Disciplinary cultures and academic careers in Germany: Insights from four subject areas (INCHER Colloquium)

Lecturer: Dr. Johanna Witte, TU Dortmund, Zentrum für HochschulBildung (zhb), Dortmund )

Abstract: While disciplinary cultures in academia have been studied for quite some time, there has been little systematic examination of how the different ways of researching, collaborating and publishing relate to the career development of early-career researchers. This lecture highlights key results from a qualitative, comparative study based on interviews in four academic fields in German higher education: history, biology, business administration and electrical engineering. While academic excellence is the shared benchmark for academic success across disciplines, there are persistent differences in research cultures, which, in conjunction with the general move to project- and performance-based funding and different opportunities on the non-academic labour market, lead to very different experience and risk profiles of young academics in the four disciplines. The underlying mixed-methods study was undertaken at the Bavarian State Institute of Higher Education Research and Planning (IHF) in the context of the National Report on Early Career Researchers (BuWiN) 2021, jointly with Maike Reimer and Thorsten Lenz.

The INCHER lectures in winter semester 2024 are hybrid events.
If you wish to participate via Zoom please register at koch[at]incher.uni-kassel[dot]de

Venue: INCHER, University of Kassel, meeting room 4102, Mönchebergstraße 17
34125 Kassel