European University Viadrina starts the winter semester with important contributions to the debate

The European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) welcomes its new students. On Monday, October 6, the first semester students first came together on campus for welcome and information events. The afternoon was an entertaining and international get-together at the Kleist Forum, where the first-semester students were able to find out about the Viadrina, the twin city and the cultural offerings and talk to each other.

Socially relevant: Outlook for public events in the winter semester

Following the introductory week, the lecture period for the winter semester 2025/26 begins on Monday, October 13.

With numerous public events on currently relevant social topics, the researchers at the European University are also addressing interested visitors from the region. The topics range from right-wing extremism and the use of AI to everyday economic life in the border region and the challenges posed by the ecological crises of our time.

The event highlights include:

A Viadrina Debate will take place for the first time on Wednesday, October 15, 4.00 p.m. The topic of the first edition of the new event series is "Shifting power through AI: Who benefits, who loses?". The panel will discuss: Prof. Dr. Lena Ulbricht, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hildesheim, Dr. Ulf Buermeyer, lawyer and journalist and co-host of the podcast "Lage der Nation" and Prof. Dr. Philipp Hacker, Professor of Law and Ethics of the Digital Society at Viadrina.
For more information and registration

The Fringe Lecture "Beyond Sustainability: Humanities and Social Sciences Perspectives on the Ecological Crisis", to which the Viadrina Institute for European Studies (ifes) invites you in the winter semester, takes a humanities and social sciences perspective on ecological crises such as climate change and species extinction. On Monday, October 27, 4.15 p.m., the English-language, interdisciplinary lecture series will begin, examining the ecological crisis from various complementary perspectives.
Further information and a link for online participation

The lecture series "How to deal with right-wing extremism?" is dedicated to the social and political challenges posed by the rise of far-right and right-wing populist movements in lectures, discussions and workshop talks. Guests include bestselling author Tupoka Ogette ("Exit Racism") on Tuesday, November 11, political scientist Dr. Teresa Völker (Social Science Research Center Berlin) on Tuesday, December 9, and right-wing extremism researcher Prof. Dr. Heike Radvan (University of Tübingen) on Tuesday, January 6. The events start at 4.15 p.m. in the Logensaal of the Viadrina, Logenstraße 11.
To the program

The English-language Ukraine Lecture Series is about infrastructure and resilience. Every Tuesday at 11.00 a.m., international researchers will speak under the title "Infrastructural fragmentation, infrastructural resilience – Interdisciplinary perspectives on techno-politics and crisis" about attacks on physical infrastructure such as bridges and power plants as well as on non-physical infrastructure such as knowledge infrastructure, for example at universities and in civil society organizations. There will also be a discussion on how resilience can not only be achieved in response to attacks, but can also be supported as a preventative measure. The series begins on Tuesday, October 14, in lecture hall 08, Gräfin-Dönhoff-Gebäude, Europaplatz 1. 
Online participation is also possible. 
More about the Ukraine Lecture Series

The conference “Neighborhood as an Economic Driver” organized by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION in cooperation with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of East Brandenburg and other partners at the Collegium Polonicum on Thursday, November 27, from 1.00 p.m. to 5.15 p.m., aims to produce practical solutions and approaches for the future of the German-Polish economic area.  Practitioners from business, administration, and society will come together with researchers to discuss, among other things, cross-border innovations, existing and desired infrastructure, and obstacles such as border controls. The approach is: fewer policy speeches, more practical solutions.
Further information on the conference