DGS dissertation prizes for researchers at the University of Kassel

Goda Klumbytė, currently a postdoctoral researcher in the field of Participatory IT Design, is being honored for her dissertation "Learning Otherwise: Reconfiguring Computing with Feminist Epistemologies" (summa cum laude). In her work, the researcher investigated machine learning algorithms and developed new approaches for their system design based on feminist methodologies. Klumbytė analyzed what kind of knowledge and perspectives are incorporated into the design of such systems and how intersectional feminist approaches can contribute to making machine learning systems more responsible, inclusive and context-sensitive.

Meanwhile, Dr. Conrad Lluis, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Macrosociology since August 2024, is being funded for his dissertation "Hegemony and social change. Indignados Movement, Populism and Democratic Practice in Spain, 2011-2016" (summa cum laude). His thesis dealt with the political and social upheavals during the economic crisis in Spain. By analyzing discourses, interviews and participant observation, he was able to successively understand the accelerated social change. Lluis' work expands the research approach of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in dialog with the case study into a comprehensive social analysis. In this way, he also provides impulses for a critical examination of current political upheavals in Germany and other Western countries.

About the DGS dissertation prize

The DGS is the association of academically qualified sociologists in Germany. With around 3,500 members, it includes around four-fifths of all sociologists in Germany with a doctorate. Every two years, the DGS Dissertation Prize honors two outstanding theses in the field of research. In addition to academic quality, the social relevance of the work is also assessed.