Sommersemester 2026

Anti-feminist narratives and actors have attracted a lot of attention on social media in recent years. This course looks at anti-feminism as an ideology and examines various viral anti-feminist phenomena such as the so-called “TradWives.” Participants will learn to understand anti-feminism theoretically and how it relates to other ideologies of inequality. In addition, participants will engage with the ethical challenges and considerations that arise with this research topic and with social media as a research environment.

Today’s International Relations are influenced by the dominant role of Big Tech shaping global agendas, artificial intelligence transforming decision-making processes, and autonomous weapon systems introducing new forms of warfare. This seminar investigates how emerging technologies influence global power dynamics and asks how deep and transformative these changes truly are. Is there a qualitative difference between the steam engine, nuclear weapons, and artificial intelligence? Does history simply rhyme, or is humanity confronting something fundamentally new?

This seminar is organized as a series of in-depth discussions focusing on selected key concepts, trends, and issues related to digital media and the transformation of public spheres in contemporary societies. Through individual presentations, as well as by collective reflections on reading materials and case studies, students will critically engage with diverse theoretical and empirical perspectives on topics such as polarization, populism/illiberalism, mis- and disinformation, “post-truth”, algorithmic power, echo chambers and filter bubbles, the political impact of AI, and other themes that feature prominently in current public and scholarly discourse on digital media. In doing so, the course equips students with the conceptual tools needed to critically assess ongoing developments in digital communication and politics, enabling them to better understand and analyze how power, information and technology interact in shaping contemporary democracies.

The colloquium will be structured as a series of group consultations and discussions focusing on students’ individual research projects broadly related to democracy and the public sphere in the age of the Internet and social media. Through peer feedback and guided discussion, the colloquium will provide students with the opportunity to refine their research questions, theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches, while situating their work within current scholarly debates on digital politics.

This course examines the growing influence of digital platforms in shaping communication, politics, and the public sphere in the world today, and the challenges this phenomenon raises for governance and regulation. Students will learn how platform architectures, algorithms, and business models generate new forms of power, and discuss both existing and emerging policy approaches aimed at curbing platform power and enhancing their accountability. Special attention will be devoted to comparing the distinct regulatory traditions and frameworks of the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, especially regarding to dilemmas of addressing harmful content while safeguarding freedom of speech and expression.

Emerging technologies, like social media, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), have changed the way we communicate, interact, and live. These technologies, however, not only create novel opportunities. As is becoming increasingly apparent, they raise specific challenges for many legal fields. This seminar puts a spotlight on data protection issues generated by the rise of IoT and AI. Throughout, we will not only analyze the GDPR and comment on recent jurisprudence by the CJEU but also discuss novel policy strategies to square such technologies with data protection and human autonomy.