Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Passoth is the new director of the European New School of Digital Studies (ENS) at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Viadrina President Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher appointed the professor of sociology of technology on the proposal of the Academic Senate of the European University on January 26, 2023.
Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Passoth replaces Prof. Dr. Jürgen Neyer, who had led the scientific institution initiated jointly by the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and the Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań since its founding in November 2020.
Viadrina President Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher: "Jürgen Neyer has led the European New School confidently through the founding phase in the midst of the Corona pandemic and has had a significant impact on it. I thank him for his extraordinary commitment, which goes far back to the time before the founding. Since 2020, we have successfully enrolled three cohorts of students; a total of about 100 young people from 37 countries are currently studying at ENS, and since last year we have had our first alumni. I am sure that we have been able to attract an outstanding new leader in Jan-Hendrik Passoth."
Prof. Dr. Tadeusz Wallas, Prorector of Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań: "I am very much looking forward to working with the new director of the European New School of Digital Studies, Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Passoth. Our expectations for the development of the ENS coincide, as we could already discuss during our meeting at the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice, and these are very promising perspectives for our cooperation. I wish Prof. Passoth every success."
Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Passoth: "I am very much looking forward to this task and to further developing ENS together with my colleague Prof. Dr. Ulrike Klinger and my colleagues Prof. Dr. Philipp Hacker and Prof. Dr. Lauri Wessel. Central to this is the collaboration with Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań and the deepening of cooperation with partners in Berlin-Brandenburg as well as in Europe in order to understand digital transformation in the context of societal transformation."
About the person:
Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Passoth is Professor of Sociology of Technology at the Faculty of Cultural Studies and heads the research and teaching area "Science & Technology Studies" at the European New School of Digital Studies. He researches the role of digital infrastructures in democracy and politics, software development as a responsible social practice, and possibilities of intervention in and critique of digitization projects through Critical Design.