Members
The individual scientists are the pillars of the project. Here you will find all active researchers working on the fields of research activities. Networking among each other is also intended – as are numerous contributing scientists from universities other than the founding partners at Columbia and Kiel.
Climate & Environment
Earth warming and ecology, environmental protection, sustainability, agriculture, climate justice, etc.
Dr. Anna Lena Bercht
Kiel University, Department of Geography
Anxiety in coastal fisheries: How identity salience matters in climate adaptation.
Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott
Kiel University, Philosophy
Heuristics of fear in times of climate change.
Prof. Dr. André Calero Valdez
Lübeck University, Computer Science
Prof. Dr. Silja Klepp
Kiel University
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frauke Nees
Kiel University, Institute for Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology
Reducing the impact of major environmental challenges on mental health (environMENTAL)
Abstract: Environmental challenges, from the gretaest global ones including climate change, urbanisation, and psychosocial stress caused by the COVID-19-pandemic, to very individual negative life events, family problems affect mental health, including anxiety, varying across the day and over the lifespan relating to individual decisions for risky or resilient behaviors. Those decisions are influenced by neurobehavioral microstates, including reward sensitivity or maladaptive stress reactivity, and have also been attributed to socioaffective cues… read full abstract
Prof. Raphaël Liogier
Sciences Po Aix,
Researcher at Sophiapol (University of Paris X -Nanterre)
Lilit Karapetyan, MA cand.
Kiel University, Institute of Romance Studies & Departement of Psychology
Armenophobia/Anti-Armenianism from intergroup and sociolinguistic perspectives
Prof. Dr. Rolf Kailuweit
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Institute of Romance Studies
Civil Society Reactions to Islamist Terror in Western Europe: Setting Signs in Analogue and Digital Spaces
Abstract: Since 9/11, Islamist attacks have changed western democracies forever. After the end of the Cold War, a new geopolitical antagonism emerged; Western political leaders called for a “war on terror” (Truc 2016). In addition to military operations, there were security policy measures with far-reaching consequences for civil society (CS). The security policy discourse of the decision-makers contrasts with the reactions of the CS to Grassroots Memorials (GM) (Margry & Sánchez-Carretero 2011 eds.)… read full abstract
Dr. phil. Anita Sauckel
University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Medieval Icelandic Studies, Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies
“They are properly frightened now.” Anxiety in the Sagas of Icelanders
Abstract: Studying emotions in different genres of medieval Icelandic literature has become a popular field of research in recent years: Fear and anxiety have played a major role in times of crisis throughout the centuries and have been addressed, processed, and functionalized in different ways. In medieval Icelandic literature, however, it seems, anxiety hasn’t been depicted to a great extent: This also holds true for the renown genre of Íslendingasögur, the “Sagas of Icelanders”… read full abstract
Dr. phil. habil. Jan Alexander van Nahl
University of Iceland, Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies
Associate Professor for Medieval Icelandic Literature
The domestication of anxiety – Handling contingency in medieval Icelandic literature
Abstract:
Medieval Icelandic literature, saga literature in particular, is often said to be composed along predefined structural and thematic patterns, which would reflect the actual nature of society in the medieval North. Saga scholarship has tried to demonstrate how the observing of certain rules in society and politics, or their breaking, would entail a predictable outcome—and predictability, after all, seems desirable… read full abstract
Marisa Stahl-Kügler, PhD cand.
Kiel University, Institute of Romance Studies
Anxometer – What does language do to anxiety?
The influence of multilingualism on the processing of anxiety.
Prof. Dr. Christina Schaefer
Kiel University, Institute of Romance Studies
Prof. Dr. phil. Timo Felber
Kiel University, Institute of German Studies
W3-Professorship for German Literature of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Age
The functionalization and coping of anxiety in the premodern age. Literary imaginations in medieval texts as forerunners of a recent culture of fear
Abstract: Anxiety is functionalized in very different ways in cultural products of the Middle Ages: terror and deterrence can be viewed and used in the political sphere as a legitimate instrument for securing power, fear of the punishment of the judging God can be used as a religious instrument, fear of the foreign, of social isolation and death is imagined in literature… read full abstract
Dr. Monica van der Haagen-Wulff
University of Cologne, Cultural Sociology in the Department of Education and Social Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities
Doctorate of Creative Arts (DCA), Associate Lecturer
hier: ACP-Forschungsthema
Abstract: We are interested in the question as to how affect-articulations and affective communication contribute towards shaping the social context of school life and thus provides information about the social conditions of migration societies at large. Following John Dewey, we understand school as a kind of societal microcosm of the wider society, in which the affectivity of the migration society is introduced and manifests itself… read full abstract
Maj-Britt Wesemeyer
Kiel University, Institute of Romance Studies
Dr. Anik Nandi
Departamento de Lingüística y Estudios Vascos, Universidad del País Vasco and School of Liberal Arts, Alliance University, India

Migration, Language, Culture and Discourse
Projects in this cluster cover a wide range of topics, including social integration, national isolationism, cultural identity, xenophobia, racism, etc.

Future of Politics, Work and Society/ Digitalization
Research and projects in this cluster are focused on the labor market and job prospects, communication and free speech, data protection, etc., in an environment of automation and digitalization.
Prof. Dr. Christian Martin
Kiel University, Political Science
The Empirics of Anxiety – Who Fears What and Why (Not).
Anxiety Index: The Digital Corpus of Anxiety Culture. Taxonomy (collection, classification and processing) of interdisciplinarily measured feelings of insecurity and anxiety in epidemiological (longitudinal) cohorts over the life span as well as construction of an anxiety index as an instrument for effective democratic system control, cooperation with Professor Frauke Nees
Prof. Dr. Elke Krahmann
Kiel University, International Relations and Security Studies
Can we combat anxiety in civil society by restoring ontological security? Or: What do the social sciences have to contribute when examining the consequences of technology has to be reflected?
Prof. Dr. André Calero Valdez
Lübeck University, Computer Science
Anne Metten, PhD cand.
Kiel University, Comparative Politics
Existential Anxieties and Right-Wing Populism in Europe – Why People Unconcerned by Globalization Vote Against it
Abstract: In recent years several contributions have made the argument that right-wing populist voting is interrelated with individuals being negatively affected by globalization. While there is certainly merit to this argument, it cannot explain why voters unconcerned by globalisation vote for right-wing populist parties… read full abstract
Michael Bayerlein, Doc. cand.
Kiel University, Comparative Politics & IfW Kiel, International Finance and Macroeconomics
Existential Anxieties and Right-Wing Populism in Europe – Why People Unconcerned by Globalization Vote Against it
Abstract: In recent years several contributions have made the argument that right-wing populist voting is interrelated with individuals being negatively affected by globalization. While there is certainly merit to this argument, it cannot explain why voters unconcerned by globalization vote for right-wing populist parties… read full abstract
Prof. Dr. John Allegrante
Columbia University, New York
Social and cultural anxiety: Interdisciplinary applied behavioral research in clinical epidemiology and health services research. Risk and protective factors in adolescent substance use and mental health.
Dr. Sonali Rajan, Associate Prof.
Columbia University, New York
Prof. Dr. Anya Pedersen
Kiel University, Department of Psychology
Institute Director and Managing Director of the University Outpatient Clinic for Psychotherapy at Kiel University
Prof. Dr. Angelika Messner
Kiel University
Emotion research and anxiety: Getting lost in-between the old and the new. Perspectives from Chinese contexts.
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Frauke Nees
Kiel University
Anxiety Index: The Digital Corpus of Anxiety Culture. Taxonomy (collection, classification and processing) of interdisciplinarily measured feelings of insecurity and anxiety in epidemiological (longitudinal) cohorts over the life span as well as construction of an anxiety index as an instrument for effective democratic system control, cooperation with Professor Christian Martin.
Prof. Dr. André Calero Valdez
Lübeck University, Computer Science

Population Health
Public health care, mental illness, drug-abuse, violence, chronic diseases, pandemics, etc.
Theory & Methodology
In a mutual approach of (Social / Natural) Sciences and Humanities, research on the different aspects of Anxiety Culture has to be carried out in a combination of methodological traditions and innovations, referring to data-sets and empirical findings in each area of investigation.
Prof. Dr. Dirk Nabers
Kiel University, Political Science and Sociology
Anxiety, crisis and social change.
Abstract: How do we define a crisis? The semantic expansion and multifaceted contents of the term to depict all kinds of catastrophe, emergency and predicament highlights a persisting conundrum within both scientific and public debates: It is far from evident what exactly the concept circumscribes apart from its sloppy everyday usage and how it is to be analysed beyond what has been proposed by theories of crisis management and decision-making. … read full abstract
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hoinkes
Kiel University, Linguistics
Anxiety Culture as a Global Paradigm Shift: Discursive Traditions Aware of In-security and Powerlessness, and their Potential for a New Social Dynamic. Diaspora and fears, with special reference to the case of Armenia.
Michael J. Schapira, PhD
Columbia University, New York
Prof. Dr. Natalia Filatkina
University of Hamburg, Germanic Linguistics / Digital Historical Linguistics
Constructing Anxiety and Fear through Language Use: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Abstract: As basic human emotions, fear and anxiety have been anchored in an interdisciplinary (neuroscientific, psychological and biological) scholarly context since the beginning of the research in these fields. However, humanities and cultural studies have shown that manifestations of fear and anxiety in verbal and visual artefacts should be considered not only a basic human emotion but also cultural and social phenomena and thus products of human construction and specific language use… read full abstract
Prof. Dr. Karen Struve
Bremen University, Romance Philology (Literature and Cultural Studies)
Frightening fractures: Discourses of Fear in Contemporary French Cultural Philosophy and Novel Production.
Prof. Dr. Paula Diehl
Kiel University, Political Science
Populism, Anxiety, and Identification. From Fear to Pleasure in Populism Dynamics and its Implications for Democracy.
PD Dr. Veith Selk
Technical University Darmstadt, Political Science
Dr. Elena Dück
Kiel University, Political Science
Anxiety, Identity and Otherness
Abstract: The rise of authoritarianism is accompanied by memory politics that promise the return to former greatness and alleged ‘true’ national identity. However, as identity constructions are necessarily instable discursive processes of re-construction and boundary drawing, no ‘true’ or stable identity can ever be achieved… read full abstract
Prof. Dr. Lars Gerhold
Free University Berlin
Critical security research: The development shift – from technical assistance to the coming automation of security.
Dr. Karena Kalmbach
Futurium Berlin
Prof. Dr. André Caldro Valdez
Lübeck University, Computer Science
Understanding and harmonizing human and technological needs by designing the interaction of socio-technical systems.
Dr. Markus Lemmens
KBHF GmbH at KIT – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Deep Technology: Bridging basic research and the finding of practical solutions as a contribution to an anxiety handling in civil societies.
Technology
The four research clusters and their scientific teams propose the topics for investigation individually but they investigate always the (possible) impact of „New Technologies“ and „Automation / Artificial Intelligence“ which are defined by each area.
Education & Outreach
Strong belief in an implementation of research findings in educational curriculums. This engagement covers a wide research communication approach as well. Digital tools will be combined with classical formats like conferences and one on one meetings. Science Diplomacy and political consultation is part of this aim.
Dr. Max Doppelbauer
Wien University
Prof. Dr. Caecilie Weissert
Kiel University