Teaching at the Chair of Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Research (Sociology)

The courses of the Chair are designed as subject matter-oriented empirical analyses of sociological theories and methods. In addition to classical receptive forms of appropriation and discussion of texts, targeted forms of learning are stimulated which enable understanding through practice and experience. These may be smaller practical exercises, field research units or joint interpretation of data. If possible, courses at an advanced level of study are linked to ongoing research projects of the Chair, so that students not only gain insights into real research processes, but can also make their own research contributions. Research workshops and the Research Colloquium are of particular importance, as they provide students and doctoral candidates with professional guidance and mutual support for the realisation of their own research work.

The use of digital technologies in teaching has become a standard feature at every university, so far without the associated changes in educational processes being systematically reflected. This is why in my courses that are thematically related to media cultures, media shift, or media education, e-Learning tools are not limited to pure use. Instead, students are encouraged to experiment with the possibilities of digital media and to reflect on their own cognitive processes in the context of the respective media form.

Qualitative social research, and ethnography in particular, offers suitable methods for acquiring reflexive competencies and for practising ambiguity tolerance-intolerance - skills that are not only an epistemological prerequisite for comparative cultural research, but which, in pluralised societies, are indispensable for professional self-observation and self-control in many other professions, too. In addition, sociology offers a useful tool for reflecting on one's own professional actions in the context of societal processes.