Research

Funding Source: DAAD

Principal Investigator: Anke Hilbrenner (Department of Historical Studies)

Duration: Since 1994, current funding phase 2025 - 2026

Cooperating partner: Zuzana Lizcová, Charles University Prague

HHU and Charles University in Prague have been linked by a university partnership for many years, the most vibrant part of which is currently the DSG, which has existed since 1994/95. On 1 October 2024, the 30th anniversary of the DSG was celebrated with a festive event for students, alumni and the public in Prague. The DSG is based at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Institute of International Studies. Successful and proven measures in the DSG, such as the teaching stays of German lecturers and research fellows on the one hand and the study and research stays of Czech university lecturers, doctoral candidates and students in Düsseldorf as well as the regular study trips of Czech students to Germany on the other, are among the main pillars of the project. Today, alumni of the programme work in important positions in German-Czech and international political, cultural and economic relations. This strengthens German-Czech relations, a project that is more important than ever in view of the current threats in Central and Eastern Europe.

Further information

Funding Source: Academy of Sciences and Arts NRW

Principal Investigator: Bruno Bleckmann, Markus Stein (Department of Historical Studies)

Duration: 2012 – 2026

The research project "Minor and Fragmentary Historians of Late Antiquity" edits, translates and comments on works by almost 90 authors and other anonymous works from the period of Late Antiquity (3rd-6th century AD). These include Latin and Greek authors, profane and ecclesiastical historians, fragmentary and "minor" authors (i.e. those that are rarely edited as independent works and are in turn not recorded in fragment collections), historians known by name and historical works that can certainly be reconstructed but are anonymous.

Further information (German only)

Funding Source: Grimme Institute / Federal Agency for Civic Education bpb

Principal Investigator: Christiane Eilders, Anna Soßdorf, Jonathan Seim (Department of Social Sciences/ Düsseldorf Institut for Internet and Democracy)

Duration: 12/2020 – 06/2021

Public broadcasting is more controversial than ever. However, in public, discussions about it are mostly conducted by the same experts and actors from politics and civil society. With the help of an online participation process, the aim is to find out: What needs to change, what should remain in television? The cooperative project #meinfernsehen2021 is dedicated to the future of public television. The focus is on the question of whether the mission of public broadcasting in a digitalized society is still up to date and to what extent it corresponds to the audience’s expectations of television.

In a multi-stage online participation process, citizens can discuss various questions on the topic and contribute their own ideas. The results of this participation process will finally be presented at a conference with the involvement of various media representatives and interested citizens. We would also like to prepare the central findings for scientific publications and conferences.

The objectives can be summarized as follows:

• Collecting positions and arguments
• Gaining suggestions for a renovation
• Stimulating reflection and discussion on the topic among participants
• Awareness through participation in the discourse
• Contribute findings into public debate and scientific discussion
• Scientific publications and conferences

The project is scheduled to run for seven months (12/2020 to 06/2021) and is being carried out in cooperation with the Grimme Institute and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).

Further Information

Funding Source: Ministry of Culture and Science North Rhine-Westphalia

Principal Investigator: Ulli Seegers (Department of Art History)

Duration: 03/2025 – 12/2027

Cooperating partner: Art museums and art history departments at universities in North Rhine-Westphalia

Since 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia has been supporting the art and cultural museums in their core tasks – collecting, researching and communicating – with the innovative programme Research Traineeship for Art Museums in North Rhine-Westphalia. To this end, the programme strengthens the individual profile of the participating museums on the one hand and supports the scientific training of young scientists at the museum and their networking within the scientific community on the other. The research traineeships create a specific training programme for trainees in the cataloguing and research of museum collections for the first time since 2020. From 2023, the diverse research area of education and mediation, with a focus on participation, diversity and inclusion, will expand the research spectrum. An accompanying academic programme, organised and implemented under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ulli Seegers at the Institute of Art History at HHU, will also enable trainees to exchange ideas with each other and to actively participate in current museum and research discourses.

Further Information (German only)

Funding Source: Federal Agency for Civic Education bpb

Principal Investigator: Stefan Marschall (Department of Social Sciences)

Duration: since 2005, ongoing

The Wahl-O-Mat is an online tool offered by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and has become a successful web project that helps to increase political participation and communication prior to elections on the European, the federal and the state level in Germany. Since its first implementation for the 2002 German Federal Elections, the Wahl-O-Mat has become one of the most popular and famous online tools in Germany. Its initial success spurred new versions for the Federal Elections, the European Elections and nearly all elections on the State level. The Wahl-O-Mat for the 2021 German Federal Elections was used about 21.3 million times. 

Right from the beginning, the Wahl-O-Mat has been object of scientific research. In almost all versions of Wahl-O-Mat, the users have been asked why they use the Wahl-O-Mat and what effect using this tool might have on them. Furthermore, demographic data (age, education, level, etc.) has been collected. On this website, we present the results of these surveys. Since 2014 there is a tool available for local elections called lokal-o-mat.

Further Information