The Global South Studies Center (GSSC) combines interdisciplinary research with innovative approaches to research-oriented teaching and targeted support for the development of early-career academics. In addition to coordinating the KPA ‘Global South Studies’, the center places particular emphasis on integrating research with international exchange.
Thanks to its disciplinary breadth and its established global network of partner institutions, the GSSC also creates unique conditions for the development of innovative teaching formats. Interdisciplinary teaching initiatives and events help to establish new forms of knowledge production and actively shape global academic dialogue. The center’s infrastructure – including workspaces and administrative support – also fosters collaboration between students, researchers at different stages of their careers, and project partners from international collaborations.
Research-oriented teaching and interdisciplinary formats
A key example of the link between research and teaching is the thematic network “Remapping the Global South”, which has significantly strengthened ties with international partner institutions and intensified exchange programs in research and teaching.
The seminar “Ethnography on Your Doorstep”, which has been offered regularly since 2014, serves as an excellent example of how students are systematically introduced to empirical research. It enables students to earn credits across various cultural and social science degree programmes (among them Japanese Studies, Social- and Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Studies and Public History) and combines methodological training with practical research. It is set to continue in the coming semesters.
The Research Class on World Heritage offered from 2015 to 2026, created a further interdisciplinary teaching format that brought together students from various disciplines – including Japanese Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Studies and Public History. Here too, GSSC members played a key role in its development.
In addition, GSSC members are involved in innovative teaching formats such as Service Learning which combines academic learning with social engagement, as well as in the Citizen Science format, which aims to strengthen the dialogue between science and the public. These formats offer students the opportunity to apply scientific findings to social contexts and reflect on them in a practical way.
Examples:
Traces of colonialism at the University of Cologne: strategies for uncovering, addressing and making visible (Kathrin Sowa, winter semester 2025)
Fair trade – the textile industry and global supply chains (Boris Braun, 2024)
11 Jahre Willkommenskultur: (Flucht, Migration, Inklusion) (Stephan Milich WiSe 2024-25)
International Teaching Collaborations and Co-Teaching
An integral part of teaching at the GSSC are international summer and winter schools, which are run in collaboration with partner universities.Furthermore the program Remapping the Global South and DiaMiGo, where students are enable to learn in an international and interdisciplinary environment and to experience academic collaboration first-hand. Further more
This offering is complemented by co-teaching formats, which have been implemented for several years in cooperation with international partners and university initiatives. These formats promote not only subject-specific expertise, but also intercultural skills and collaborative work in international teams.
Since the 2021/22 winter semester, the Forum Decolonizing Academia, in cooperation with the former Competence Area IV and the Diversity Fund of the CHANGE department, has been organising co-teaching seminars with partners from the Graduate School.
GSSC members Michaela Pelican (Social and Cultural Anthropology) and Ulrike Lindner (History) co-taught the “Inequality Seminar” in the 2020/21 summer semester.
In the 2025 summer semester, Nina Möntmann and Sandra Kurfürst offered the seminar “South-South Relations in Political and Cultural Movements: Moments of Solidarity between Countries of the Global South since 1955”.
Also in the 2025 summer semester, an extremely successful and innovative co-teaching project took place in cooperation with the University of Freiburg (Michaela Haug) and Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia (Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono) on the topic of “Alternative Food & Agri Cultures”, involving reciprocal visits by the student groups (https:// uni-freiburg.de/ska/startseite/studium-und-lehre/internationale-tandem-lehrforschung-in-ko-operation-mit-der-gadjah-mada-universitaet-yogyakarta-indonesien/).
For the 2026 summer semester, Clemens Greiner (Social and Cultural Anthropology) and Felix Wemheuer (Modern Chinese Studies) are planning a joint master’s seminar on the topic: “Marxist Approaches in Anthropology and History: Agrarian Societies and Capitalism in the Global South and China”. Also in the 2026 summer semester, Debora Gerstenberger (Latin American History), Norbert Brieden (Catholic Theology) and Stephan Milich (Islamic Studies) will be teaching an interdisciplinary research colloquium on the newly established research focus: “Transregional perspectives on social cohesion”.