BIGSSS welcomes new cohort of Fellows › view all

With the beginning of September, the new academic year has arrived and 11 new PhD students from 6 different countries have started their PhD journey at BIGSSS. In the coming years, they will benefit from BIGSSS' structured PhD education and close supervision of our faculty. At the beginning of the program, the new Fellows were introduced to the PhD program and everyday life at BIGSSS during our O-Week, including various in-person, introductory workshops.

As an integral part of the O-Week, BIGSSS welcomed the new Fellows and kicked-off the new academic year with its traditional Welcome (Back)-BBQ on Thursday, September 12 on the Campus of the University of Bremen, where many BIGSSS members – faculty, Fellows, and staff – took the opportunity to welcome the new cohort and get to know each other.

Among the new fellows, 2 doctoral candidates, Darsana Varier and Tatiana Chalaya, will pursue their individual research projects within the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Programme "Global Dynamics of Social Policy and Social Cohesion" (GSPSC). For the next 48 months, Darsana will focus on her research project on "Misused and Misinterpreted- The Discourse of Vulnerability and Antifeminism in the Global South". Tatiana will pursue her research project on "Social Cohesion, Social Policy and Authoritarian Governance - the Role of
socially oriented NGOs in the Healthcare Sector in Russia".

Furthermore, 8 Affiliated Fellows and 1 Adjunct Fellow have started their PhD studies at BIGSSS. They work in research projects with faculty members of BIGSSS at the University of Bremen or Constructor University and chose to opt-in into BIGSSS’ structured doctoral education. Tim Hahn is working at InIIS on "The Debate of Deep-Sea Mining in the European Union and the Global Race for Raw Materials". Timo Wiesner is a Doctoral Researcher at SOCIUM working on "Global Inequality: A Comparative Perspective on Perceptions and Preferences". Hamidreza Farhat and Florian König are both employed at the SOCIUM. Hamidreza focuses on his research on " Investigating User Interaction with Verified Party/Candidate and Non-official Accounts on Instagram during the US Presidential Elections", while Florian concentrates on "Understanding racial inequality in financial access".

Marija Cubalevska is a scholarship holder at the "Institut Technik und Bildung" and seeks a binational doctorate at the University of Vienna and the University of Bremen on "Teaching in Transit: Practices, potentials and problems in language programs for (forced) migrants in South Eastern Europe".Svenja Oltmanns is working as a Research Associate in the Department of Health, Long-term Care and Pensions at SOCIUM on "Evolved Leadership Mode of the New Middle Class as a Weakness of Liberalism - Social Class Resource Endowment and the Contestation of the Liberal Script".

Alexander Reik and Xugang Nie are both located at Constructor University. Alexander started his PhD journey in July, focusing on "International Activities of Chinese Policymakers and Enterprises". Xugang continues his research here at BIGSSS, working on "Constructing Equivalently Measuring Positive Self-Concepts in East and West". 

As a new Adjunct Fellow, Anton Bochert will be able to attend courses and workshops offered by BIGSSS and jointed the working group of Prof. Dr. Olaf Groh-Samberg and their work on the German Social Cohesion Panel.

We are excited to see how the projects of our new PhD Fellows will develop and are very much looking forward to next spring's proposal defenses.