Category: Events

SAVE THE DATE! SAVE THE DATE!
07 and 08. December 2023

The Munich Science Communication Lab (MSCL) and the Impact Unit invite you to the joint conference “Evaluation in Science Communication” at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. The conference will present and discuss current developments, challenges, and future perspectives of evaluations in science communication and will bring together insights from practice and research.

Current discussions show again and again how important a comprehensible, credible, and effective science communication is. Therefore, it is key to reflect on whether projects of science communication are really making a difference, to ask questions about quality, and to discuss what constitutes good science communication. Evaluations are means to check the effectiveness of a science communication project. However, they can also help to better understand the mechanisms of a project and identify areas for improvement.

This conference will provide a space for 1) reflection on current challenges in evaluating science communication, 2) the presentation of learnings and recommendations for the evaluation of science communication from practical and scientific perspectives, 3) the discussion of future developments in science communication evaluation, and 4) exchange and networking among science communication practitioners and researchers in order to foster collaborations and mutual support opportunities.

The conference is aimed in particular at…

• Science communication practitioners (e.g. representatives from communication departments of universities and research institutions, schools, museums/science centers);
• Researchers of all disciplines involved in science communication;
• Scientists with a focus on science communication;
• Science communication trainers

Highlights of the program:

• Reflections of the four centers funded by the Volkswagen Foundation Call “Wissenschaftskommunikation Hoch Drei”
• Status Quo Panel Discussion – Current Challenges in Science Communication
• Symposia – Lectures & Discussions on Insights from Research & Practice
• World Café and closing discussion – Quo Vadis: Ideas
  and visions for the future of evaluation

This is an in-person event held in German – however, you can always ask questions and make comments in English if you feel more comfortable.

Location: Oettingenstraße 67, Raum B001 and Foyer.

We would like to invite you to our July colloquium “Designing a free online course on planetary health as a science communication method” on July 11th at 13:00 (German time).

Paula Schwenke has a master’s in public health from LMU and is a scientific research associate at the Chair for Public Health and Health Services Research at LMU.

Ms. Schwenke and her team designed a course for the VHB (the Virtual University of Bavaria) about Planetary Health; and in this colloquium, she will provide insights into the development, implementation, and evaluation of an online course as a science communication format. Free accessible online courses offer an easy opportunity to implement the relevant and interdisciplinary topic of Planetary Health, regardless of the human or financial resources of the university.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register here in advance: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvdequqzwvG9TCxSLMvIM_IRv6TTc4yjDS

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mailing list as the dates approach. Here you can subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

We would like to invite you to our colloquium, “Simulation Games on Climate Health as a Teaching Format: Results and Challenges,” on June 20th at 13:00 (German time).

Dr. Michaela Coenen and Brigitte Strahwald, MSc. will report on a simulation game on climate health they developed as a new teaching format. In addition, the results of a cross-sectional study on the knowledge of and interest in Planetary Health in health-related study programs in Germany will be presented.

Dr. Coenen is the Head of the Research Unit for Health Promotion and Prevention and the Course Coordinator of the MSc Public Health at LMU. She has a diploma in psychology and a master’s degree in public health from LMU; and received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the Institute for Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, also from LMU Munich.

Ms. Strahwald is responsible for the coordination of the Pettenkofer School of Public Health. She studied medicine at Université de Rennes 1 and at FAU Erlangen, received a master’s degree in Medicine Ethics and Law from The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, and a master’s in epidemiology from LMU.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register here in advance: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5AtdeGgpj4oEty6Nuti8t-yhwG5NRCrJn-5

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mailing list as the dates approach. Here you can subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

We would like to invite you to our colloquium “Constructive climate communication from the audience perspective: promises, challenges and pitfalls” on May 16th at 13:00 (German time).

Prof. Dr. Imke Hoppe will take a closer look at the concept of ‘solution-based journalism’ for the field of climate communication with a perspective on audiences and will discuss potentials and limitations of the approach.

This year, Prof. Hoppe became a professor at the Geography department at LMU. She completed her doctorate at the Technical University Ilmenau (Department of Economic Sciences and Media) on the topic of digital communication and climate change. Previously, she was deputy head of the department children’s media at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT. From 2017 to 2021, she researched and taught as a PostDoc at the Cluster of Excellence ‘CliSAP’ (Universität Hamburg) and at the Chair of Journalism and Communication Studies, esp. digitalized communication and sustainability. From 2022, Imke Hoppe worked at the DLR Institute of Systems Engineering for Future Mobility.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register here in advance: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtdeqrpzgrE9D0qjEx8imxGIZxgCBCqZjv

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mailing list as the dates approach. Here you can subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

If you missed this colloquium – The Anthropocene: a Challenge for Sciences, Humanities and the Public – you can still watch the presentation here:

Display content from YouTube

Hier klicken, um den Inhalt von YouTube anzuzeigen.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Always display content from YouTube

Open “MSCL Colloquium – The Anthropocene: a Challenge for Sciences, Humanities and the Public” directly

Dr. Fabienne Will studied history, German philology, and Italian philology at LMU. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Science from LMU and was part of the Doctoral Program of Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Since last year, she has been a Science Communication Coordinator at the intersection between the MSCL and the Deutsches Museum. Until 2022 she was Scholar in Residence at the Research Institute for History of Science and Technology at the Deutsches Museum, working on the Anthropocene and the history of environmental perception. Between 2017 and 2020, she was a research associate there. During this time, she was part of the DFG research group “Practicing Evidence – Evidencing Practice.”

In this colloquium, Dr. Will will focus on the Anthropocene as a provocation to and, simultaneously, a chance for inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation. The presentation will show that with the Anthropocene debate boundaries between nature and culture, subject and object, environment and society get blurred, as do long-established disciplinary cultures of knowledge production.

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mailing list as the dates approach. Here subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

We would like to invite you to our February colloquium Responsibility in Times of Resource Scarcity on Feb. 7th at 13:00 (German time).

Prof. Dr. Michael Has studied physics at the University of Regensburg, where he was awarded a doctorate for his work in the field of biophysics and spent the first part of his career at Fogra doing industrial research. In 1996, he joined the École Française de Papeterie et des industries Graphiques. In 1998, he received his Habilitation from the University of Grenoble, where he has since taught as a Distinguished Professor in business strategy and sustainability with a focus on knowledge transfer and research in the area of sustainability, decarbonization, and eco-design.

Stimulated by a long stay with native Indians in Canada, Prof. Has has also been active in the field of minority human rights. He is concerned with the issue of the impacts of tourism and with questions of resource conservation and the consequences of excessive resource extraction.

Since last year, he is also a Partner of Monopteros GmbH with a focus on Technology, CSR & Environmental Footprints, and Product Strategy.

Today, he will speak on Responsibility in Times of Resource Scarcity against the background of shrinking resources, questions of responsibility for the consumption of resources, measures, legal regulations, time frame, and boundaries of responsibility. Prof. Has will bring a variety of fields of knowledge, such as law, physics, and cultural studies, into the discussion.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register in advance: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEldOqppjgvHd2shXk836NnQLawApzhjgmV

In June 2022, we kicked off our Tuesday’s MSCL Colloquiums series – an open place for discussion and academic reflection on science communication and planetary health. The aim is to have an open space for intellectual thought and reflection on this multidisciplinary topic for the community, students, and practitioners.

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mail list as the dates approach. Here subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

If you missed the event, you can still watch the presentation here:

Display content from YouTube

Hier klicken, um den Inhalt von YouTube anzuzeigen.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Always display content from YouTube

Open “MSCL Colloquium: Responsibility in Times of Resource Scarcity” directly

We would like to invite you to our first virtual colloquium of 2023 on Jan. 17th at 13:00 (German time).

Dr. Amelia Fiske and Jonas Fischer will present the process of creating Toxic, a graphic novel based on ethnographic research conducted by Dr. Fiske between 2011-2013. Toxic invites readers on a toxic tour through the Ecuadorian Amazon, where they encounter contamination in waste pits, soils, and rivers, and listen to the stories of people living alongside the industry. Along the way, readers are immersed in the materiality of toxic contamination and struggles for environmental justice in everyday life. Drawing on anthropological and feminist social science approaches to toxicity, the book renders the experiential components of the toxic tour visually. Toxic seeks to convey the urgency of living in a place and a historical moment where preventing permeation by the continual onslaught of industrial toxicants is neither possible nor expected. At the same time, those most burdened by oil’s weight are continually required to prove that harm has occurred. The visual depiction of these events allows for the subtlety of the various, insidious, even contradictory ways that oil permeates life to emerge in all their difficulty. Toxic is a vivid reflection on the role of toxicants in our everyday lives, ultimately asking readers to reflect on how we are each implicated in the petrochemical complicities of production, consumption, and exposure both in the Amazon and at home. Dr. Fiske and Mr. Fischer will speak of the process of creating the book, as well as the challenges of bridging ethnography and graphic art in science communication work.

Dr. Fiske is a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of medical anthropology, science studies, and environmental humanities. She holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a research fellow in the Institute of History and Ethics in Medicine at the Technical University of Munich.

Jonas Fischer is a graphic designer, illustrator and comic artist from Kiel, Germany. He collaborates with friends, classmates, peers and designers and scientists from a variety of disciplines. His work has led him to adventures in Moldova and Ecuador as well as in Otterndorf, Brunsbüttel and Schleswig, Germany.

This is an online event carried out in English. However, questions in German are also welcomed. We look forward to your participation in our lively after-talk discussion! Please register in advance: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqde6ppzwrHdJKm1bW0XymP6-GdHZgbcse

In June 2022, we kicked off our Tuesday’s MSCL Colloquiums series – an open place for discussion and academic reflection on science communication and planetary health. The aim is to have an open space for intellectual thought and reflection on this multidisciplinary topic for the community, students, and practitioners.

More information on each colloquium will be sent to our mail list as the dates approach. Here subscribe to our email list: https://www.mscl.de/mailing-list/ .

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or ideas about possible topics and speakers.

If you missed the event, you can still watch the presentation here:

Display content from YouTube

Hier klicken, um den Inhalt von YouTube anzuzeigen.
Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy.

Always display content from YouTube

Open “MSCL Colloquium – Toxicity in the Amazon” directly