Lectures in the fields of sustainability, digitalisation, media studies, music, history and religion - Paderborn University is once again inviting all interested parties to attend various lecture series on socially relevant topics in the 2025 summer semester. Lecturers and researchers from the five faculties, as well as external experts, will deal with a wide range of scientific aspects every week. It is not necessary to register for the events in advance.
"UPB for Future"
During the summer semester, students and interested members of the public are invited to lecture theatre L1 at Paderborn University on Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m. to explore sustainability as one of the most pressing issues of our time as part of the "UP B for Future" lecture series. Not only researchers from all five faculties and the PLAZ - Professional School of Education, but also external speakers will share their thoughts and perspectives. Vlogger, journalist and presenter Mirko Drotschmann ("MrWissen2go") will open the series of events on Thursday, 10 April in the Audimax with a lecture on "Tutoring on the Couch: Why Education is Booming on YouTube and Co.".
"Cultural Perspectives on Power"
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Paderborn University is continuing the international lecture series that was successfully established last winter semester. Under the title "Cultural Perspectives on Power", the series of events in the summer semester 2025 is dedicated to the multifaceted topic of "power" from interdisciplinary and international perspectives. The lectures, which will be held in English, will take place every Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. in lecture theatre O1 at Paderborn University. Prof. Dr Jacob Rump from Creighton University in the USA and Prof. Dr Felix Ó Murchadha from the University of Galway in Ireland are two international academics who will also be guests. On Wednesday, 9 April, the series will start with a lecture by Prof. Dr Sebastian Luft from Paderborn University on the topic "It's All About Power, Stupid! - On a Questionable Paradigm".
"Music, demons and despots"
Under the direction of Melissa Maria Korbmacher and Dr Anna Ricke from the Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Seminar, the lecture series "Music, Demons and Despots" will take place in the Kuppelsaal at Detmold University of Music. On Wednesdays from 6.15 pm to 7.45 pm, the lecturers will focus on the soundscapes of "evil" figures, such as tyrants, villains and demons, from medieval music to heavy metal. The series begins on Wednesday, 23 April, with a lecture by Melissa Maria Korbmacher entitled "Topos Tyrann. Nero in the opera of the Baroque".
International lecture series on the biblical figures Sarah and Hagar
The advanced seminar at the Institute for Protestant Theology at Paderborn University is offering lectures in English on the biblical figures of Sarah and Hagar on two Wednesday evenings in the coming summer semester. The events will take place in cooperation with the Paderborn Centre for Comparative Theology and Cultural Studies (ZeKK) as well as teachers and students from John Carroll University and the Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding from the USA, who will be connected digitally for part of each evening. Participants will have the opportunity to follow the lectures digitally or in person in room L1.201.
Elementary ontologies and media between politicisation and depoliticisation
The Institute of Media Studies is organising a new lecture series on the topic of "Elementary ontologies and media between politicisation and depoliticisation". Debates will be taken up that question the proclamation of the Anthropocene as the geological age of mankind and address a shift towards the "natural", material and elementary that can be observed in this context. These approaches, which have been increasingly received in media studies in recent years, will be scrutinised in the lecture series for their potential, but also for their problems. The lecture series will take place on Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. in room E2.339 and will start on Tuesday, 29 April with a lecture by Dr. Veit Braun from Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
Current research from the history of the 19th to 21st centuries
The departments of Modern/Modern History and Contemporary History at Paderborn University's Department of History are organising a lecture series in the summer semester on the topic of "Current research from 19th to 21st century history", in which national and international academics will give lectures. The events take place on Tuesdays from 4.15 to 5.45 pm in room O1.224. Dr phil. Medardus Brehl from Ruhr University Bochum will open the series on Tuesday, 22 April, with a lecture on "Die Welt-Anschauer. Political aesthetics and self-empowerment in Nazi autonarratives of the Kampfzeit".
