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Conference of the DFG research unit “Grammatiken im Wandel”

With the support of the Freunde der Universität Mannheim, the DFG research unit “Grammatiken im Wandel” (Transformation of grammars) held a conference at the University of Mannheim in April 2019. It was led by professor Tracey. Renowned linguists from Mannheim, Frankfurt, the USA, and Canada gave lectures on a range of interesting topics and held workshops on code switching and the computer-based analysis of corpora.

The 63rd annual conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK)took place between 9 and 11 May 2018 at the University of Mannheim on the topic of “Selbstbestimmung in der digitalen Welt” (Self-determination in the digital world). The DGPuK discussed how the conditions, types, and consequences of individual and collective self-determination change when society and the lives of individuals are permeated by digital media. Questions such as “What happens when individuals gain new expertise through digital media?” or “What does it mean for society when like-minded people connect online or argue with dissenters?” were the focus of this highly topical symposium supported by the Freunde der Universität Mannheim.

In March 2016, the Hermann Weber research colloquium on “Demokratie und Diktatur im geteilten Deutschland” (Democracy and dictatorship in divided Germany) took place in cooperation with the Freunde der Universität Mannheim and the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany. In accordance with Hermann Weber's research focus, this joint project of the chair of Contemporary History at the University of Mannheim and the Sozialdemokratischer Bildungsverein Mannheim/Ludwigshafen e.V. devoted a weekend to the relationship between political science and contemporary history, the history of inner-German relations and GDR research. Prof. Klaus Schönhovens, for example, gave the lecture “Gibt es eine gesamtdeutsche Vergangenheit?” (Is there an all-German past?), which was published in the Deutschland Archiv of the Federal Agency for Civic Education in Germany.

In August 2015, European economists met in Mannheim for the annual conference of the European Economic Association (EEA). Among them was Jean Tirole, recent Nobel laureate and recipient of the honorary doctorate at the University of Mannheim.

The Freunde der Universität Mannheim helped to finance the conference, which brought well over a thousand participants to the University of Mannheim. According to the industrial economist from Mannheim and chair of the conference committee Prof. Dr. Volker, the lectures and discussions covered a wide range of topics from the field of economics. Jean Tirole, for example, gave the lecture on market power and regulation that he had delivered the year before at the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Economics in Stockholm. The Princeton professor Eric Maskin, also a Nobel laureate in Economics, led a discussion about Tirole’s research. Other speakers were Stanford economist Ilya Segal and Cambridge economist Giancarlo Corsetti, among others. Segal is one of the world’s leading economic theorists whose research includes the optimal design of markets. Corsetti’s research focuses on current issues such as debt and financial crises.

Summer School “Africa on the Move”

In August 2022, the University of Mannheim, in cooperation with the Freunde der Universität Mannheim, hosted the Summer School “Africa on the Move: diaspora, mobility, migration, languages, culture, and economy – Researching transnational political, economic, linguistic, and cultural biographies in an inter- and transdisciplinary manner.”

The one-week summer school was organized and led by two doctoral students from the University of Mannheim. Participants were provided a platform for interdisciplinary exchange, enabling dialog between academia and society. They were thus able to deal with the topic of migration from different perspectives.