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.

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Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott

Kiel University, Philosophy

Heuristics of fear in times of climate change.

Prof. Dr. André Calero Valdez

Lübeck University, Computer Science

Digital Interfaces for Climate 
Can digital technology be designed in a way that improves climate-protective behavior on an individual and on a societal level?
How does storytelling in visualization impact the perception in the public? How can visual communication of data urge people to take action, but not drown them in anxiety?
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 itselfread 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

How do technology and AI-based media impact opinion formation and fear. Can digitale media and its protocols be design to foster information exchange between different groups in a population without increasing polarization?
Does xenophobia increase in filter bubbles and between member of different bubbles?
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.

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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

Understanding the impact of opinion formation, fear and behavior on pandemic preparedness by using simulation. 

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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