BIGSSS welcomes new cohort of Fellows › view all

With the beginning of the new semester in September,  we welcomed 16 new Fellows of 10 different nationalities. At the start of the program, the new Fellows were introduced to the PhD curriculum and everyday life at BIGSSS during our Orientation Week (O-Week), which included a variety of in-person  workshops and activities.

Within the DAAD Graduate Scholarship Programme “Contentious Politics in the Digital Age“ (CoPoDi), Ruishi Yang and Sana Zainab will pursue their individual research projects. Ruishi will pursue her dissertation project on “Examining the escalation of hostility in social media: A Comparative Analysis of Misinformation between India and China against climate change“. Sana  focuses her research on “Digital Repression and Protest Movements: The Role of Internet Blackouts and Surveillance in Pakistan“. 

Akira Itebogeng Modise	Boikutso Palesa Sankoloba	Kreesan Pragasan Naicke	Motshidisi Gertrude van Wyk	William Thantsha	Mamphokhu Petronella Khuluvhe

Six Regular Fellows from South Africa have also started their PhD studies at BIGSSS. Within the “DHET Funda Germany Scholarship Programme“, they will pursue their research projects at Constructor University.

Akira Itebogeng Modise works on „Women and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa: An Intersectional Analysis of Digital Economic Inclusion“.

Boikutso Palesa Sankoloba is focusing on „Assessing the ESG environment in South Africa: A look at the  implementation of the social dimension of ESG in the banking sector in South Africa“. 

Kreesan Pragasan Naicker focuses on „Utilizing AI  in Education: Adopting Successful AI Strategies from Indian to German Higher Education with Insights and Implementation“. 

Motshidisi Gertrude van Wyk focuses on “Understanding Social Cohesion: Factors And Implications For Community Resilience“.

William Thantsha’s research is under the title „Optimising the Governance of Public Assets for Enhanced Returns on Investments: The Case of Johannesburg“.

Mamphokhu Petronella Khuluvhe focuses on „Navigating Socio-Technical Transitions: A Skills Ecosystem Perspective on Transitioning from Traditional Automotive Technologies to Electric Vehicles in South Africa's Automotive Industry“.

Furthermore, five new Affiliated Fellows joined BIGSSS this semester:

Isa Dzhavadov is working on „Jihadist Propaganda Rivalries in the Post-Soviet Online Sphere: Taliban, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and Islamic State“.

Asif Shahriar is located at Constructor University, researching „Strategic Governance of AI-Personalized Learning: An Adaptive Ethical Framework for Educational Institutions“.

 Diego Strassmann Rocha  works as part of the Working Group Sociology of Inequality and Social Structure Analysis at SOCIUM. His dissertation working title is „In the Interest of Class: The Interplay between Vocational Interests and Intergenerational Inequalities“.

 Baran Edis focuses on "The Impact of Regimes on Identity Construction and the Development of Adlerian Useful Individual : A Comparative Study of Democratic and Non-Democratic Contexts". 

 Larissa Willamowski investigates the question „Courts as Architects of Market Integration? Competence, Control and the Case of the Services Directive (2006/123/EC)“ at InIIS.

 Finally, we also welcome three Adjunct Fellows. 

York Frerks is working at InIIS on “China's trade restrictions as a foreign policy instrument“. 

Philipp Srama, at SOCIUM, studies „From the Local Up: An interrelational perspective on local protest dynamics and mechanisms of scale“.

Johannes Kühling, also  working at SOCIUM, examines „To what extent do political actors employ destructive strategies in public discourse?“.

Two more Adjunct Fellows joined BIGSSS in the fall. Tabea Ernst works at SOCIUM, and Jule Meyer works at InIS, where she is investigating "Competence, Control, and Joint Procurement in the EU."

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.