Veranstaltungsverzeichnis

Department of Social Sciences

• English course offer for exchange students :
• School of Educational and Social Sciences
• Department of Social Sciences

Summer semester 2026 8 Seminars

VAK Course Number	Title	Type Lecture Preliminary studies Advanced courses Practical course Colloquium Research group Workgroup Project group Council conference Internship Language course Subject didactics Excursion Tutorial Committee	SWS Semester weekly hours	Teachers	Degree
1.07.452	Qualitative research methods Tuesday, 10:00 - 12:00, Weekly (from 07.04.26) Thursday, 23.07.26, 10:00 - 11:00 o'clock Wednesday, 16.09.26, 10:00 - 11:00 o'clock Description:	Seminar	2	Douglas Becker, M.A.	Master
1.07.472	Internship Supervision Monday, 12:00 - 14:00, Weekly (from 13.04.26) Description:	Colloquium	2	Dr. Sven Broschinski	Master
1.07.471	Project Coaching Monday, 10:00 - 12:00, Weekly (from 13.04.26) Description: This course will accompany students in the beginnings of writing their "project" report. We will cover those topics that are relevant for the participants, e.g. scientific writing, research methods, structuring a report, etc. It should be visited in the second semester of the Master programme.	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Jannika Mattes	Master
1.07.481	Reading Course: Stefan Kühl: Ordinary Organizations. Why Normal Men Carried Out the Holocaust Tuesday, 12:00 - 14:00, Weekly (from 07.04.26) Description: In our course we will read and discuss Stefan Kühl’s book “Ordinary Organizations”. Kühl asks, why so many Germans actively participated in the extermination of the European Jews. He proposes the theory of the ‘ordinary organisation’ - a bundle of organisational mechanisms and norms that ensured the willingness of members without political motives to participate. While prior sociological explanations of the Holocaust have often emphasized individual motivations or broad cultural factors, Kühl's approach shifts the focus to the organizational dimensions of social action and structure. After some introductory sessions outlining key theoretical contributions to the sociology of the Holocaust (e.g. by Zygmunt Bauman), we will turn to Stefan Kühl’s Normal Organizations. We will read and discuss selected chapters to examine how formal organizations shape behavior and meaning in this specific historical contexts. Special attention will be given to how organizational mechanisms—such as rules, hierarchies, and membership boundaries—can illuminate dynamics that individualistic or purely cultural accounts might overlook.	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Sina Farzin	Master
1.07.462	Digital Transformation, Technological Change and Life Course Inequalities Tuesday, 14:00 - 16:00, Weekly (from 07.04.26) Description: Technological change and the digital transformation have brought about significant implications for social inequality. This MA course aims to explore the multifaceted impact of these changes on various aspects of life and society. While previous research has particularly focused on labour market transformations and changes in skill requirements, the effects of digital transformation and technological change have the potential to reverberate throughout society, influencing inequalities across different domains of life, such as education, employment, health, social security, and political participation, among others. The course examines the determinants and consequences of technological change and the digital transformation across different life stages and institutional settings, with a focus on the ways in which various groups in society, including gender, age, ethnicity, and regional populations, are impacted. Some of the example questions that will be explored in this course include: How do technological changes and digitalisation either exacerbate or alleviate social inequalities? What is the relationship between skill requirements in the workplace and the reproduction of social inequality? How do technological advancements benefit some groups, while leaving others behind? How do these changes impact political attitudes and participation? These and other pressing questions will be examined through a variety of theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, with the aim of providing a comprehensive understanding of the complex intersection between digital transformation, technological change, and social inequality.	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch	Master
1.07.442	Quantitative research methods Wednesday, 08:00 - 10:00, Weekly (from 08.04.26) Thursday, 16.07.26, 09:00 - 10:00 o'clock Description:	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schnettler, Ph.D.	Master
1.07.412	Collective Action Tuesday, 16:00 - 18:00, Weekly (from 07.04.26) Description: Social dilemmas form the core of many societal problems ranging from the international level (e.g. the fight against climate change) to interpersonal relations (e.g. work on a joint student project). In such situations, conflict arises frequently because individual and collective interests collide. In a typical social dilemma, mutual cooperation among all involved actors leads to an efficient collective outcome. However, all actors have an incentive to defect and free-ride on the other actors’ cooperation. Thus, if all actors follow their narrow self-interest, the community will not be able to reach their common goal. In this seminar, we will identify and discuss factors influencing the level of cooperation among actors in a large variety of different social dilemma situations. In doing so, we will take an interdisciplinary approach encompassing theories and methods from political science, sociology, economics, and social psychology.	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Jan Sauermann	Master
1.07.432	Learning and organisations Wednesday, 10:00 - 12:00, Weekly (from 08.04.26) Description:	Seminar	2	Prof. Dr. Tonio Oeftering	Master
8 Seminars