The Team

Dr. Jana Gerlach and Dr. Sabina García Peter work at the Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies (MvBZ) at Freie Universität Berlin.

Jana Gerlach is in charge of the Gender and Diversity in Teaching toolbox and regularly gives further training courses on diversity-sensitive and power-critical teaching. In view of the current threat to democratic values, she sees it as a central task to link the topics of diversity, sustainability and democracy education more closely in the future.

Sabina García Peter is responsible for the areas of support for researchers in early career phases, digitalization and science communication. She is committed to protecting academic freedom and emphasizing the relevance of gender research - especially in times when this area is under political attack.

About the Idea

Recognizing and tolerating differences and at the same time seeing ourselves as part of a larger community - that is the basis for shaping the future together and facing existential challenges such as the climate crisis. However, with the rise of populist ideologies and misanthropic narratives, these fundamental democratic values are increasingly under attack. The credibility of science - as a source of fact-based arguments and solutions - is also increasingly being called into question. How can universities and university teaching respond to this development? What knowledge do students need to understand and respond to the current democratic crisis? What skills are needed to communicate their own insights and learning processes beyond the academic context and to help shape public social discourse as agents of change?

Although knowledge transfer and communication skills are described as key future skills, regular courses often lack the resources and tried-and-tested expertise needed to test science-based communication strategies together. The “Sustainably impactful” teaching project aims to address this. In a seminar of the ABV area “Gender & Diversity Competence” in the summer semester 2025, we want to analyze the connection between the democratic crisis and anti-group narratives with students from different departments and develop communicative counter-strategies. Together with experts from the field, we will create our own small science communication projects (comic, infographic, podcast, video) in workshops. The results will be integrated into the Gender and Diversity in Teaching toolbox. They will therefore be freely available as long-term material for teachers and other interested parties.

Outlook

We are excited about the students' ideas and look forward to exchanging ideas with other actors from the fields of sustainability, democracy education and science communication at Freie Universität Berlin.

Contact

Jana Gerlach jana.gerlach@fu-berlin.de

Sabina García Peter sabina.garcia.peter@fu-berlin.de