the Medium of English in order to improve Educational Yield, Sustainability and Internationalization
      2. Foreign affinities. A cultural poetics of trees (Making Kin with Trees)
   3. 2020
      1. Expedition Anthropocene: TU Dresden musicologist follows in the footsteps of Alexander Humboldt
      2. Barrier-free communication: audio version of a guided tour of Meissen Albrechtsburg Castle
   4. 2019
      1. 'Vegetal Poetics' - a success story of the Open Topic Postdoc programme
      2. Best Manager Presentation Award based on the Dresden model presented for the third time
   5. 2018
      1. kultura.digital – New web portal connects contemporary art in the German-Czech border region
      2. Text work seen in its entirety
      3. DEAR HUMANS, ... ART SCIENCE LAB I
      4. Summer, sun, vacation: I am writing a postcard.
      5. Migration and Democracy - How does migration affect political systems and developments?
      6. TU Dresden partner in the construction of a Big Data Time Machine

2022

TU Dresden supports nursing trainees and their practical instructors

Nursing staff are still desperately sought after and young talent is urgently needed, but around a quarter of all nursing trainees drop out of training. There are many reasons for this, but not least the lack of support for nursing students and their practical instructors. In addition, the reformed generalist nursing training program has added new areas of responsibility for practical instructors. Those involved in training need support to cope with these new requirements. Anja Walter, Chair of Health and Nursing / Vocational Didactics and Jonas Hänel - both from the Faculty of Education at TU Dresden - now want to close this gap. Under their leadership, the advice center for practical nursing training for practical instructors and trainees will be created, which will be developed and established at TU Dresden from September 1, 2022. more

The junior research group GAP presents its research "Gender shares in ESF projects university and research"

Women are still severely underrepresented in the German research landscape. In addition, the higher you climb up the hierarchy, the lower the proportion of female scientists. This imbalance is also reflected in the distribution of funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) at Saxon universities. For this reason, the TUD Dresden University of Technology, Chemnitz and Freiberg as well as the universities of Mittweida and Zittau-Görlitz have sent scientists to a junior research group that has been conducting interdisciplinary research into the causes of the unequal gender participation within the university system since October 2020. more

Theater of translation. Dynamics and constellations of translation and degradation in 21st century theater and performance

From October 2022, the three-year term of the DFG-funded project Theater der Trans-lation. Dynamics and Constellations of Translation and Disparagement in 21st Century Theatre and Performance under the direction of Prof. Lars Koch and Dr. Julia Prager.

Further information under: Research projects

Media use and political engagement

How do people who do not see themselves as part of the political and social mainstream inform themselves - on Telegram, online portals or among friends? What technical skills do they develop through their information behaviour - do they learn encryption and programming or are they more concerned with maximizing likes on Facebook? These questions are the focus of the interdisciplinary project "Media Use and Political Engagement", on which Dr. Johanna E. Möller (IfK), Dr. Lucas von Ramin (Emerging Field of Social Change) and Luise Anter (IfK) are working. To answer their research questions, the researchers are conducting qualitative guided interviews with very different people who do not see themselves as part of the political and social mainstream. A particular focus is on the question of what role political reflection skills play in the development of information environments and technology skills.

Johanna E. Möller:
Lucas von Ramin:
Luise Anter:

Networks under socialism - TUD researches global art relations in the GDR

Art production in the GDR is often characterized by stereotypes and prejudices - such as provincialism and self-referentiality - and has been the subject of controversial debate since the 1990s. However, the idea that the GDR closed off its art scene does not fit with the fact that there were numerous contacts abroad. Even if these were regulated and strategically deployed, or had to take place secretly, there are many traces of these relationships, which have so far only been dealt with selectively. Under the direction of Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler, the research group "Art in Networks. The GDR and its Global Relations" is investigating international relations in the field of art in the GDR. more

With the educational game LIS 2.0 through the Bohemian-Saxon literary landscape

The diversity and traces of the Bohemian-Saxon literary landscape go far beyond the fame of big names such as Kästner or Kafka and can be found on both sides of the German-Czech border. In Liberec, the House of the Two Sphinxes commemorates Božena Němcová, the author of the film Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella, and Jurij Brězan's and Otfried Preußler's stories of Krabat attract many visitors to the Krabat Mill near Schwarzkollm. While the project "Bohemian-Saxon literary landscape - a literary information system"(LIS, 2017-2020) initially focused on all those interested in literature, the follow-up project LIS 2.0 now concentrates on pupils from Saxony and the Czech Republic from year 5 onwards. more

Internet memes, videos of police violence and protests on social media

Who hasn't seen them: pictures of demonstrations, videos of violence or internet memes of politicians that go viral on social networks. What role do these images play in protests? Do they trigger the action, do they merely document the events or are they themselves to be understood as actors? Prof. Kerstin Schankweiler, Chair of Visual Culture in the Global Context, Dr. Verena Straub and Tanja-Bianca Schmidt are investigating these and other questions in the DFG research project: "Image Protests in Social Media: Internet Memes, Videos of Police Violence and References to Art". more

2021

SMARTI - Support for Innovative Methodology, Approaches and Tools for Teaching through the Medium of English in order to improve Educational Yield, Sustainability and Internationalization

The "SMARTI" project, coordinated by the TUD under the direction of Prof. Christian Prunitsch, was launched in January 2021. The EU-funded project trains teaching staff at Russian and Armenian partner universities to teach in English. The aim is to increase the internationalization of the respective universities. "SMARTI" was funded by the EU with one million euros and will run for three years. The project involves collaboration with other universities, such as Liverpool and Latvia. In future, EMI (English as a Medium for Instruction) centers are to be set up at the respective universities, as well as a dedicated homepage for the project and a handbook with the collected specialist knowledge on English-language teaching. more

Foreign affinities. A cultural poetics of trees (Making Kin with Trees)

They line avenues, green our cities, provide a pleasant climate wherever they are to be found and without them places often seem dreary: trees shape our perception and are also a popular motif in literature. Dr. Solvejg Nitzke, Research Associate at the Chair of Media Studies and Modern German Literature, has been working intensively on the relationship between humans and trees since 2017 and is now planning her project "Fremde Verwandtschaft. A Cultural Poetics of Trees (Making Kin with Trees)', which is funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, to lay a comparative theoretical foundation in order to systematize tree narratives. In doing so, she wants to show that trees have a cultural-poetic effect and create spaces of reference and reflection for narrators and readers. more

2020

Expedition Anthropocene: TU Dresden musicologist follows in the footsteps of Alexander Humboldt

March 2020
We are living in a new geological era, the Anthropocene, which is characterized by strong human intervention in the Earth system. Six members of the Junge Akademie from a wide range of disciplines set off on a journey of discovery on February 22, 2020. They are looking for the traces that we humans have left behind in the environment. Like Alexander Humboldt 200 years ago, the scientists are heading to Ecuador and the Chimborazo volcano. Junior Professor Dr. Miriam Akkermann from the Institute of Art and Music at TU Dresden is part of the expedition and will be conducting sound ecology studies at various altitudes. more

Barrier-free communication: audio version of a guided tour of Meissen Albrechtsburg Castle

February 2020
In the summer semester 2019, an audio guide in understandable language for a guided tour through the Albrechtsburg Meissen was created in the seminar "Barrier-free communication". The audio guide is based on texts that students created together with children, young people and adults from Christliches Sozialwerk. They were supported by employees of Albrechtsburg Meissen, the Chair of German Linguistics and Language History and the VERSO Dresden team. The audio guide is available online free of charge in an audio version and a text version. more

2019

'Vegetal Poetics' - a success story of the Open Topic Postdoc programme

June 2019
The fact that the first international conference (6-8 June 2019) of the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network (LCPSN) will take place in Dresden is in some respects only logical. Botanical and forest botanical research in Dresden and Tharandt has a long tradition not only at Technische Universität Dresden but also in numerous botanical societies. What is perhaps more surprising is that this is a literary and cultural science event. Interdisciplinarity is a decisive factor in this field: plant research in literature and cultural studies is dedicated to 'green' life not only as a motif and subject of historical and current (literary) discourses. more

Best Manager Presentation Award based on the Dresden model presented for the third time

January 2019
In 2018, Timotheus Höttges (Telekom) succeeds in giving the most convincing manager presentation at the company's shareholders' meeting. This is the result of a study at TU Dresden based on the Dresden model for the analysis of management communication (DMAMK), which analyses speeches by CEOs of listed companies and family businesses with regard to comprehensibility, rhetorical skills, their correspondence with the corporate identity of the company and the staging of the presentation.

Under the direction of Dr. Evelyn Koch from the Institute of German Studies at TU Dresden, students of the Management Communication seminar analyse company presentations. Dr. Evelyn Koch, responsible for the thematic focus of rhetorical design, is supported by Prof. Alexander Lasch (Corporate Communications) and Dr. Regina Bergmann (Comprehensibility). more

2018

kultura.digital – New web portal connects contemporary art in the German-Czech border region

December 2018                                             From the museum to the project space, from the studio to the public space: Contemporary art offers exist in many different ways - you just have to find them. Whether a small gallery or graffiti art in hidden places, potentially interested visitors often lack information about where these experiences await them. It is contemporary art that identifies and negotiates socially relevant themes. In order to convey the power of the artistic impulse into the everyday world of people, it is important to facilitate easy access. Places and events of contemporary art must become visible, approachable, and accessible for everyone. The website kultura.digital facilitates the uncomplicated experience of the diverse contemporary art in the German-Czech border region.

"We connect the locations of art with people - across borders and languages," explains project manager Prof. Hans Vorländer. The daily updated portal "kultura.digital" offers a tool that has not existed before. Using the modulator, users can prepare individual tours and either save them or immediately go on a journey. All content is available free of charge in German, Czech and English. more

Text work seen in its entirety

November 2018                                     Scholars of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the library SLUB Dresden, and other cooperation partners are developing the SLUB TextLab. As in a Makerspace, the TextLab allows to experiment with different analog and digital properties of the (text) material: How are own texts written in the three-part writing process structure/raw text/correction? How are text sources edited in order to annotate them digitally and to enrich them with further information? Which digital methods are suitable for their analysis, and how can text-based research results be visualised? more

DEAR HUMANS, ... ART SCIENCE LAB I

October 2018 
Issues of digitisation, artificial intelligence, and their effects on different areas of life are more and more on the agenda not only in different scientific areas, but also discussed in society.

It is at the interface between science and society that the arts come into play: In a new long-term project, the Office for Academic Heritage of TU Dresden brings together artists and scientists. Under the heading DEAR HUMANS, ..., Institutes and Research Groups of TU Dresden will develop and pursue joint research questions over a period of two years. more

Summer, sun, vacation: I am writing a postcard.

August 2018
We all have probably got and written one. Until a few years ago, vacation postcards were a must when travelling. They illustrated what holidays one was able to enjoy and afford. But travellers also used them to show that they were thinking of their beloved ones at home. The project 'Text type developments between standardisation and variation: The example of the postcard. Text and corpus linguistic analyses on the pattern of private correspondence and everyday writing' explores how the idea of vacation has changed in recent decades.

"Our research project is a cooperation between the University of Zurich and Technische Universität Dresden", explains Josephine Obert, PhD student with Prof. Joachim Scharloth. "It is run in collaboration with Dr. Noah Bubenhofer from the Institute of Computational Linguistics and Prof. Dr. Heiko Hausendorf, Professor of German Linguistics at the University of Zurich, and Prof. Dr. Joachim Scharloth, Chair of Applied Linguistics at TU Dresden." more

Migration and Democracy - How does migration affect political systems and developments?

June 2018                                                  MIDEM - the Mercator Forum for Migration and Democracy - is a research center of Technische Universität Dresden in cooperation with Universität Duisburg-Essen, funded by Stiftung Mercator. The Mercator Forum for Migration and Democracy (MIDEM) examines how migration influences democratic policies, institutions, and cultures and how, at the same time, it is influenced by these. It examines forms, instruments, and processes of the political management of migration in democratic societies - both in individual countries and in a comparative perspective on Europe. more

TU Dresden partner in the construction of a Big Data Time Machine

February 2018                                                What would the world look like if we could access documents from the past just as easily as we can access data from the present? Could we use it to make better forecasts for the future? Would it be possible to shape climate change and development more consciously on the basis of comprehensively documented records? Can historical 4D simulations improve our knowledge of European history? Which innovative business models promote tourism, transport, and planning?

The FET flagship project Time Machine, of which TU Dresden is a founding member, investigates these questions. Dr. Sander Münster and Stephan Schwartzkopff from the Media Center of TU Dresden will organise the development of the German support community. more